Evaluate Your Open Enrollment Strategy
and Communications

Assessing the effectiveness of your open enrollment strategy as well as which benefits are most important to employees can help you optimize open enrollment and maximize your benefits return on investment. By reviewing your employees’ responses and incorporating their feedback into future open enrollment strategies, employees will feel heard and respected, which may help to increase employee benefits satisfaction.

This sample employee survey, developed by MetLife, a leading provider of employee benefits, may help you examine the effectiveness of your benefits communications, understand what you can do to help improve your employees’ experience during Open Enrollment and determine which benefits your employees are most interested in having access to at the workplace. This survey is a sample of the kind of survey you can use to poll your employees. You should consult with your company’s human resources professional and legal department to determine which questions are appropriate for your employee population.

How to use this survey:

n  Review the survey questions. Use questions you feel are the most important to you and your company and appropriate for your employee population. Each question focuses on different aspects of your Open Enrollment strategy, including which communications were most effective, what you could do to improve the employee experience and what benefits employees are most interested in.

n  Customize the survey. While common answers for each question are included, this sample survey is designed to allow you to make edits and tailor the survey to fit your benefits program and communication tactics.

n  Distribute to your employees. To effectively evaluate your Open Enrollment strategies, make the survey easily accessible to your employees and clearly state that participation in the survey is completely optional. You can post it to your intranet, create it in an online survey program such as SurveyMonkey or distribute it via email or during employee meetings.

n  Analyze survey responses. Based on the answers provided by your employees, you can use the information to help you refine your Open Enrollment communication strategy. Suggestions for how you can leverage the responses are provided below:

·  Question #1 – This question focuses on the most helpful communication tactics. Based on employee responses, you can refine future benefits communication plans to optimize tactics that are most helpful to your employees.

·  Question #2 – This question focuses on where employees looked for benefits advice and guidance. While it is important for employees to talk with spouses/significant others about their benefits decisions, it’s also critical that employees have access to other resources, including advice and tools to make the benefits decision-making experience even better. By reviewing employee responses to this question, you can help ensure that you are delivering valued resources to employees that are most useful and relevant to them.

·  Question #3 – This question is designed to help you understand how you can continually improve your communications approaches to help employees optimize Open Enrollment season. Depending on employee responses, you may want to choose one or two of the top responses and incorporate them into future Open Enrollment communication strategies.

·  Question #4 – This question identifies how confident employees feel about their benefits decisions. Based on employees’ responses, you may want to develop ongoing communication strategies to help reinforce the decisions employees have made. This will allow them to approach future Open Enrollment periods with even greater certainty. You may also explore having off-cycle enrollments for certain benefits. By having only one or two product to review, employees can focus on the details and benefits of the specific product.

·  Question #5 – This question focuses on which benefits – not currently being offered – are of most value and interest to your employees. Based on employee responses, you can consider expanding your offerings to incorporate the benefits that your employees are most interested in having access to – even if they need pay to most or all of the cost.


1) Which of the following were helpful to you during the recent benefits enrollment period?

Most Helpful /
Neutral / Not Helpful / Did Not Use
Emails announcing upcoming enrollment period
Flyers/Posters announcing the upcoming enrollment period
Packet of enrollment material
Meetings and seminars with your employer
Reminders to complete enrollment by the deadline
Your employer’s website/intranet
A benefits-focused teleconference or web seminar
Calculators or other decision tools received to help you in making your benefits decisions
A “benefits fair” where you had the opportunity to meet representatives of various insurance companies and other benefits providers

2) Which of the following, if any, did you do before making your benefits selections?

Select all that apply
Talked to co-workers
Spoke with spouse/relative
Spoke with friends
Met with a Financial Planner
Read only the first page of the package of benefits materials
Thoroughly read the package of benefits materials
Viewed the benefits materials online
Visited the Healthcare/ Benefits provider’s website
Talked to HR department
Talked to supervisor
Attended a benefits fair
Used online calculators and/or decision support tools to help determine how much coverage to select
Reviewed the benefits used the prior year

3) Which of the following, if any, would have improved your overall experience
during the benefits enrollment period?

Select all that apply
More time to decide
More detailed information about the employee benefits provided
Easier to understand format for benefits information
Benefit fairs or meetings where you can ask questions concerning benefits
Access to a benefits advisor or financial planner
Guidelines or instructions for “people like me” (i.e. someone of my age, marital status and/or family size/situation)
Other: ______


4) Which phrase best describes your feelings toward your benefits selections this year?

I am confident in the decisions I made during the benefits selection process
I am uncertain in the decisions I made during the benefits selection process

5) Which of the following benefits would you like offered at your workplace,
even if you had to pay for all or part of the premium?

Select all that apply
Health and Wellness Benefits
Medical Insurance
Prescription Drug Plan
Health Savings Account (HSA)
Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
Wellness programs
Life Insurance Benefits
Term Life Insurance
Dependent Life Insurance
Supplemental Life Insurance
Dental Benefits
Dental Insurance
Retiree Dental Insurance
Disability Insurance Benefits
Short Term Disability
Long Term Disability
Individual Disability Income
Additional Benefits
401(k)/Retirement Plan
Retirement Benefits, such as Dental Insurance
Critical Illness Insurance
Long-Term Care Insurance
Legal Services Plans
Automobile Insurance
Homeowner’s Insurance
401(k) or other retirement plan
Annuities
Vision Care Insurance
Pet Insurance
Flexible Schedule
Paid Vacation days and holidays
Sick leave

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Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, New York, NY 10166