It’s Open Enrollment Season: Make It Easier This Year

This article was sponsored by RollCall Business Conferencing Solutions, a proud supporter of OfficeArrow. You can also visit RollCall's community here on OfficeArrow.

November is the time of year when many companies offer an open enrollment period for employee benefits. This is when employees and the company can make changes to insurance coverage. If you work in the HR department or if you're responsible for communicating company changes and instructions to employees, this can be a real chore.

Many companies provide multiple training sessions via phone or web. This is certainly helpful. After all, many of us prefer to hear about these things rather than read a complicated document. But that puts a lot of pressure on the person responsible for distributing the information. Why bother doing your song and dance multiple times when there's a better way? Curious? Keep reading...

Webcast

That's your answer. A webcast is the most effective, efficient way to provide the necessary information for your staff during open enrollment.

What is a webcast?

A webcast is a pre-recorded webconference. You can present the materials one time and then post the recorded webcast on your company intranet. Employees then have the ability to watch (and re-watch) the session at their convenience.

How does it work?

Basically, to facilitate a webcast, you will need to work with a conferencing company such as OA's sponsor, RollCall Business Conferencing Solutions. The visual portion of the conference will be a PowerPoint that you create and upload to the system with just a few clicks of the mouse. The audio portion will be recorded via phone. Easy as that.

What are the benefits?

There are a number of benefits to doing a webcast for open enrollment. We've already mentioned that it helps you. With a webcast, you don't have to set up multiple review sessions to accommodate various schedules. The time savings alone makes the webcast worthwhile. However, it also helps the employees as they can watch it when it's convenient - when they can really focus on the information and not feel pressured by tasks competing for their attention. It also provides you with a comprehensive record of the information you provided. You know everyone is getting the same thing - you aren't delivering the materials differently to different groups. A webcast is also great for those of you who don't like speaking to large groups of people. Since it's pre-recorded, you can do it alone in your office, multiple times if needed.

What about questions?

Since a webcast is pre-recorded, you may be wondering about questions. On a live teleconference or webinar, employees usually have the opportunity to ask questions. However, when it comes to insurance coverage, many people are a little timid about speaking up in front of a group. In my experience, questions are few. Most people prefer to discuss these personal matters directly with an HR representative in private.

At the end of the webcast, you'll want to be sure that employees know who to contact with questions and how to access any necessary forms. If you find that multiple employees have the same question, you may want to provide an update on the intranet page with the webcast, or provide a clarification in a mass email. Otherwise, you'll be able to address specific questions as needed on a one-on-one basis.

Give it a try this year and see how webcasting works for you. If you have questions or just want to discuss opportunities with a human being, contact RollCall today.