Originally published on 8/16/21, Updated on 4/29/24.
You’re probably no stranger to follow-up email surveys—like the one about the cleanliness of the hotel where you recently stayed, or the customer service support you received during a call to your credit card company.
Every HR team needs feedback to improve its overall employee experience. Especially if you’ve had to make changes to your benefits packages in the last few years. So, a post-open enrollment survey is one of many tools you can use to improve employee engagement during open enrollment and beyond.
Specifically, a post-open enrollment survey can help you identify the good, the bad, and the ugly regarding your process. For instance, do you need a more personalized approach? Should you send more text alerts? How can you drive better benefits engagement with different demographics? In addition, this survey can offer invaluable HR data that you need to make smarter decisions about employee benefits communication.
The best part is, this doesn’t have to be a strenuous exercise! Follow these tips for constructing a post-open enrollment survey to get the feedback you need to succeed:
Choose the right online survey tool for your post-open enrollment survey
There are lots of online survey tools available, like SurveyMonkey, that can help you host your open enrollment survey. Here are some questions to consider as you evaluate the best option:
- Does the survey tool allow you to show different questions based on answers to previous questions (typically called “skip logic”)?
- Does it allow you to show multiple question types (e.g., scale questions, checkboxes, and forms), or are you locked into only multiple-choice and open-ended questions?
- Does it include a library of survey templates?
- Can you export the data to a preferred format and cross-tabulate the results?
- Is the tool mobile-friendly?
Taking a few minutes to do a little research can make a big difference to ensure you can put your survey results to good use.
P.S. If you’re a Jellyvision customer, we’ll put together and send your benefits satisfaction surveys for you. Then we’ll analyze the results and offer feedback on how to improve your benefits communication and open enrollment materials.
Jellyvision Custom Solutions can help with surveys and even more personalized benefits communications!
Define the purpose of the survey
You don’t want employees to roll their eyes and think, “Oh, great—another survey I don’t have time to take.” 🙄 Instead, make it all about them. Frame the survey with an obvious value proposition. Your email ask could include language like this:
“We want to improve your understanding of your benefits and ensure you’re aware of what’s available to you. Answer these short seven questions so we can continue to offer our team members the benefits/perks they need with less work to enroll in them!”
Pose the right post-open enrollment survey questions
The goal is to understand employees’ opinions about your open enrollment process. But to keep people’s attention and get accurate information, you need to keep it short and sweet. Decide which questions are ‘need to know’ rather than ‘nice to know.’ Make every question count.
Here are a few of the questions that we send in our own post-open enrollment surveys to ALEX users:
1. How satisfied are you currently with your employee benefits?
- Very satisfied
- Somewhat satisfied
- Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
- Somewhat dissatisfied
- Very dissatisfied
2. If you had to guess, how do you think your current employee benefits compare to those at other companies?
- They’re a lot better than other companies
- They’re somewhat better than other companies
- They’re the same as other companies
- They’re somewhat worse than other companies
- They’re a lot worse than other companies
3. If it were up to you, which of the following employee benefits would you like your employer to offer (please check all that apply)?
- Accident insurance
- Adoption/surrogacy assistance
- Cancer assistance
- Childcare benefits
- Critical illness insurance
- Dental insurance
- Diabetes management assistance
- Disability insurance (long and short-term)
- Donation matching
- Employee assistance program
- Employee perks and discounts
- Fertility benefits
- Flexible work schedules
- Gym memberships or discounts
- Healthcare spending or reimbursement accounts (HSA, FSA, HRA, etc.)
- Home office stipend
- Hospital indemnity insurance
- Life insurance
- Maternity/paternity leave
- Medical insurance
- Mental health assistance
- Musculoskeletal management assistance
- Paid time off (vacation, sick days, etc.)
- Pet insurance
- Pharmacy cost management program
- Relocation assistance
- Retirement benefits or accounts (401k, etc.)
- Student loan repayment
- Telecommuting options
- Telemedicine
- Transportation FSA or assistance
- Tuition reimbursement
- Vision insurance
- Wellness programs
4. How much do you agree or disagree with the following statement: I would work for a company longer if they made sure I knew about the employee benefits that were right for me.
- Strongly agree
- Somewhat agree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Somewhat disagree
- Strongly disagree
5. Did you use ALEX Benefits Counselor this year to help you choose and/or learn about your employee benefits?
- Yes, I did
- No, I did not
- I don’t know
Remind employees of resources and tools
At the conclusion of the post-open enrollment survey, consider including a short list of resources and tools available to them—like your benefits guide or 401(k) program. After all, you want your employees to keep thinking about your benefits package even after open enrollment is over!
ALEX helps employees understand and enroll in the right plans for them.
Remember: Timing is important
Ideally, you would survey your employees immediately after they complete open enrollment, while the experience is still fresh in their minds. For example, you can add the link to a post-enrollment email. If you missed that window of opportunity, still send the post-open enrollment survey as soon as possible. Remember, any data is better than no data.
What to do after open enrollment: Discuss, discuss, discuss
Once you have the post-open enrollment survey results, let the fun begin. Take a deep dive into your responses and data. Review with your HR department and any other key stakeholders. Use the results to guide future decisions about this year’s upcoming benefit engagement initiatives and next year’s open enrollment process.
