Open enrollment meetings are a constant in the life of a health insurance broker. During open enrollment brokers face the constant challenge of figuring out how to engage employees and effectively educate them about their benefit options. Discover the secret sauce and make your open enrollment effective with these three tips.

Keep it Simple

Some claim today’s consumers have a short attention span, while others believe that consumers can focus for long periods of time but are selective with their focus. Whichever the case may be and regardless of where you stand as an ancillary benefits broker, you have to possess the ability to cut through the fog with clear and simple communication. Why? For starters, statistics show that only 12 percent of Americans are health literate. Medical and ancillary benefits information are complex, and that’s why they need you to be their knowledgeable and competent adviser.

As a health insurance broker, you add value when you can break down complex topics and make them easy to understand. Also, it is important to start by creating a sense of urgency. Then, explain why people need to have dental or vision benefits. After that, walk them through how the coverage works.  

Get Visual

Videos and visual aids are not just nice-to-haves—they are must-haves if you want to engage employees and their benefits administrators during open enrollment. Here are a few stats that will help you see the potential of these resources:

Visual Aids:

• People only retain about 10% of the information they hear
• Consumers absorb 65% of the information they see 

Videos:

• 85% of American internet users watch videos online
• Consumers watch more than 500 million hours of videos each day on YouTube
• 90% of Twitter users watch videos on Twitter
• 54% of consumers want to see more video content from a business they support 

Action Plan:                                       

• Add videos and visual aids to your open enrollment presentations
• Don’t reinvent the wheel. Tap into benefits carriers who are known for educating employees through great visual content and videos.

Share Benefits Trends

The reality is that benefits staff vary in their knowledge of benefits and industry trends. You can bring a sigh of relief in the lives of these clients by coming to enrollment meetings prepared to share HR trends that can help your groups. For example, Society of Human Resources Management’s (SHRM’s) conducted its annual survey last year and found:

• 97% of employers offer dental benefits in 2019 over 96% in 2015
• 91% of employers offer vision insurance in 2019 over 87% in 2015
• Telehealth and Teledentistry increased by 10% since 2018

You are juggling a lot of things as an insurance broker. You are trying to grow your reputation, grow commissions and grow your business overall. Approaching open enrollment strategically by keeping things simple, using visual aids and videos and sharing helpful trends, are key to accomplishing your goals and making open enrollment effective.