Learn how HR can use open enrollment announcements, emails, and multichannel campaigns to simplify benefits communication and boost enrollment success.
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Access NowAs businesses gear up for the open enrollment season, HR teams face a crucial mission. They need to clearly communicate the company’s benefit offerings and any changes for 2026. While employees often look to the Affordable Care Act's (ACA’s) Health Insurance Marketplace for coverage, your most important role is guiding staff through employer‑sponsored options, from health and dental to retirement and wellness programs.
Recent trends reveal why that messaging matters now more than ever, Mercer’s MMB Health Trends 2025 points out. Healthcare costs are rising steadily, and their survey shows that employers anticipate a 5.8% increase in health benefit costs in 2025, with price pressures likely to persist in 2026.
Furthermore, Mercer’s Survey on health & benefit strategies for 2026 reveals that 51% of large employers (500+ employees) plan to shift more costs to workers. These apply to higher deductibles or out‑of‑pocket limits, which is up from 45% derived from the previous year’s survey. According to Edward Lehman, Mercer’s US Health & Benefits Leader, “Employers project average health benefit costs to grow by nearly 6% this year, and 2026 may be even more challenging from a cost perspective.”
Many organizations are also introducing smarter plan designs. These include narrow or high‑performance networks and non‑traditional options that steer employees toward better, cost‑efficient care.
“While short-term cost containment actions might be needed to address current budget realities, we also see some employers using longer-term strategies, such as offering narrow network plans that emphasize high-quality, high-value care. These strategies may improve health outcomes or make healthcare more affordable for employees.”
Edward Lehman
Cerkl recognizes how tough successful communications can be. So, whatever options your company is offering employees, we’re going to focus on successful communication strategies for open enrollment 2025.
For most employees, open enrollment means reviewing and selecting from the benefits offered by their employer. These range from general health insurance, dental, and vision options to retirement plans, disability coverage, and more. There may also be regulatory updates from the IRS, including contribution limits for certain accounts.
Your HR team is responsible for communicating changes, highlighting deadlines, and ensuring employees clearly understand their options. This includes:
Because benefit plans change from year to year, this communication is critical. Employees rely on HR to know what’s new, what’s staying the same, and how to choose the best option for their circumstances.
Outside of the workplace, open enrollment also refers to government-run health coverage programs:
For HR, the key is to keep communication tightly focused on the employer-sponsored benefit package while being aware that employees may want to shift to federal or state programs. Clarity helps prevent confusion and ensures your workforce makes the right choices during the enrollment window.
That’s why it’s so important for HR departments to make open enrollment announcements alerting employees to the start date and other deadlines.
When preparing for open enrollment, the aim is to make the process a worthwhile experience for all stakeholders, including employees.
Given this dynamic environment, it’s essential that open enrollment communication is:
There may be employees who want to switch from an employer-sponsored plan to a federal or state health insurance plan, and vice versa. You can provide information and advice, but HR’s primary responsibility is to ensure that employees fully understand the benefits offered by the organization.
There is no doubt that communications strategies play an important role in the open enrollment preparation process. The first thing to do is announce your 2025 strategy with an open enrollment announcement.
Clear, consistent messaging helps employees make confident choices, whether they remain with company-sponsored coverage or explore other options. By setting expectations early and equipping employees with the right tools, HR strengthens trust and positions open enrollment as a seamless, supportive process rather than a source of stress.
Provide clear, concise information about your company’s enrollment process and the options it offers. Multiple communication channels, ranging from posts, webinars, in-person meetings, and an open enrollment email campaign to employees, will all be beneficial.
Rely on data and insights to assess whether employees are happy with the existing health insurance plans and benefits offered. Use employee surveys, focus group chats, and one-on-one meetings to engage with employees and find out what they believe is working and what should change.
FAQ sheets, enrollment step-by-step guides, infographics, and an employee benefits dashboard can all help to boost open enrollment communication.
