The Employer’s Guide to Surviving Open Enrollment (2025 Edition)

For HR professionals, the annual open enrollment period is one of the busiest times in your calendar. With sharp renewal cost increases sweeping the market, thoughtful strategy and communication are more critical than ever. Getting open enrollment right is an essential part of the overall employee experience. Benefits changes are a significant concern for your team, and they need to know they can trust you to address their needs.

Why 2025 Feels Different: A Sharper Renewal Landscape

Renewals jumping 10–25%? You’re not alone. Many employers are experiencing medical rate increases and “cost bumps” that are well beyond historical norms. In fact, some small employers have faced renewal increases approaching 80%, illustrating that volatility is very real, especially for groups without deep negotiating leverage.

To ground that in broader trends, consider what the data is telling us:

• Aon’s 2025 U.S. Health Survey forecasts a projected medical trend (before plan changes) of 9.2%, compared to ~8% last year. After plan design adjustments, that net increase is expected to settle at 7.3%.

• Aon also notes that small employers are likely to feel these pressures more acutely: the average projected increase for small employers is ~10.3%, versus 8.3% for larger employers.
• If plan sponsors do nothing (i.e. no design changes), Aon projects employer health-plan costs will rise ~9.0% in 2025 - pushing average per-employee coverage costs past $16,000 annually. 
• For small employers, Aon reports that ~1 in 9 expects 20%+ increases in premiums — a sign that some renewal crediting is pushing past even the 10–25% band.

So, with that, there's one thing we know for sure: 2025 is bringing very different cost realities. And like everything with the right planning, you can survive open enrollment season while providing a first-class experience for your team.

What That Means (and What You Should Do Differently)

Given this backdrop, open enrollment for 2025 is more than just administrative renewal—it’s a critical moment for cost management and engagement. Below are best practices to help you navigate the turbulence.

1. Start Renewal Conversations Early

2. Break Out Your Own Claims & Utilization Data

3. Overcome Enrollment Inertia with Targeted Communication

One of the biggest hidden cost drivers in employer plans is inertia: employees who roll over their benefits each year without reviewing their options. Industry research suggests that more than half of employees default to the same plan annually, even when better choices are available.

That matters in 2025: with premiums jumping 10–25% (or more), employees who don’t reassess could miss out on savings opportunities or end up in plans that don’t fit their needs. The federal exchanges demonstrate the pervasiveness of this behavior — in the 2025 open enrollment cycle, nearly 45% of enrollees were auto-enrolled without making active election choices. Private employers face the same challenge.

For HR teams, the takeaway is clear: don’t let defaults drive outcomes. Segment your communication and nudge employees to re-engage:

• Highlight potential savings for families who switch to cost-effective plans.
• Send personalized reminders to employees with chronic conditions or high utilization, showing how plan design changes may affect them.
• Use plain-language, side-by-side comparisons (and calculators) to illustrate differences in premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket costs.
• Consider timed “just-in-time” communications during enrollment windows to catch people before they click through without reading.

4. Be Cautious Shifting Costs Too Aggressively

It’s tempting to offset rising premiums by pushing more expenses onto employees through higher deductibles, copayments, or contributions. However, in a tight labor market, cost-shifting can backfire, causing disengagement, coverage dropouts, or dissatisfaction that can ripple into retention issues.

According to Aon, four out of five employers plan to raise employee contributions in 2025, but the average increase is just under 6%. That measured approach reflects the reality: while budgets are stretched, employers can’t afford to undermine employee trust or competitiveness in the talent market.

5. Use Smarter Networks, Pharmacy, & Vendor Levers

Rather than applying across-the-board cuts, many employers are steering care toward high-value providers through narrow or tiered networks and centers of excellence. Pharmacy strategies have also become a top cost lever, with GLP-1 drugs and specialty medications driving outsized spend. Employers are increasingly utilizing utilization management tools, such as prior authorization and step therapy, to keep costs under control, while others are carving out pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) or aggressively rebidding contracts. The 2025 environment calls for creative levers: smarter networks, pharmacy optimization, and stronger vendor management can help offset double-digit renewal pressures without eroding employee satisfaction.

6. Invest in Technology, Advocacy & Benefits Literacy

Complex plan designs and rising costs make it more challenging for employees to navigate their benefits independently. That’s why 2025 is a tipping point for decision-support technology, advocacy services, and benefits literacy initiatives. Employers are increasingly incorporating AI-powered platforms, benefits navigation apps, and advocacy tools to simplify employee choices. However, technology alone isn’t enough — pairing it with human touchpoints, such as benefits consultants, webinars, and microlearning sessions, creates the balance employees need. The goal is to help employees make informed decisions, reduce confusion, and ultimately increase the value they perceive in their benefits package.

7. Close the Loop with Post-Enrollment Analytics

Open enrollment shouldn’t end when the window closes. Employers who thrive in 2025 are those who analyze the outcomes: who switched plans, whether predicted savings materialized, and which messages actually influenced behavior. Post-enrollment surveys and claims analyses provide HR leaders with the feedback necessary to refine plan design and communications for the next cycle. By treating enrollment as a continuous feedback loop, rather than a one-time transaction, employers can steadily improve both cost control and employee engagement year over year.

Bringing It Back to the Basics

While 2025 is shaping up to be an especially challenging year, the fundamentals of open enrollment haven’t changed. At its core, open enrollment remains the critical window when employees make choices about their benefits — and when HR leaders must juggle communications, compliance, and coordination with vendors.

