Weighing Your Options
Passive enrollment
Active enrollment
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Employees don’t have to take any action to get or keep benefits and don’t risk losing coverage.
Automatic reenrolling reduces administrative tasks and frees up HR to work on other initiatives or plan and lead informational seminars.
Because benefits roll over, employers may still invest time and resources in a communications strategy, but their approach can be more straightforward.
Pros
Cons
If employees don’t fully understand their benefits or plan offerings, resulting in misuse of benefits, such as going to the emergency room for non-emergency procedures.
If employees don’t understand or see the value of their benefits, this can result in low plan ratings and low perceived plan value, with employees looking elsewhere for employment.
From an employer perspective, having passive enrollment may mean plans are not evaluated regularly; they can become outdated and fail to meet the changing health needs or concerns of the employee population.
Pros
Cons
Using tools such as Aon’s medical-decision support tools can help employees pick benefits that most closely align with their needs, making them healthier and potentially saving them money.
Encourages employers to regularly evaluate product offerings and ensure that they meet the needs of the current employee population.
More opportunity for benefits education, resulting in increased employee benefits knowledge; employers can also satisfy plan administrator requirements for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by communicating benefits in writing.
Pros
Cons
Employers can capture the most up-to-date demographic and beneficiary information for their employees, eliminating ineligible dependents.
HR is responsible for leading informational workshops, finding the right technology partner to use for the enrollment system, and planning and implementing targeted education and messaging strategies; these resources can also add significant costs to employers’ already limited HR budgets.
The amount of information employees may need to review can be overwhelming; this is especially true if they don’t understand coverage options.
Pros
Cons
Active enrollment can be stressful, and employees could miss deadlines or not want to engage, especially if they are overwhelmed with information or if the enrollment platform isn’t seamless; as a result, they could be without coverage.
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More convenient for employees
Less administrative burden for HR
Straightforward communications strategy
Employees may make poor benefits choices
Retention may be affected
Plans can become outdated quickly
Better return on investment
Higher employee engagement
Improved understanding of benefits
More updated data
Significant investment for HR
Takes up employee time
Employees could be without coverage
Weighing Your Options
Toggle between tabs to learn more
Toggle between pros and cons
Passive
enrollment
Employees don’t have to take any action to get or keep benefits and don’t risk losing coverage.
More convenient for employees
Automatic reenrolling reduces administrative tasks and frees up HR to work on other initiatives or plan and lead informational seminars.
Less administrative burden for HR
Because benefits roll over, employers may still invest time and resources in a communications strategy, but their approach can be more straightforward.
Straightforward communications strategy
Pros
Cons
If employees don’t fully understand their benefits or plan offerings, resulting in misuse of benefits, such as going to the emergency room for non-emergency procedures.
Employees may make poor benefits choices
If employees don’t understand or see the value of their benefits, this can result in low plan ratings and low perceived plan value, with employees looking elsewhere for employment.
Retention may be affected
From an employer perspective, having passive enrollment may mean plans are not evaluated regularly; they can become outdated and fail to meet the changing health needs or concerns of the employee population.
Plans can become outdated quickly
Pros
Cons
Active
enrollment
Using tools such as Aon’s medical-decision support tools can help employees pick benefits that most closely align with their needs, making them healthier and potentially saving them money.
Better return on investment
Encourages employers to regularly evaluate product offerings and ensure that they meet the needs of the current employee population.
Higher employee engagement
More opportunity for benefits education, resulting in increased employee benefits knowledge; employers can also satisfy plan administrator requirements for the Employee Retirement Income Security Act by communicating benefits in writing.
Improved understanding of benefits
Employers can capture the most up-to-date demographic and beneficiary information for their employees, eliminating ineligible dependents.
More updated data
Pros
Cons
HR is responsible for leading informational workshops, finding the right technology partner to use for the enrollment system, and planning and implementing targeted education and messaging strategies; these resources can also
add significant costs to employers’ already limited HR budgets.
Significant investment for HR
The amount of information employees may need to review can be overwhelming; this is especially true if they don’t understand coverage options.
Takes up employee time
Active enrollment can be stressful, and employees could miss deadlines or not want to engage, especially if they are overwhelmed with information or if the enrollment platform isn’t seamless; as a result, they could be without coverage.
Employees could be without coverage
Pros
Cons
Toggle between pros and cons
Toggle between pros and cons