You spend months curating the perfect suite of voluntary benefits that are designed to support employees and strengthen company culture. Then, you watch them get lost in the chaotic rush of medical plan open enrollment.

The hard truth? A study by The Hartford found that employees spend, on average, less than 30 minutes on their benefits selection, leaving no time for these valuable extras. So how do you solve this critical engagement problem?

This guide provides a playbook of actionable tips to do just that. It offers a new approach to ensure voluntary workplace benefits get the spotlight they deserve.

1. Create a “Two-Track” Communication Plan

The most common mistake is treating open enrollment as one monolithic event, blasting employees with every piece of information at once. This approach only reinforces decision fatigue. By the time an employee has navigated deductibles, copays, and provider networks, their mental energy for making choices is completely drained.

To solve this, stop thinking of it as a single campaign and instead create two distinct communication plans.

How to Give Voluntary Perks Their Own Spotlight

The first track is the “Core Benefits" track. These communications are focused, analytical, and dedicated entirely to helping employees make necessary decisions around health insurance.

The second, separate track is the “Perks & Possibilities” track. Communications here are different. They’re more engaging, less dense, and focused on voluntary benefits only. By creating a separate lane for these perks, you give them their own mental space and a fighting chance to capture employees’ attention.

2. Frame Each Benefit by the “Job It Does”

Employees often see voluntary benefits as confusing because communications focus on product features, not real-life problems. To make a perk feel essential, frame it using a simple but powerful concept—what is the “job to be done”? People don’t buy a product. They “hire” it to do a job in their life.

How to Speak Your Employees’ Language

Instead of just listing the benefit, explain the specific job it performs. Don’t just describe “accident insurance.” Explain the job it does—it’s hired to “prevent a broken leg from breaking my budget.”

Don’t just say describe “Pet Insurance." For the 70% of employees with pets, its job is to “let me say ‘yes’ to the vet without worrying about the cost.” This simple shift in language is profound.

3. Run a “Perks Week” Before the Main Event

To truly combat decision fatigue, it’s important to capture employees’ attention before they are overwhelmed. Running a dedicated “Perks Week” in the five business days leading up to the official start of medical plan enrollment can be a highly effective way to execute a “Two-Track” communication strategy.

How to Build Awareness and Excitement

The approach is simple. Assign a theme to each day of the week and send one short, focused, and engaging email per day.

An example schedule could be: “Financial Wellness Monday,” “Family & Pet Tuesday,” “Health & Wellness Wednesday,” and so on. This approach builds awareness and excitement in a low-pressure way, ensuring employees understand the value of these perks before the noise of the main event begins.

4. Simplify Choices by Bundling Benefits

When an employee sees a list of fifteen different voluntary options, they often feel overwhelmed and simply disengage. The sheer number of choices is intimidating. To make their decision-making process dramatically easier, group similar benefits into logical, easy-to-understand packages.

How to Curate Choices for Employees

Instead of a long and confusing menu, present them with a few curated bundles that are named for the life events they are designed to protect.

You could create a “Family Safety Net” bundle that groups together Life, Disability, and Critical Illness insurance. Another could be the “Everyday Protection” bundle, which combines Accident and Identity Theft protection. You could even create a “Furry Family” bundle that showcases your pet insurance and pet wellness plans.

This simple act of curating choices helps employees immediately see the purpose of each benefit, making them feel more confident in their decisions.

5. Use a “Benefit Champion” for Social Proof

The most powerful endorsement for any benefit will never come from HR. It comes from a trusted peer who has actually used it and experienced its value firsthand. Authentic, internal social proof is far more persuasive than any corporate brochure.

How to Let Employees Do the Talking

Actively look for “Benefit Champions.” These are the employees who have a story to tell. Did someone use Accident Insurance after their child’s soccer injury? Was an engineer grateful they had a pet benefit plan when their dog needed for an unexpected surgery?

Ask these employees if they would be willing to share their experience. An authentic testimonial included in open enrollment communications is incredibly powerful. It transforms an abstract product into a tangible, real-world solution.

A New Approach to Voluntary Benefits

The key to boosting voluntary benefits enrollment is communicating smarter, not sending another email blast. It requires a strategy that respects employee psychology and focuses on the real-life problems these perks solve. The return on this effort is clear—a MetLife study found that 70% of employees report increased loyalty when they have a customizable package with voluntary options.

A central part of this strategy is offering modern employee benefits that support the whole family — including pets. At Pet Benefit Solutions, we offer the advantage of choice with both pet insurance and innovative pet insurance alternatives. Explore our Pet Benefits Solutions plans today to learn more.