Open enrollment sadly tends to get filed under “necessary evil.” Every year, HR leaders juggle better benefits against a budget that never seems to stretch far enough, and everyone just wants to get through it. But Kate Connor, COO of Moxie Communications Group, makes a case that enrollment is one of the best times of the year to connect with your teams. You can find out what they value and build a benefits strategy that earns their attention. Better benefits really are better business … for those signing up and the employer themselves.
Get it right before enrollment opens
Look at your data and ask why it is showing you the stats it is. Year-over-year enrollment and utilization reports tell you what’s happening, but the numbers can play tricks on you. A benefit with low usage isn’t necessarily not popular; sometimes, it’s buried behind a weird interface, weighed down by high fees, or just confusing. Connor points out that automatic enrollment paired with a simpler plan design pushed average 401(k) participation to 87% in a 2025 study. Before you axe an underused program, check whether it just needs better presentation.
Ask your team. Asking the people who use the benefits what they want — what a novel idea, right? It’s easy to assume you already know what employees want, but people change, and so do their priorities. A survey at the communications firm showed 74% of their team would be ok paying a higher premium for more predictable copays, and a big percentage would put more into their 401(k) if the fees were better. These aren’t expensive or complicated changes to benefits. But the employer wouldn’t know those solutions existed without asking.
Translate the acronyms and all the dialogue. HSA, FSA, PPO, HMO, coinsurance, deductibles, and the list goes on. HR leaders live with this language, but, for a lot of employees, these are once- terms, and the time to dig into learning them all isn’t always available. When enrollment materials assume everyone already speaks ‘benefits’, employees end up guessing, which doesn’t help them make informed decisions. Lean on your broker or partner to run sessions that explain things fully. People sign up for things they understand.
When you take the time to understand why your team engages, open enrollment can become a real and useful conversation. So, this year, try three things before enrollment opens. Pull your utilization data and question the “why” behind it, send your team a short survey and act on what comes back (don’t ignore it), and book a benefits session with your broker. It’s the approach we tell clients to lean into, and it saves money, builds trust, and reminds everyone that good benefits are how you build a stronger business.
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