An open-door policy to HR will enable employees to communicate one-on-one about topics they might not feel happy talking about in a group. Issues may include fitness, substance use, caregiving support, and mental health. By encouraging this policy, HR leaders can both educate and advise employees, and help them make open enrollment decisions.
This approach will certainly help those who feel left out of the loop from those higher up in the company. It also allows employees to ask questions they might be embarrassed to ask more publicly.
It is vitally important to maximize your employees’ access to information via effective open enrollment communication.
Cerkl Broadcast internal communication campaigns are an excellent way to schedule communications throughout the open enrollment process. This helps increase both access and automation because you can schedule comms, send reminders, and save yourself a lot of time and stress.
Accessibility for employees is vital, which is why organizations should do all they can to demystify open enrollment to help applicants understand the employee benefits offered. Clarity on the details ensures employees don’t just see their options, but truly understand what each choice means for them.
Updating health plans and other benefits before the open enrollment period is essential. Employers must ensure compliance with ACA rules, confirm that coverage remains affordable, and verify that non-discrimination requirements are met.
It also makes sense to evaluate current benefit packages and compare them to changing industry needs and standards. However, HR must explain clearly if and how benefit options have changed, and stress enrollment deadlines. Obvious ways to do this are to circulate clear guides, organize sessions to share information, and offer personal support. Another excellent option is to send a personalized open enrollment email to employees.
There is also a need to facilitate plan comparisons to ensure affordability. It’s imperative to look at the evolving needs of employees and to prioritize effective communication and transparency. Chief human resources officers (CHROs) need to provide clear information and guidance to increase employee awareness.
With the price pressures highlighted by Mercer, the challenge of assessing benefit increases is very real. These can impact the company and employees, so they should be considered early in the planning program. Proactive discussion is the best solution when considering the impact of fee increases.
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) offers advice on strategies to help control rising costs caused by inflation, including self-funded plans, tiered plan options, promotion of telemedicine, and preventive care.
SHRM also offers invaluable guidance on strategies for successful open enrollment. “The best benefits plan will still fall short if employees don’t understand or appreciate it. Employees need meaningful education about their benefits to create engagement.”
They advise:
Another challenge is to cater to a hybrid workforce that is literally spread out, complicating open enrollment. Again, there is a focus on the importance of communication strategies to highlight the relevance of benefits for different employees.
While announcements throughout a campaign are vital, open enrollment communication should never be only top-down. Two-way communication is vital.
“The open enrollment process is more than a compliance task — it’s an opportunity to show employees just how much they are valued. When your workforce feels supported and confident in their benefits, it reinforces the message that they are a vital part of the team.”
Clear, timely emails are the backbone of a successful open enrollment campaign. Templates help HR teams save time, ensure consistency, and keep employees informed every step of the way.
In How to Write an Open Enrollment Announcement, the benefits, HR, and payroll company, Paychex, lays out key reasons why clear communication is vital during open enrollment and what elements employers should include when notifying employees. It also suggests sending the first announcement about one month before open enrollment begins, followed by multiple reminders leading up to and during enrollment.
Keep each announcement short. Personalize each with the person’s name.
1. Pre-Open Enrollment Notice: Use this message to alert employees to upcoming benefit choices, highlight the timeline, and ensure they’re aware that the period is approaching.
It's that time of year. Open enrollment for 2026 benefits kicks off in one month, from [START DATE] to [END DATE]. We’re excited to share our updated benefits package soon, so mark your calendars and watch for more details.
2. Start-of-Enrollment Announcement: Release in the week before open enrollment starts. This email should list the enrollment window, explain what employees can do (e.g., compare plans, make changes, add dependents), and emphasize that missing the deadline may lock in current selections.
Open enrollment runs from [START DATE] to [END DATE]. During this window, you can:
Watch for further instructions next week about accessing and navigating the enrollment portal.
Questions? Contact [HR/BENEFITS CONTACT].
3. One Day Before Enrollment Opens: Send a brief but urgent reminder. Include clear, step-by-step instructions for how to enroll. Screenshots or bullet points can be especially helpful.
