A good post-open-enrollment survey can delight employees twice. First, when they fill it out and it makes them feel listened to. And then again next year, when open enrollment rolls around and the employee experience is that much better for it.
According to a 2023 MetLife study, “62% of employees say understanding how to use their benefits would give them a greater sense of overall stability while 50% say having a better understanding of their benefits—what’s offered and what’s covered—would make them more loyal.”
But getting the results you want from your post-open-enrollment survey means asking the right questions and knowing how to use the data.
The post-open-enrollment survey is a tool HR teams use to gather feedback after benefits enrollment ends. The goal is to understand what worked and what didn’t during the process. Analyzing the insights from this survey helps you improve for the next open enrollment season.
But don’t confuse this with a general employee benefits survey. General employee benefits surveys focus on the benefits themselves. A post-enrollment survey, on the other hand, is all about the enrollment experience.
The post-open enrollment survey questions aim to discover:
It is an important part of your open enrollment communication strategy. The feedback you gain from it will guide you to a smoother, more efficient enrollment next year.
Let’s break down why these surveys are a must-have tool in your HR toolkit.
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why it’s so valuable to have a database of feedback collected over time. Each survey creates a new benchmark. It’s a snapshot of how you’re doing right now. So, next year, you’ll be able to compare the open enrollment data to those of years past and discover trends in important things like:
Without these benchmarks, you’re just hypothesizing, at best. But if you have this data, you have proof of progress. It can help you set realistic goals. It shows you exactly where to focus your efforts. It also gives your team hard numbers to back up your decisions. And, no less important, it gives you the power to prove the value of HR’s efforts.
Asking the right questions helps you find the blind spots in your open enrollment implementation.
Knowing what works and what doesn’t gives you a clearer view of the holes in your open enrollment system.
It allows you to identify and fix your employees’ pain points. Maybe employees struggled with a particular stage of the open enrollment procedure or felt rushed. Your survey can reveal these kinds of issues.
Surveys do more than just improve processes. They show employees their opinions matter.
Even better, employees feel heard and valued when they see their suggestions implemented. According to the Achievers Workforce Institute’s newest report, employees are 75% more likely to trust their company’s leadership if the employer takes action on their feedback.
And according to a study about The Heard and Heard Nots, “Organizations are much more likely to perform well financially (88%) when their employees feel heard, engaged, and a sense of belonging.” So your survey can boost retention and overall job satisfaction AND improve the bottom line.
The data you collect from employees can show how important it is to them, and by extension, to the company, to make open enrollment smoother. Many of our current customer companies approached us after their employees’ feedback highlighted the need for a better plan comparison tool. This demonstrates how documenting employee feedback can influence decision makers toward better technological solutions.
Asking the right questions is crucial. It’s the difference between useful insights and wasted effort. So, we’ve pinpointed five types of questions to target the key areas of open enrollment experience.
We also recommend collecting results on a number scale so that they can be compared and analyzed from year to year.
Clear communication can make or break your open enrollment. These questions help you gauge the effectiveness of your open enrollment communication strategy. Here are some sample questions you might want to use:
These questions will help you identify opportunities to improve your strategy for next year.
Your HR team aims to make choosing benefits easier. These questions help you see what you’re getting right, and what could use improvement.
These questions reveal gaps in your decision support. You might need better plan comparison tools, more detailed guidelines, or personalized support options.
Timing is everything in open enrollment. These questions help you gauge if your timing was on point.
This will tell you if your timeline worked for your employees. Use this feedback to know if you need faster response times, earlier information rollout, or a better technological solution.
These questions help you understand if employees could find what they needed when they needed it.
Here are three sample questions to ask:
These questions show if your resources and technologies were user-friendly. This gives you insight if you need a better online portal, mobile-friendly options, or better tech support during enrollment.
Some of the best insights come from free-form responses. These questions let employees share their thoughts freely. They may share things you wouldn’t have considered.
Open-ended questions capture unique perspectives. Use these responses to spot unexpected opportunities for improvement.
Surveys exceeding 7-8 minutes have a 20% abandonment rate.
Aim for a survey that takes 5 minutes or less. This keeps employees engaged because they’re more likely to finish a short survey. Plus, it forces you to focus on what really matters – every question should have a clear purpose.
Keep questions the same each year
It’s vital to keep your questions the same each year so that the data can be compared. Imagine if one year, a question says, “How satisfied are you with the open enrollment experience on a scale of 1 to 10,” and the next year, the question says, “Were you happy with the open enrollment experience this year?” The answers couldn’t be compared or analyzed from year to year. So be sure to ask the same questions with the same answer options each year.
Of course, not all of the questions need to be the same each year, just the ones you want to be able to compare and analyze over time.
Confusion leads to inaccurate responses.
Keep your instructions simple. For example, instead of saying, “Please indicate your level of agreement with the following statements,” try, “Tell us how much you agree or disagree with each of the following statements.”
People tend to filter their responses when they feel like they’re being watched. This can skew your results.
That’s why it’s important to make your survey anonymous. Here’s how you do it:
When employees know their responses won’t be traced back to them, they’re more likely to be honest.
There is one problem, though. If you can’t track who fills out the survey, you won’t be able to see who really needs help. The best solution is to use a 3rd party survey tool that doesn’t reveal individual identities but can provide aggregated data on areas where support is needed. This way, you maintain anonymity while still identifying trends and areas for improvement.
You know the survey is important. But do they?
Only one out of five employees think their manager would act on survey results.
So, you need to explain how their input directly shapes the next open enrollment. Tell them their opinions can make the process smoother for everyone.
If possible, parse the aggregate data according to your employee personas. This means identifying whether different groups, such as those based on age, race, gender, education level, department, or location, have varying needs or experiences.
If there were major differences this year compared to last year’s data, what could have caused them? And if was because you implemented better processes or programs this year, that’s worth making people aware of.
A well-crafted post-open-enrollment survey delights employees not just once, but twice—first, when they feel heard, and again when they see improvements in the next enrollment period.
Getting meaningful results from your survey means asking the right questions and leveraging the data effectively. And if you really want to take your enrollment process to the next level, consider using a solution like Healthee.
Healthee makes it simple for employees to compare plans during open enrollment and navigate their benefits the rest of the year.
The health benefits industry is evolving faster than ever before, but one constant remains: third-party administrators (TPAs) still shape the relationship between many employed Americans and their health benefits.
But that can feel challenging — impossible, even. Healthcare and benefits navigation confuses most of us, and it can be difficult to make a healthy life as seamless as it ought to be. Ever-increasing premiums. Crushing medical debt. Confusing benefits plans. Inconsistent doctor’s costs.
The project management involved in open enrollment involves a lot of hats. HR needs a diverse range of skills to succeed, making it impossible to do alone.
