It's time to think before you speak: Building your employee benefits communication strategy

For professionals in the benefits business, August represents the month when they’re forced to shake the sand out of their ears and start wrapping their minds around those two big words: open enrollment. By now, the change dynamic can generally be articulated, and this allows the shape of certain key milestones, like the dates of the open enrollment window, to form. Details on final decision dates and when locked in rates will be delivered, however, can still be hard to scratch out this early on.

So, what do you do while you wait? Burying your head back in the sand is not a prudent choice. The answer: think before you speak – train your focus on your employee benefits communications strategy. We’ve learned that getting ahead of your employee communications game this month can make a huge difference when it comes to how the month before your open enrollment start date feels.

The strategies behind how employers educate employees on benefits and enrollment can vary significantly. Here are a few principles that can help guide your short-term thinking in this area:

1. Concentrate on style over substance.

Your substance right now may be a work in progress, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting the look and feel of your 2025 communications materials nailed down. At a minimum, you can update dates and replace images to distinguish these new materials from the old ones. Now is the perfect time to conduct a brand audit. Go through your inventory of communications pieces and identify what will stay, what will go and what might be missing. For materials that make the cut, mark them up to gain clear visual representations of how they will need to be shaped up for optimal use in the new year ahead.

If your identity changed this year, get the new artwork and identity standards to your design team. It sounds easy, but gaining organizational consensus on a fresh look can be half the battle. Take it on now and you’ll win this day. You also will drastically cut down on a considerable time drag later.

2. Do something different.

Use the time you have now to find at least one new way to really connect with your employees. If you no longer mail anything home, why not produce and mail a well-designed postcard that teases your key messages for the upcoming year and enrollment season? If you’re not leveraging the power of push notifications to support your overall open enrollment message delivery, getting contracted with a solution and putting a launch campaign in motion can be accomplished in less than 30 total days.