Just a friendly reminder: open enrollment starts tomorrow! To get prepared, follow these steps:
Need help? Reach out to [CONTACT NAME/DETAILS].
It’s essential to recognize some of the common challenges organizations face, especially smaller ones.
Email remains the most reliable way to reach employees during open enrollment, but it shouldn’t be the only channel. By targeting multiple channels at the same time—such as intranet posts, text reminders, team meetings, or digital signage—you ensure every employee sees the message and has the information they need to act on time.
Using multiple touchpoints also reinforces the importance of open enrollment and reduces the risk of missed deadlines. A coordinated approach helps you meet employees where they are, whether they’re desk-based, remote, or on the frontline, and makes it easier for them to engage with the process.
Unless there is good internal communication about what open enrollment offers and entails, employees may miss opportunities or make poor choices. Cerkl Broadcast provides a suite of communication tools designed to eliminate these risks. With branded drag-and-drop Email Blasts, omnichannel distribution, retargeting, and calendar invites for info days and workshops, Broadcast ensures that employees receive the right message at the right time.
Our responsive email templates are compatible with more than 60 pre-tested devices and backed by two-way communication through email analytics. Combined with Audience Manager, you can segment and reach exactly the audience you need — whether frontline staff, remote teams, or those working in specific locations.
Busy employees need repeated, clear reminders to act. With Broadcast Campaigns, you can schedule communications every few days, track engagement in real time, and retarget employees who haven’t opened or acted on their messages. Messages can be simple and straightforward, while online or in-person meetings can be reinforced through Broadcast’s calendar invites. This combination helps employees understand their options without feeling overwhelmed.
Ultimately, Cerkl Broadcast centralizes the entire process. All enrollment communications and data can be organized in one place, enabling HR and internal comms teams to personalize outreach, connect with deskless employees across multiple channels, and measure results instantly. The result: a streamlined, systemized approach to open enrollment communication that reduces stress for HR and empowers employees to make confident benefit decisions.
Internal communicators, including HR professionals, will find that Cerkl Broadcast can revolutionize the open enrollment 2025 process. Firstly, it will cut down on the time spent planning changes needed for the enrollment process. Secondly, it makes it easier for employees to review and suggest changes to benefits plans using our email analytics and other communication tools.
In addition to this, we invite you to download our free guide on Best Practices and Proven Strategies to Improve Email Click-Through Rates (CTRs). A high CTR isn’t just a metric. It shows that employees value your messages, whether they are enrollment announcements, invitations to meet a new team leader, or statements regarding company policy.
Our guide shows how you can transform your internal email campaigns into powerful tools for employee engagement.
What is open enrollment 2025? Open enrollment 2025 is the opportunity window employees and other individuals have to make changes to their benefit options. It happens annually, in the fall, and for those enrolling via the federal government’s ACA Health Insurance Marketplace at Healthcare.gov, it usually takes place between November 1 and January 15. Employers offering employee coverage determine their own open enrollment dates, which typically coincide (more or less) with the ACA scheme.
Why is open enrollment important? Open enrollment ensures that all employees have access to health coverage benefits. It also promotes choice and flexibility, and helps individuals make informed decisions about their healthcare. It plays a crucial role in protecting individuals' health and financial well-being while also facilitating compliance with healthcare regulations.
Why is open enrollment important? Open enrollment ensures that all employees have access to health coverage benefits. It also promotes choice and flexibility, and helps individuals make informed decisions about their healthcare. It plays a crucial role in protecting individuals’ health and finncial well-being while also facilitating compliance with healthcare regulations.
What does open enrollment at work mean? When we talk about open enrollment at work, this refers to the designated period when employees can change benefits offered by their employers. It’s an annual opportunity for employees to customize their benefit packages to suit their needs.
Why would businesses make an open enrollment announcement? These announcements are made to let employees know when the enrollment period begins and ends. Announcements also share information about enrollment issues. These include changes to previous benefit plans and campaign notifications. If employees miss the open enrollment window, typically, they won’t be able to enroll in a qualified plan until the next open enrollment period.
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