If you’re like most individuals working in Human Resources you know all too well how overwhelming open enrollment can be not only for your HR staff, but also the rest of the organization.  According to SHRM, HR Managers spend “an estimated 25 to 30 percent of their time managing employee benefits.”  During an open enrollment period that number increases, to the degree that some HR departments even bring in temporary labor to assist with the influx of inquires.  Other times, a company will simply outsource inquiries to a call center, incurring additional costs.  Since the Healthcare Reform Act was passed there is even more information that your employees need, and many more laws with which you must be in compliance.  Many companies are trying to find more efficient ways to keep their employees informed on the heath care plans and information.  In this post, we’ll discuss open enrollment, the major responsibilities of HR, and some ways to improve the overall open enrollment process and experience.

Simply put, open enrollment is a period of time your employees enroll in benefits or change from one plan to another.  After open enrollment is closed, the employee coverage is locked until the next open enrollment period begins.  To ensure employees choose the healthcare plan that fits them best, companies dedicate countless hours, additional resources and lots of time ensuring that employees are informed.  After all, we want our employees to be happy and healthy, because a happy worker is a productive worker.

Some of the major responsibilities for HR during open enrollment include choosing a benefits package, selecting and preparing communications for employees, setting the stage to make it easy for employees to complete open enrollment and keying updates and changes into additional systems.  In each of these responsibilities comes an element of change management.  Through the use of today’s available HRIS/HRMS tools, companies are finding it easier to manage the open enrollment process.  A great example of such a tool is AscentisHR which is a fully integrated solution connecting open enrollment, self-service and HR administration together as one.  The truth is that open enrollment need no longer be a pain point.  It doesn’t have to be so arduous or time consuming for HR or for the employee. Employee Self-Service is the answer.

What Self-Service Looks Like. Literally.

 The self-service open enrollment wizard provides a straightforward and intuitive approach to guide and inform employees on benefit selection.  The system allows the employees to compare benefits side-by-side, elect alternative plans, submit benefits electronically to the carrier, and much more.  Outside of open enrollment, the onus is placed on the employee to update their personal information throughout the year, taking the burden off of HR.  Click here learn more about self-service and other Ascentis solutions.

For more information, or to request a product demonstration, fill out this short form and we’ll show you how we can help your Human Resources department be more accelerated, efficient and compliant.  Subscribe to our monthly newsletter, the Ascentis HR, Benefits and Payroll News, and stay on top of industry news, best practices and always-evolving legislation.  Follow Ascentis on Twitter and “Like us” on Facebook to receive great HR, payroll and business tips.  Feel free to share this post using the built-in share buttons below this post.

Watch this archived webinar to learn how adding employee self service your HR technology toolbelt can automate and accelerate the open enrollment process, virtually eliminate costly errors and make employees (and yes, even HR) happier during the open enrollment process. Or, for a bigger picture overview, this four minute self service demo, will give you all the info you need to determine if you want to learn more.