As we discussed in our earlier blog post Tips for a Virtual 2022 Open Enrollment Season, Open Enrollment is a critical time for employers to promote the value of their digital health programs, and help their employees understand when and how to access them. It may seem obvious, but by engaging your employees well at the start of the health plan year, you can maximize the time and opportunities they have to experience the impact of those services.
One way that we’re helping to promote digital health programs during Open Enrollment at Collective Health is through our Program Partner Spotlight feature. This feature of our program helps customers who are aiming to drive engagement to a specific solution by creating targeted materials for promotion and education, using everything from home mailers to stress cubes.
As we approach Open Enrollment and your team finalizes its strategy and communications, we thought it would be beneficial to hear directly from the digital health experts themselves—a few of our Premier Partners—on their top tips and strategies for engaging employees right from the start.
Here’s what they said:
Carrot, Fertility & Family-Forming Care
“Open enrollment is a crucial time to communicate fertility benefits to your employees and a great way to retain your talent, so it’s important to make this moment count,” shared Brooke Bartholomay Quinn, Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Carrot Fertility. In fact, 97% of Carrot members say they’re more likely to stay with their employer because of Carrot. To ensure your employees know about your fertility benefit and understand what’s included, Brooke recommends the following:
- Deploy a multi-channel communications plan. Employees are inundated with information on a daily basis, so it’s important to think beyond an email-only approach. Utilize Slack channels, your intranet, direct mail and digital / physical signage to clearly communicate to employees.
- Clarify what your fertility benefits cover. Employees may think that fertility means egg freezing and IVF only, but at Carrot, our members have access to much more, including fertility testing, education, preservation, donor-assisted reproduction, support for gestational carrier and adoption journeys, and more.
- Anticipate questions. Fertility can be a complex topic, so take time to think about what questions your employees may ask and ensure these points are covered in your communications. For example, fertility benefits typically have a tax component, so make sure information on taxation is part of your benefits FAQ that’s easily accessible for employees.
98point6, Telemedicine
98point6 stresses the importance of utilizing multi-channel communications to drive engagement with their 24/7 text-based care service, and the Open Enrollment (OE) wave is no exception. Elly Reis, Sr. Director of Engagement Marketing, agreed with Carrot that a cross-media approach spotlighting individual benefits can help provide clarity during this time. According to a well-known marketing rule, it takes at least seven impressions, in a variety of settings, before target audiences really take notice or act. And these impressions should have clear calls to action for both your employees and their dependents.
“We rise to this challenge by encouraging proactive registration—through email, benefits guides and digital signage—so members are just one tap away from a visit when they need it.”
“Typically, the main focus of OE communications is which selections to make,” Elly says. “We differentiate by encouraging a proactive, tangible action: register for 98point6 in 90 seconds.”
Another tip: Incentivize with intention vs. a takeaway item or sweepstakes when possible. 98point6 often leverages incentives tied to registration as it’s directly tied to a meaningful action with a tangible benefit.
Lyra, Mental Health Support
According to Jodie Ziemba, customer success manager at Lyra, many of the employers they work with have gotten creative with their Open Enrollment communications, and they’ve seen success.
“Some employers have been staffing virtual chatbots to answer common questions from employees in real time. In order to ensure their entire member population as well as their families are included, we have seen some employers offer bilingual content available to reach people in their native language.
Jodie says a few of their customers are going above and beyond, and creating custom internal campaigns that include well-designed benefits booklets. They’re also incorporating workshops on specific topics and, at times, shipping posters and easels for those employees working in-person, to encourage more collaboration.
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Whether you’re reaching out over Slack, creating custom CTA’s, or expanding the languages offered in your enrollment materials, all of our partners agree that it’s important to try and meet your employees where they’re at—right at the start of the plan year.
Learn more about the ways Collective Health can help you enhance your member engagement and make your health plan easier for members to understand here.
