October edition
Every year, millions of employees embark on a journey that invokes stress, confusion and anxiety. What is this journey? Navigating the annual ritual of benefits enrollment.
To learn more about the benefits enrollment experience, Securian Financial conducted comprehensive interviews with employees in companies from 500 to over 5,000 workers.
The findings and recommendations of this extensive research were chronicled in the three-part white paper series, "How personas and journey maps can fine-tune benefits enrollment."1
By better understanding the benefits challenges workers face, as well as the benefits journey itself, HR leaders can anticipate employee needs throughout the enterprise.
5 distinct stages of the employee enrollment journey
Research1 revealed that most employees go through five stages during the enrollment journey:
1. Determine the what
Based on previous experiences, some employees may start step one with a fair amount of trepidation – anticipating a painful and complicated process that could lead to a lot of anxiety. During this step, most employees want to keep up to date with new changes and how the changes will impact their choices.
2. Analyze the what
When employees begin to analyze the “what,” it’s not uncommon for confusion and uncertainty to persist. In step two, it’s common for employees to consider how many times they and family members visited the doctor in the previous year.
3. Whittle down the options
With decision time edging closer, some employees are feeling increased angst about the volume of information they must digest over a limited number of days. At step three in the journey, conversations with family members and spouses continue in order to narrow down their choices.
4. Decide and tinker
In step four of the enrollment journey, some employees are tinkering with their once-solid elections, even if they’re almost out of time. “I’m down to the wire to make the decision, and I’m still waffling,” said one study participant.
5. Submit the final choices
After the hard work of the previous four steps, the final act in the journey is almost anticlimactic. In reaching their destination in this last step, research participants reported they were relieved, satisfied, a bit exhausted and happy.
Personas: Meet the Pre-planner, Fit-finder and Auto-pilot
Securian Financial’s research also brought to light three distinct employee personas. Each persona exhibits a unique set of characteristics. While researchers describe one persona as analytical, methodical and well prepared in their approach to benefits enrollment, its counter is a persona comprised of procrastinators and people who dislike details.
- Pre-planners usually need extra time to review their options up front so companies release at least some information earlier in the process.
- Fit-finders often pull in their spouses for help. Here, companies can offer multiple presentation times, some in the evening to accommodate spouses.
- Auto-pilots usually don’t anticipate changes in their elections and often feel rushed or time-strapped. To help this group of employees, companies will design communication materials that are simple, clean and action-focused.
Benefits managers can improve how employees navigate the enrollment journey by being aware of how employees approach this seemingly overwhelming task. When companies personalize communications with its three personas, leaders will achieve better benefits enrollment outcomes.