Smart Consumerism is Working

The rise of consumerism in employee benefit plans is producing an ever-larger number of employees and company retirees more tuned into annual enrollment and benefits than ever before.

Without a doubt, there’s a new awareness and sense of anticipation when enrollment time rolls around.

It’s a trend that cuts across age and gender: benefit elections are considered more important now. Why? Because of the increased responsibility passed on to plan participants. While there still are many older workers who believe their employer will “take care of them,” most employees are accepting their increased responsibility for benefit decisions.

As we preach consumerism to employees and retirees, they actually appear to be listening.

We see more and more employees and retirees diligently reviewing the coverage and future options of plans to ensure they don’t have costly overlaps or gaps in coverage later. As a result, open enrollment has become a window of opportunity to make benefit elections that reflect significant life changes over the past year.

However, the statistics tell us there is still plenty of room for continued improvement. According to studies, 28 percent of workers still request assistance with health-care decisions with seven in 10 spending less than an hour reviewing current benefits and selecting new coverage options.

The challenge with benefit elections is to get people “actively engaged” — a goal that goes beyond simply writing communications in hopes they will be read, understood and acted upon.

Need assistance planning your 2008 enrollment? Contact The Benefit Advocates to review your processes and discover new methods of communicating to employees. Deciding on the right benefit coverage can be daunting for many employees. So contact us to help your HR team prepare for 2008 and help employees decide which benefit options are best for them. We can do it all. Call early! 1-800-344-5677.

Source: Linda Carter, The Benefit Advocates