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2024 open enrollment checklist for employers

open enrollment checklist for employers

Open enrollment can be an extremely positive and rewarding experience for you and your employees, providing you plan for it well in advance. It’s important to review and modify your benefits offerings to enhance your employees’ physical, mental and financial health.

Use this 2024 open enrollment checklist to help your organization prepare for a successful open enrollment period, from early planning to follow-up. Then, check out our eight- to 12-week timeline below to see what you need to do in the following months.

8-12 weeks before open enrollment

The 2024 open enrollment period starts Nov. 1, 2023, and ends Jan. 15, 2024. While it may seem far away, you’ll want to start preparing now. By giving yourself plenty of time to gather and develop essential materials, you’ll better overcome end-of-year hurdles, including:

  • more people out of the office due to holidays, vacations or illness;
  • major end-of-year deadlines, such as annual reports; and
  • slower reply rates and project turnarounds.

4 weeks before open enrollment

If you’ve been following our checklist, you’ve already successfully completed the beginning stages of this project. Now, you’ll need to take the materials you developed and send them out to employees, management and other required parties. You’ll also want to consider creating a toolkit for managers, so they can answer any questions employees may have. For example, something you can put in your toolkit could be a health benefit terms glossary like the one created by the Society for Human Resources Management.

1-2 weeks before open enrollment

Over the last few weeks, you’ve started distributing open enrollment information to employees and key personnel. The next step is to ramp up your efforts, making sure you’re doing as much as possible to achieve maximum awareness surrounding open enrollment. 

During open enrollment

It’s go time. You’ve spent months preparing and sending out information. With the open enrollment period beginning, you’ll need set reminders and ensure employees have all the key materials.

1-2 weeks after open enrollment

Reminders, sent. All materials, created and accessible — phew! You’re in the home stretch. Before the period closes, you’ll want to check enrollment forms and get them submitted. You’ll also need to follow up with employees, making sure they have their ID cards and don’t have any outstanding questions.

Future steps: Moving beyond the checklist for 2025

Imagine: You’ve made it through open enrollment with no hiccups or snags, checking off every box on our 2024 open enrollment checklist for employers. While you may feel the urge to kick back, there are proactive things to consider well before 2025 preparation.

Offer a second off-cycle enrollment period

First, consider offering a second off-cycle enrollment period for employees. Feature voluntary benefits that may be overshadowed by medical benefits and retirement options if offered during the typical open enrollment season. This second enrollment time will provide employees the opportunity to focus on other benefits offerings separate from the hectic primary open enrollment season.

Get additional assistance to ease the process

You don’t have to go through the open enrollment process alone. HANYS Benefit Services offers employee benefit services that can help reduce your workload, so you can focus on additional time-sensitive projects. Contact us today to learn about the ways we can assist your organization. Our dedicated team of experts can walk you through your options.

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