sample letter to employees who missed open enrollment

All rights reserved. The better employees understand open enrollment and the benefits they receive from participating, the higher engagement employers will see from their team. Written by The most beneficial ways in which you can help the employee is by offering additional opportunities for education and by asking for feedback regarding the process so that you can work to prevent this from happening again in the future. As an Account Executive, she was a key team member on the TRS-ActiveCare account from its inception through the duration of the contract. After all the time and attention that HR pros give, missing open enrollment can make a bad situation worse, An employee may be in luck if they have a, a change to an individuals circumstances, which allows them to, Short-term, or limited-duration, coverage is a health insurance plan that is meant to only last a short time, like a few months to a year. But if youre looking to get started now, you can still significantly improve the usefulness of your 401K communications by highlighting a few different employee personas, and giving financial advice for each one. Access exclusive research and insights on the future of employee benefits. The open enrollment process is often confusing and time-consuming. Ready to spend? If a company operates based on the fiscal year, the ideal open enrollment time frame would be in October. Its the start of Open Enrollment! document.head.append(temp_style); You may be trying to access this site from a secured browser on the server. Letter Template #1. 4 in 10 employees who are able to save for retirement are now saving less as they continue to face financial hardships. Russ joined FBS in 2019 after working as a valued partner for 15 years and manages our ISDs group health program. Making your employees aware of these tools doesnt guarantee theyll use them, of course. Now What? Here are a few ideas: Also consider other help emails that explain the process in greater detail. Open enrollment can be an extremely stressful and overwhelming time for both you and your employees. Your teams need ample time for payroll processing. But at the height of a pandemic, it's all the more troubling. As Billing Manager, she assists in the day to day accounting processing for her team and is available to handle any escalated billing matters. Please log into our benefits portal to make elections, update your contact information, and make any status changes. A special enrollment period is a designated time outside of the standard open enrollment period for employees to change or update their insurance plan elections that are granted when the employee experiences a qualifying life event. COBRA Service Agreement, Benefits Consulting Additional education can come in the form of personal worksite consultations, one-on-one appointments with HR representatives, seminars, webinars and self-paced e-learning modules. $('.container-footer').first().hide(); Example #3: Greg, Whos Got a Safety Net, But Whos Saddled With Lots of High-Interest Debt. Make a corrective contribution to the plan for the employees that compensates for their missed deferral opportunity. Client Testimonials He currently serves as the benefit consultant for 15 of the 20 Educational Service Centers in the State of Texas. Many companies find communications difficult to manage during this time and participation is frequently low. We are looking forward to a successful enrollment season. She encourages employees to ask themselves the following questions to be sure they are making the best choices for themselves and their families during the year ahead: "If you answered 'yes' or you're not sure about the answers to these questions now is the perfect time to revisit your benefits. The more visibility you give them, the more likely your employees will dig in. The open enrollment announcement email should go out two weeks before your benefits packages are made available to employees. If you miss the open enrollment period, you won't be able to enroll in a plan unless you have a qualifying event (such as getting married, having a baby or losing employer-sponsored coverage). In reviewing the following information, you are taking the first step toward securing your. Flex-Ed: Mistakes During Open Enrollment Can You Change Elections? Putting money away for your retirement is important, but how important depends on the financial boat youre in. Please log in as a SHRM member before saving bookmarks. 1. Brian has spearheaded branding and media communications at FBS and leads the Marketing Department as the Marketing Manager. [Insert link to benefits portal and instructions]. The first step in achieving this is to provide as much information as possible in many different forms, such as flyers, posters, emails and videos. For exactly that reason, its important to make sure you go beyond encouraging higher and higher 401(k) contributions (which only some employees can manage) and, instead meet your entire workforce where it iswith more empathetic, targeted, holistic financial guidance. pliance is currently $0. Communicating potential consequences to employees will encourage them to take the open enrollment deadline more seriously. For Dave, it would make more sense to set money aside for that before he puts money into his 401K, even if his company offers a match. Do I anticipate any new expenses next year that might change my current elections? Please purchase a SHRM membership before saving bookmarks. Here we have provided you with a template for your open enrollment email to employees. Open enrollment is an annual window when you can enroll in health coverage, switch to a different plan, or