Every year, organizations spend months preparing for open enrollment. They negotiate renewals, compare rates, update plan documents, and prepare employee communications. But before any of those conversations begin, HR leaders should ask one critical question:
Do our benefits still reflect the needs of the people we employ today?
It’s an easy question to overlook because benefit offerings often evolve gradually. A new voluntary benefit gets added one year. A wellness program launches the next. Financial planning resources are introduced a few years later. Over time, the benefits package grows, but not necessarily in a way that’s intentional or aligned with employee needs. The reality is that today’s workforce looks very different than it did even five years ago.
Employees have different priorities, different financial pressures, and different expectations of their employers. Yet many organizations are still offering benefits designed for a workforce that no longer exists. Open enrollment planning presents the perfect opportunity to evaluate whether your benefits strategy is keeping pace.
More Benefits Don’t Always Mean Better Benefits
When employees ask for something new, the natural response is often to add another benefit. While each of these offerings may have value, continually expanding your benefits menu doesn’t necessarily create a better employee experience. In fact, it can have the opposite effect.
When employees are presented with too many choices, they often become overwhelmed. Instead of feeling empowered, they delay decisions, make selections they don’t fully understand, or default to the same elections they’ve made for years. The goal shouldn’t be to offer the longest list of benefits. The goal should be to offer the right benefits.
Let Your Workforce Tell You What Matters
One of the biggest advantages HR leaders have today is access to data. Employee surveys, utilization reports, claims data, enrollment trends, and demographic information all provide valuable insight into what’s working and what isn’t.
Rather than making assumptions, consider asking:
- Which voluntary benefits have low participation year after year?
- Are employees asking for resources that aren’t currently available?
- Are younger employees looking for financial wellness tools?
- Do working parents need additional caregiving support?
- Are employees taking advantage of wellness initiatives, or have participation rates plateaued?
Sometimes the answers reveal opportunities to introduce new programs. Other times, they reveal that existing programs simply aren’t well understood.
Both are valuable insights.
Benefits Should Reflect Your Workforce, Not Industry Trends
It’s easy to get caught up in what’s new. Every year, new vendors emerge promising innovative solutions, expanded offerings, and enhanced employee experiences. While innovation is important, following trends simply because other organizations are doing so can lead to a benefits strategy that’s expensive without being effective. Instead, build your benefits around your people.
A manufacturing workforce may have different priorities than a technology company. A multigenerational workforce may value flexibility differently than a younger, rapidly growing organization. Employees in different regions, industries, and life stages all bring unique needs to the workplace. The most successful benefits strategies aren’t copied from another organization. They’re designed intentionally around the workforce they serve.
Don’t Overlook Financial Well-Being
Healthcare isn’t the only financial concern employees are carrying.
Many employees today are balancing rising healthcare costs alongside inflation, childcare expenses, eldercare responsibilities, housing costs, and retirement savings goals. Financial stress often affects workplace performance, engagement, and overall well-being.
That makes financial wellness an increasingly important component of a comprehensive benefits strategy.
Whether it’s access to budgeting tools, retirement education, Health Savings Account education, emergency savings programs, or financial counseling, organizations have an opportunity to support employees in ways that extend beyond traditional health benefits.
The right resources don’t just improve financial literacy—they can reduce stress and help employees feel more confident in the decisions they make during open enrollment.
Sometimes the Biggest Opportunity Isn’t Adding Anything New
One of the most common findings during benefits reviews is surprisingly simple:
Employees don’t fully understand the benefits they already have.
Organizations often invest heavily in programs such as employee assistance plans, telehealth services, chronic condition management, nurse navigation, wellness incentives, or voluntary benefits that see little utilization, not because they lack value, but because employees don’t know they exist or don’t understand how to use them.
This is where communication becomes just as important as plan design.
If employees aren’t engaging with existing resources, adding another benefit may not solve the problem. A clearer communication strategy, more targeted education, or year-round benefits messaging may deliver greater value than introducing an entirely new program.
Sometimes the highest return on investment comes from helping employees maximize what you already provide.
Open Enrollment Is the Right Time to Take a Step Back
It’s tempting to view open enrollment as a series of administrative tasks—renew plans, finalize rates, distribute materials, and launch enrollment. But HR leaders have an opportunity to think more strategically.
Before asking employees to make benefit elections, ask whether you’re offering benefits that truly support today’s workforce and tomorrow’s business goals.
Benefits should evolve as your organization evolves. They should reflect changing employee demographics, emerging workforce needs, organizational culture, and long-term talent strategies. The organizations that get this right don’t simply add benefits every year.
They evaluate. They listen. They communicate. And they build benefits strategies that help employees thrive while supporting the business as a whole. As you begin preparing for open enrollment, resist the urge to ask, “What should we add this year?”
Instead, start with a better question:
“Are we providing the benefits our workforce truly needs—and do our employees understand the value of what they already have?”
The answer to that question can shape a more meaningful, more effective benefits strategy for years to come.