NEW YORK, NY (October 01, 2018) – TheEmployee Benefit Adviser Open Enrollment Readiness Benchmark (OERB) July composite score hit a standstill — holding at just 39, the same score as June.
This composite score reflects the readiness of employers with benefit plans that start in January.
More specifically, the average score for the open enrollment management phase scored just 28 in July, which indicates employers were still not fully prepared to answer employee questions or engage with them for example, enrolling employees (score of 23) or measuring enrollment engagement (20).
“Employers have got less than two months before open enrollment periods kick off, which is not much time. Advisers need to work with employers to make sure that they have a cohesive game plan that human resources and the CFO buy into. They have to be very proactive and stay on top of it,” says Jack Kwicien, a managing partner at Daymark Advisors, a Baltimore-based consultancy that works with benefit advisers to build their practices.
Advisers can help by working with employers to lay out a streamlined plan that includes a few action steps. If employers don’t take such steps, they will “get halfway through the open enrollment 30-day period and will have three-quarters of the employees who still have not completed their enrollment forms for their online enrollment,” Kwicien warned.
The OERB, sponsored by ADP, is calculated from employer self-assessments across 26 activities that need to be completed in four key phases for a successful open enrollment. The open enrollment period, which usually takes place in the fall, is a critical time for employers as they look to engage their staffs in health and retirement planning.
The Open Enrollment Readiness Benchmark is a data-based performance benchmark that gauges how prepared employers are for their annual employee benefits enrollment periods. To produce the results, SourceMedia Research and EBA each month survey more than 400 prescreened HR and benefits executives at organizations of various sizes and across multiple industries. These professionals are asked to rate their completion levels for 26 activities — from selecting health plans to reviewing enrollment metrics — that take place during the four critical phases of open enrollment: benefit plan design, enrollment preparation, employee enrollment and post-enrollment analysis. Scores range from a low of zero to a high of 100 and reflect the degree to which an employer considers itself prepared for a particular activity. The activity scores are then averaged to determine scores for each of the four phases and an overall readiness score. A complete analysis of the most recent OERB data is available here.
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About Employee Benefit Adviser
Employee Benefit Adviser (EBA) is the information resource for employee benefit advisers, brokers, agents and consultants, providing the current awareness and perspective they need to anticipate changes in the marketplace and optimally serve their clients. EBA delivers a broad range of critical content, including comparative market data, legal and regulatory updates, the latest products and services, and best practices in benefits delivery — including health insurance, vision and dental insurance, and voluntary and retirement benefits. The benefits broker community relies on EBA to stay connected through its website comment forums, its social media communities and live events.
About SourceMedia Research
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About ADP
Powerful technology plus a human touch. Companies of all types and sizes around the world rely on ADP’s cloud software and expert insights to help unlock the potential of their people. HR. Talent. Benefits. Payroll. Compliance. Working together to build a better workforce. For more information, visit www.adp.com.
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