drop your coverage (that last point is only applicable if you have an employer-sponsored plan; self-purchased individual/family plans can be dropped at any time). t is the employees responsibility to sign up for benefits during open enrollment as long as the employer provides plenty of notice. In. Has my employer made changes to its current benefits plan? We are available 24 hours a day / 7 days a week. Get the cold and allergy relief you deserve. The only exception to these terms is if an employee qualifies for a special enrollment period (SEP). Please confirm that you want to proceed with deleting bookmark. Virtual & Washington, DC | February 26-28, 2023. While just keeping whatever health coverage they had this year is tempting for employees, doing so may come with a substantial financial downside. To apply for benefits and verify eligibility, individuals should complete the online screener application. Remind employees they will receive a confirmation of their changes. Whatever the case, if you made a mistake during open enrollment, you're probably wondering if there's a way to make changes to your elections later on in the year. There are benefit fairs, promotional material, and banners on the company website. If the employee does not make an election in the required time frame the Plan Document calls for a default position to take effect in lieu of the election. And to make matters worse, employees are skittish about their retirement savings right now thanks to COVID. HR teams in larger companies may even conduct special meetings or hold benefits fairs, all designed to help employees understand their benefits options so they can make informed decisions. You can buy your own insurance if you want. Email is not the only way to reach employees. Sample 4: Formal absent excuse letter due to an emergency. ), Example #2: Dave, Who Has No Emergency Fund. Stacia has been with Financial Benefit Services since 2014 bringing with her 5 years in insurance billing and accounting and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from UT Dallas. Effective communication to employees can sometimes be a moving target. We endeavor to answer all inquiries within 24 hours on business days. Qualifying life events can be circumstances that change an employee's status for benefits, such as changing the number of individuals in the household who are covered under a benefits plan. RE: 2022 Open Enrollment communications to employees on leave of absence. Open enrollment begins one month from now, beginning [DATE] until [DATE]. Are there changes I can make to my budget that would allow me to increase tax-deferred savings through a flexible spending account or a health savings account. Lets use a fall open enrollment as an example. Here are a few tips to make OE emails engaging and drive participation. If you experience one of these life events, you'll want to get in touch with your FSA administrator within 30 days of the event to find out if you are eligible to make changes to your plan. You want to give your employer time to reassign any of your tasks. Make Time for Employees Who Missed Open Enrollment. 3 Open Enrollment Reminders for Employeesand HR At many organizations, the open enrollment season for 2020 benefits is underway or about to begin. Depending on your circumstances, your opportunities to enroll after the end of the annual open enrollment period may be limited. To qualify, individuals must have experienced a loss in permanent coverage due to a job change, layoff, becoming a college student, or missing open enrollment. They influence President Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act into law on December 29, 2022 BerniePortal is the all-in-one HR software solution at a fair price, so HR can focus on providing a good place to work. In the same way 401(k)s use automated deposits to make retirement savings easy for employees, mobile apps likeAcorns,Robinhood,Stash,DigitsandTallyuse automation to help people build emergency savings funds, pay down credit card debt, and invest in smart, manageable, and automatic ways. Here's our employee furlough letter sample: Dear [ employee_name ], I'm sorry to inform you that your position will be put temporarily on furlough due to urgent business conditions, from [ date] to [ date ]. Most companies operate on a calendar fiscal year. As HR representatives address open. (Feel free to copy-pastewe wont tell. However, this may not be practical, especially for employees with growing families. Writing a good job rejection letter is not as hard as you think it is! SHRM Online, September 2019, 10 Questions for Employees Choosing a Health Plan, Therefore, its important employers be proactive in their approach to open enrollment. Here are a few tips to make OE emails engaging and drive participation. But how do you make sure your benefits communication strategy is up to par? G&A Partners is a leading professional employer organization (PEO) that offers world-class HR services and a team of experts who can help you navigate employment issues, safety initiatives, and moreduring (and after) the pandemic. You have successfully saved this page as a bookmark. The portal can also include a count-down counter to encourage employees to enroll. Make Sure You're Getting the Best Deal, Jaleigh White, a member of the AICPA Financial Literacy Commission, noted that "even though the volume of an open-enrollment benefits package can seem overwhelming, employees would benefit from taking 30 minutes, at least, to read through all materials and explore the impact of any changes the company is making to their benefits, and carefully consider any changes to their personal situation that could impact their elections for the coming year.".