Communication Strategies to Make Your Open Enrollment a Success

For Arizona school districts, municipalities, and other public entities, Open Enrollment is one of the most important events on the HR calendar. When this is done well, it builds trust. Staff feel informed, supported, and confident in the choices they are making. When done poorly, it leads to confusion, missed elections, and a workforce that never understands the value of what they have.

For Arizona school districts, municipalities, and other public entities, a strong communication strategy is what separates an Open Enrollment that runs smoothly from one that generates a pile of corrections and frustrated staff. Here is how to build one that actually works.

Start Before You Think You Need To

This is the piece most teams get wrong. Planning for Open Enrollment communication should begin well before the enrollment window opens, and the teams that do it best build their timelines around that assumption.

For Arizona public sector employers, the sweet spot is early to mid-spring. Once renewal decisions are finalized, that is the time to hone in on what has changed, update your material accordingly, map out your communication schedule, and brief the people who will be fielding questions from staff. By the time Open Enrollment begins, everything and everyone should be ready to go. Our blog on how consultants help Arizona school districts optimize benefits renewal walks through what that renewal process looks like and why timing is everything.

A rushed Open Enrollment shows. Employees notice when answers feel uncertain, when materials look thrown together, or when deadlines appear out of nowhere. Starting early takes most of that pressure off the table.

Be Direct About What Changed

More often than not, employees are not reading their benefits guide cover to cover. They are looking for what is different from last year and what it means for their paycheck and their family. That is what your communication strategies should consider leading with.

Before enrollment opens, your team should be able to answer these questions clearly and confidently:

• What plans are available, and how do they compare to last year?
• Did employee premiums go up or down?
• Are there any network changes that affect where people can get care?
• Were any benefits added or removed?
• Are there new voluntary options worth considering?

When employees can see exactly what changed and why, they make better decisions. And when cost increases are part of the picture, which they increasingly are given where medical and benefit trends are heading in 2026, being upfront about it goes a long way. Employees can handle difficult news a lot better than they handle vague or confusing news.

Build a Communication Strategy That Reaches People More Than Once

Here is a number worth sitting with: nearly 67% of benefits-eligible employees spend just 30 minutes or less reviewing their employer’s benefits package during Open Enrollment, according to research from Voya Financial. That is not because people do not care about their benefits. It is because most communication efforts make it too easy to tune out or too hard to digest.

A single email announcement is not a communication strategy. Most staff, especially those working in schools without consistent desk access during the day, will miss it or forget it by the time enrollment opens. A two-hour presentation is not a communication strategy either. Most employees do not have the patience or the time to go over every aspect of their benefit options.

Strong Open Enrollment communication lies somewhere in the middle and layers multiple touchpoints throughout the enrollment window. Think about what that looks like for your specific workforce:

Email Done Right 

Email is still the backbone of most Open Enrollment communication, but the way most organizations use it undersells its potential. A single blast announcing that enrollment is open is easy to miss and even easier to forget. 

Think of it as a timeline, not a one-time announcement:

• 2 weeks out: A heads-up that enrollment is coming, what to expect, and where to find information. Keep it short. The goal is awareness, not information overload.
• 1 week out: A deeper look at what changed this year, including plan updates, new voluntary options, or contribution changes. This is the email staff will actually reference when making decisions.
• Opening day: A practical email focused on action. How to log in, what to have ready, how long it takes, and who to contact with questions.
• Closing week: Deadline reminders sent every other day, 2 max. No fluff, just a clear nudge that the window is closing and what to do right now.
• Day of close: A final push for anyone who has not yet completed their enrollment.

Subject lines matter more than most teams realize. “Open Enrollment Is Now Open” gets ignored. “Your benefits window closes Friday — here’s what you need to do” gets clicked. Write subject lines the way you would text a colleague, not the way you would title a policy document.

Webinars that actually work

A live webinar or recorded walkthrough gives staff something no PDF or email can: the ability to ask a question and get a real answer in the moment. For school district staff who may feel intimidated by benefits jargon or who are navigating a life change, that access makes a real difference.

A few things that separate a useful webinar from one that people skip:

• Keep it focused: A 30-minute session on what changed this year and how to complete enrollment will get more attendance than a 90-minute overview of every benefit you offer. Employees are busy. Respect that.
• Run multiple sessions: Offering one time slot means a large portion of your workforce will have a conflict. Two or three sessions, including at least one in the early morning or late afternoon to work around schedules, significantly broadens your reach.
• Record it: Not everyone will attend live, and that is fine. A recorded session your staff can watch on their own time is a resource that works around the clock. Post it somewhere easy to find and link to it in every follow-up email.
• Leave room for questions: The Q&A portion of a benefits webinar is often where the most useful information surfaces. The questions staff ask out loud are usually the ones dozens of others had but did not voice. Capture those questions and fold them into your FAQ.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has written about the challenge of getting employees genuinely engaged during enrollment, and the consistent takeaway is that communication volume and variety matter more than most employers expect.

How VSMG Supports Arizona Public Employers Through Open Enrollment

Open Enrollment support is a core part of what VSMG does for Arizona school districts, municipalities, and public entities. From reviewing plan performance and preparing staff-facing materials to guiding communication strategy and supporting the process itself, we work with our clients at every stage.

If your team is starting to think about your next open enrollment cycle, now is a smart time to get ahead of it. Contact VSMG today at 623-594-4370 to talk through how we can help.

About VSMG

Built by and for Arizona public sector employers, VSMG is a leading employee benefits consultant, dedicated exclusively to serving the needs of Arizona’s school districts, municipalities, and other public entities for over 20 years. We are the largest provider of employee benefits consulting services to Arizona school districts, serving over 40,000 benefit-eligible employee lives, and the only nonprofit consultant offering these services.