Don’t freak out, but open enrollment will be here sooner than you realize.
I’m writing these words in late March, but as most HR pros know, open enrollment is always around the corner. Preparing to roll out new benefits, educate employees, boost engagement, and shepherd everyone through the open enrollment process — on deadline — is a year-round effort. As soon as one open enrollment period ends, it’s time to begin strategizing for the next.
A huge part of your open enrollment planning involves communication strategy. When and, most crucially, how will you contact employees to outline their benefits package, describe the enrollment process, and remind them about deadlines?
I wish I had a straight answer for you, one outreach channel to rule them all. But the ideal messaging strategy is like the ideal benefits package: a mix of options, each addressing the needs of particular audiences and situations.
Why Multi-Channel Works Best for Open Enrollment Messaging
When it comes down to it, promoting open enrollment is a form of marketing. The whole point is to generate “demand” for and engagement with your benefits offerings. For example, you might be trying to steer more employees toward cost-effective HDHP health plans. Or you might be hoping to launch a new wellness program with a bang.
In the marketing world, multi-channel communications isn’t just a buzz phrase; it’s the whole ballgame. Modern consumers live complex lives, constantly dividing their attention between devices, apps, and media. The multi-channel marketing philosophy was developed to target consumers where they are and provide a coherent experience from one channel to the next.
You can apply the same methodology to promoting open enrollment.
If your goal is to engage as many employees as possible, it’s important to recognize that everyone has their own communication preferences, learning styles, and schedules.
Email might be fine for sharing the latest benefits update with deskbound office employees, but warehouse workers, who barely have a few minutes to glance at their phones during breaks, might need something short and sweet, like text messages.
Furthermore, different channels may perform better with different types of messages. Maybe no one wants to read through a dense, jargon-heavy benefits explanation, but a brightly animated explainer video might just get the job done.
Check out more resources in our OE toolkit
Download our Open Enrollment Toolkit to get a free employee video, plus four other freebies: our OE Playbook, our OE Trends Report, three email templates, and an action plan & timeline.
Multi-Channel Communications Options for HR Teams
HR professionals have never had more tools at their disposal to create multi-channel messaging campaigns to promote and inform about open enrollment. Here are just a few of your options.
(And remember, none of these is the “best” messaging channel for HR teams. Each has its place in a multi-channel strategy.)
Good old email. Whether you love it or are sick of it, email has a lot to offer as a messaging medium.
A well-written (meaning, short and to the point) email can be an excellent way to check in with employees throughout the year with benefits reminders and how-tos, and email has the official heft to kick off open enrollment season or announce benefit changes.
The key with email is not too much (employees get enough already) and not to rely on it entirely. Email messages have a tendency to get buried unread in the inbox.
Hint: Interactive and graphical elements can help your emails stand out amid the daily deluge.
Mass Texting (SMS)
When you need to reach employees immediately — such as to remind them of the impending enrollment deadline — nothing beats mass texting. Nearly all texts (98% to be exact) are opened rather than left unread, and 90% of texts are read within three minutes of receipt.
Just keep in mind that there are certain regulations you must follow to mass-text employees properly. Also, text messaging is not the place for drawn-out treatises. Keep your messages within a couple hundred characters or less.
Hint: You can link to more in-depth content with SMS and short URLs. You can also enhance your messages with images and other multimedia elements (MMS).
Video
Video has become the dominant form of content and content sharing over the past decade or so. According to recent statistics, there are more than 3.3 billion digital video viewers worldwide, and 89% of people would like to see more videos from their favorite brands.
So, if your HR team hasn’t jumped on the video bandwagon yet, now’s the time. Younger employees, especially, tend to prefer educational videos to written content.
Hint: You do not need video production expertise to share high-quality benefits explainer videos with employees. Flimp’s extensive HR video library can easily be customized with your company’s name and logo.
Print Guides
Is there still a reason to print out benefits guides in 2025? Sure. As I said, emails tend to get buried, and not all employees have or read their work email. A well-designed print benefits guide — with plenty of illustrations and charts to aid understanding — can still be a valuable resource for taking home and sharing with family members.
Hint: Host your benefits guide online (instead of or in addition to printing it out) using a benefits microsite or portal. Your one-stop benefits portal can also contain explainer videos, links to vendor content, an enrollment calendar, and other helpful resources.
Decision-Support Apps
I could (and have!) do an entire article on the value of decision-support tools.
These cutting-edge apps are the most transformative development in benefits messaging to come along in ages. The best of them vastly simplify the tedious — and, let’s face it, unpleasant — experience of researching and choosing benefits. They use powerful algorithms and massive datasets to accurately predict employees’ healthcare needs and recommend plans.
If you’re having difficulty promoting your affordable HDHP health plans, a decision-support app is the way to go. A quarter of employees who use Flimp Decisions migrate to an HDHP or other low-cost option.
Hint: Not all decision-support tools are created equal. Read our guide to learn what to look for when choosing a decision-support tool.
Get Help Planning Your Multi-Channel Open Enrollment Messaging Strategy
These are just a few of the communication channels available to you as an HR professional. If you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities, don’t worry. Flimp has the tools, resources, and expertise to help you plan and execute your multi-channel messaging strategy from start to finish, integrating mass texting, email, print, video, and decision-support, among other outreach methods.