Introduction: The Hidden Cost of Open Enrollment Confusion
Every year, open enrollment brings a familiar challenge. Employees must choose between multiple health and benefits options, often filled with complex terms like deductibles, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums. Despite HR’s best efforts, many employees still make rushed or poorly informed choices.
The consequences are real. According to Aflac’s annual WorkForces Report, nearly 1 in 3 employees regret the benefits choices they made during open enrollment. Many discover too late that they didn’t fully understand the coverage, or they realize they overpaid for benefits they didn’t use.
Wellness programs can play a powerful role in solving this problem. By supporting employees’ health literacy, decision-making skills, and overall wellbeing, wellness initiatives help employees not only understand their benefit options but also select plans they’ll be satisfied with throughout the year.
In this blog, we’ll explore 10 ways wellness programs increase open enrollment plan comprehension—and reduce regret about switching.
1. Building Health Literacy Year-Round
One of the biggest barriers to plan comprehension is low health literacy. Employees often struggle with insurance terms and preventive care concepts.
A wellness program that offers ongoing education—through lunch-and-learns, webinars, or micro-learning modules—helps employees build familiarity with:
- What deductibles and copays mean in practical terms
- How preventive care saves money over time
- The role of HSAs and FSAs in managing costs
Result: By the time open enrollment arrives, employees are better equipped to interpret plan details and make confident choices.
2. Normalizing Preventive Care Conversations
Many employees underestimate how much care they’ll need, leading to regret when bills arrive. Wellness programs that encourage annual physicals, screenings, and mental health check-ins normalize preventive care.
When employees engage in wellness initiatives, they gain a more realistic understanding of:
- How often they visit providers
- What conditions they need to manage
- Which benefits they actually use
Result: Employees choose plans based on their real needs, not guesses.
3. Reducing Stress During Enrollment Season
Open enrollment often overlaps with fiscal year-end, holidays, and peak workloads. Stress reduces comprehension and leads to rushed decisions.
Wellness programs that promote mindfulness, resilience training, and stress management tools directly impact plan comprehension by:
- Helping employees stay calm enough to read materials thoroughly
- Improving focus for comparing plan options
- Reducing “decision fatigue,” which is common when too many choices feel overwhelming
Result: Employees engage with benefits information instead of avoiding it.
4. Encouraging Financial Wellness
Benefits decisions are not just about health—they’re also about finances. Should employees choose a higher-deductible plan with lower premiums? Or a higher-premium plan with predictable costs?
Wellness programs that include financial education—budgeting, debt management, HSA/FSA workshops—help employees evaluate costs in context. They can:
- Calculate how much they can afford in out-of-pocket expenses
- Understand how HSAs can serve as both healthcare savings and retirement tools
- Compare premium costs against expected medical expenses
Result: Employees make choices that align with both their health and financial wellbeing.
5. Offering Personalized Resources
One-size-fits-all benefits communication rarely works. For example, younger employees may be evaluating mental health coverage, while parents are more concerned about pediatric care. Employees at different life stages have very different needs, and generic communication can leave them feeling overlooked.
When organizations provide personalized resources—such as tailored FAQs, targeted reminders, or examples specific to life stage—employees are more likely to see the relevance. Personalization increases trust, encourages employees to engage with the material, and makes it easier to compare options.
Result: Employees feel seen and supported, which leads to stronger comprehension and greater satisfaction with their choices.
6. Driving Engagement Through Recognition
Wellness challenges often tie participation to recognition—points, badges, or peer shoutouts. That same model can drive open enrollment engagement.
For example:
- Recognizing teams with the highest completion rates
- Awarding points for completing “Plan Education 101” micro-courses
- Celebrating employees who help peers understand benefits
Result: Employees are more motivated to engage with benefits content and complete enrollment early.
7. Strengthening Manager Communication
Wellness programs often equip managers with talking points to encourage participation. This same strategy helps during open enrollment.
When managers:
- Remind employees about deadlines
- Share their own experiences with plan selection
- Encourage questions without judgment
…it makes benefits conversations less intimidating.
Result: Employees hear about open enrollment from multiple trusted sources, not just HR emails.
8. Providing Safe Spaces for Questions
Some employees hesitate to ask benefits questions for fear of sounding uninformed. Wellness programs normalize vulnerability and encourage employees to seek help.
Examples include:
- Anonymous Q&A forums
- Office hours with benefits specialists
- Peer-to-peer support channels
Wellness initiatives build trust, and that trust carries into open enrollment.
Result: Employees ask questions earlier, reducing last-minute confusion and regret.
9. Connecting Purpose to Benefits
Wellness programs often link daily habits to larger purpose—like Woliba for Good, where activity can fund tree planting or community programs. Similarly, open enrollment choices connect to long-term life goals.
When employees see benefits as part of their broader wellbeing journey, they:
- Consider how mental health coverage supports career growth
- Weigh how financial benefits contribute to family stability
- Recognize how preventive care coverage supports longevity
Result: Benefits choices feel meaningful, not transactional.
10. Using Data to Close Knowledge Gaps
Wellness programs generate valuable data: participation rates, stress levels, wellbeing trends. HR can use this data to identify where employees may struggle during open enrollment.
For example:
- If financial wellness participation is low, employees may need extra support understanding HSAs.
- If stress management scores drop during enrollment season, HR may need to simplify materials.
- If certain demographics under-participate, targeted communication may be needed.
With unified dashboards like Woliba’s, HR can connect wellness and benefits data into actionable insights.
Result: HR proactively addresses comprehension gaps before they lead to regret.
Practical Example: From Confusion to Confidence
Consider this scenario:
Last year, a mid-sized company noticed employees overwhelmingly chose the lowest-premium plan. Six months later, HR saw an increase in complaints about high out-of-pocket costs. Surveys revealed that employees did not fully understand deductibles or the financial trade-offs.
This year, the company introduced:
- Wellness webinars on health literacy
- Financial coaching on HSAs
- Mindfulness workshops during enrollment season
- Manager toolkits for benefits conversations
The result? Completion rates rose by 18%, benefits-related complaints fell by 30%, and employees reported greater confidence in their plan selections.
How Woliba Supports Open Enrollment Success
Woliba is designed to make wellness and communication work hand in hand. During open enrollment, HR teams can use Woliba to:
- Educate: Deliver benefits explainers via micro-learning modules.
- Engage: Use recognition points for completing benefits education challenges.
- Automate: Send personalized reminders about deadlines.
- Measure: Track engagement with benefits content alongside wellness participation.
- Unify: Provide one platform for wellness, recognition, and benefits communication.
Instead of siloed programs, HR leaders get one clear system to boost plan comprehension and reduce costly regret.
Conclusion: Wellness as the Missing Link in Open Enrollment
Employees don’t regret switching plans because they’re careless—they regret it because they didn’t fully understand their options. Wellness programs fill that gap by educating, engaging, and supporting employees year-round.
By integrating wellness into open enrollment, HR leaders can:
- Improve benefits comprehension
- Reduce regret and frustration
- Build trust in the organization’s commitment to employee wellbeing
Ultimately, open enrollment becomes less of a once-a-year headache and more of a strategic opportunity to connect benefits to a culture of wellbeing.
Ready to make open enrollment simpler and more effective?
Discover how Woliba helps HR leaders integrate wellness, recognition, and benefits communication into one seamless platform at woliba.io.
