Open Enrollment Time??? Knock it Out at Your Health Fair
Posted on Saturday November 12 2016
We have been in the business of planning health fairs for quite some time now (I personally have planned and attended hundreds and hundreds of employee health fairs).
From experience, I have come to realize that the main time of year HR managers plan their health fair is during or close to open enrollment time.
The months of September, October, and November are ALWAYS slammed with health fairs. In October of 2016, HFC had 65+ health fairs listed on our platform (and we expect that number to be 3x in October of 2017). That's just October...
Here's a great post from Zane benefits breaking down OE times - access by clicking here.
Most groups want to plan their employee health fair around open enrollment so they can invite their insurance carriers (new or old) to answer questions related to the employees' coverage.
But most of the time, HR managers, and benefits professionals miss out on a key opportunity to knock out a major portion of open enrollment.
Think about it - you have a majority of your employees in one spot, you have your benefits broker or insurance rep there at your health fair to assist, and your employees have health and wellness at the forefront of their mind if they're attending a health fair.
Your benefits or insurance carrier can bring their laptops (or a couple) and help employees enroll online right there on the spot!
And according to Jasmine Gordon from Spark (powered by ADP), 82% of HR leaders agree that open enrollment time is the "least wonderful time of year." (to put it nicely)
So think about coupling OE with a health fair and makes this process less painful!
In case you would like some more resources (from people way smarter than me) about open enrollment, I have put together a list of articles and posts that could help answer any questions you might have about OE.
Check them out below:
- Insperity - 6 Strategies to Simplify Your Benefits Enrollment
- Healthcare Trends Institute - Top Resources to Make the Most of Open Enrollment
- Enroll America - Enroll America Blog
- Bernard Health - Open Enrollment Blog
- G&A Partners - What To Do If An Employee Misses The Annual Open Enrollment Period
- AUI - Surviving Open Enrollment
- Tom Anderson (CNBC) - Cut your health cost during open enrollment
- Healthcare.gov - 5 Tips to Get Ready for 2017 Open Enrollment
- Nerdwallet - Open Enrollment for 2017 Health Insurance
- Winston Benefits - How To Start Planning for Open Enrollment 2017
- Lawyers.com - What is Open Enrollment for Workplace Benefits?
- Kaiser Family Foundation - Heath Reform FAQS
- Insurance.com - Health insurance open enrollment: What you need to know
- Zane Benefits - Small Business Employee Benefits and HR Blog
According to an article from SHRM's Stephen Miller, over 65% of HR and benefits managers are using a variety of tactics to corral their employees - mainly email, regular mail, and tracking employees down face-to-face
HR managers - so why not try and make this time of year easier on yourself and knock out two birds with one stone?
You won't regret it!
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More About Health Fair Connections (HFC):
Simply put, we offer the only nationwide health fair planning tool that helps HR and benefits professionals automate 95% of the health fair planning process. The coolest part: it's like online shopping for health fair vendors. This tool is completely free to use, and you can get started at any time by clicking here.
- Tim Sackett's (President of HRU Tech) post about HFC: Click Here
- 19 Competitive Advantages for those who use HFC’s Platform to Plan & Organize Health Fairs: Click Here
- HFC made William Tincup's Recruiting Daily List of 100 HR Technologies worth watching: Click Here
- HFC's Competitive Matrix:
Link to large PDF of Competitive Matrix.