That’s why it helps to revisit the essentials: what open enrollment actually is, when it occurs, and how HR teams can break the process into clear phases —before, during, and after enrollment.

What is open enrollment?

Open enrollment is the period during which employees can make changes to their benefits, such as health insurance. The Federal Open Enrollment period begins at the start of November and runs through to January. Private employers may opt for a different time of year, although it’s common to begin open enrollment during the fall.

Whenever your open enrollment window begins, one thing is for sure: it’s going to be a busy time for your HR team. Open enrollment involves a huge amount of coordination, both with benefit providers and the employees themselves.

A proactive HR team with solid processes can help your company navigate enrollment smoothly. We recommend thinking of open enrollment as having three distinct phases:

• Before open enrollment, when you confirm benefit details and prepare to communicate with staff.
• During open enrollment, you help employees fine-tune their benefits while also managing documentation and compliance.
• After open enrollment, a time for analysis, optimization, and resolving any issues that arose during the window.

Let’s take a look at what you need to do during each phase.

What to do before open enrollment

It’s never too early to start preparing for the next open enrollment window. Here are some essential tasks for you and your HR team in the run-up to enrollment.

1. Analyze last year’s feedback

Feedback from last year’s open enrollment window will help you identify successes that you can build upon, plus the issues that you need to address. Some of the data to consider includes:

• Employee feedback: Use short surveys to gauge employee reactions. Are they satisfied with their new benefits coverage? Did they have any issues with the process?
• Managerial feedback: Local leaders can tell you a lot about open enrollment, as they’re often the ones fielding questions about benefits. They can also help you understand how benefits impact team engagement and retention.
• Compliance reports: Watch out for any issues that may have arisen from benefits enrollment. Talk to your compliance team and ask if they have any notes for the next window.

2. Learn more about employee desires

Employees' needs change constantly. You may have a younger demographic that prioritizes fun perks and professional development opportunities, while others may require more comprehensive family healthcare plans and caregiving benefits.

Stay ahead of changing employee desires by discussing their needs and wants with your team. You can use surveys to ask questions like:

• Are you happy with your current benefits?
• Do you feel you have an adequate selection of benefit options?
• What additional benefits would best support your needs?
• Do you intend to make changes during the open enrollment window?

3. Schedule benefit planning meetings

Key players, including the broker representative, senior human resources, and finance leadership, should have a pre-open enrollment meeting, typically during the late summer months.  The meeting should discuss things like:

• Upcoming changes to benefits, including rate increases
• Employee satisfaction with current benefit offerings
• Communication strategy for open enrollment
• Compliance issues, i.e. ACA compliance for health insurance benefits

4. Develop a communication strategy

Communication is the most important part of open enrollment. Your team needs clear information about what’s on offer and how to find the right Total Rewards for their needs.

HR and local leaders can work together on a communication strategy. Here are some of the main things to plan for:

• Benefit selection guides: Employees should have access to the information they need to make a decision. This could mean health plan brochures, benefit selection guides from your broker, or an online comparison tool.
• FAQ: Employees will have many questions about their benefits. You can streamline the process by anticipating common questions and creating a detailed FAQ that provides clear, concise answers.
• Inclusion: Remember, not everyone is in the office. Remote employees and COBRA beneficiaries may miss essential communications, so it's critical to have a strategy in place to include them.

What to do during open enrollment

Open enrollment involves two vital tasks: helping employees choose new benefits and then implementing their changes. Most of the time, this runs smoothly, but there are some important tasks for your HR team.

1. Follow an active enrollment or passive enrollment strategy

Companies can take an active or passive approach to open enrollment. The main differences between the two are:

• Active enrollment: The company asks each employee to confirm their benefits during the open enrollment window. Active enrollment can lead to higher benefit uptake and increased employee satisfaction, but it also creates a substantial workload for the open enrollment team.
• Passive enrollment: Employees automatically continue on the same benefits unless they opt to make changes. Passive enrollment is a more efficient approach to enrollment, but there is a greater risk that employees won’t switch to benefit options that suit their current needs.

2. Provide a point of contact

No matter how well-organized you are, there will always be some difficult questions. It’s beneficial to have a designated point of contact who can effectively handle questions from employees or their managers. In some cases, these questions might require a response from the benefits provider.

Some tips here include:

• A help inbox: Create a dedicated email address, such as enrollment-help@yourcompany.com, and get your benefits team to check it regularly.
• A phone line: It’s great if employees can pick up the phone and call someone with benefits questions. You could organize a rotation so that benefits experts can take turns answering calls.
• A Slack/Teams channel: Build a dedicated space where people can ask questions. A public channel on Slack or Teams will allow people to share information and learn more about their benefits options.
• Benefits Agent or Chatbot: Some employers are now adding AI-powered benefits agents or chatbots that employees can access via Slack, Teams, or your intranet. These tools can instantly answer common questions, guide employees to comparison resources, and even route complex issues to HR or the broker. A digital agent won’t replace human support, but it can reduce response times and help your HR team focus on higher-priority conversations.

3. Respond to issues

Things can go wrong, so it’s important to respond as soon as possible. Your team may benefit from a tiered system for addressing any issues. When one tier can’t resolve the problem, they escalate to the next tier:

• Tier 1: Minor issues, such as correcting errors and answering common queries.
• Tier 2: Larger issues that require managerial intervention, such as compliance problems.
• Tier 3: Problems that require high-level intervention, such as problems with the benefits broker.

What to do after open enrollment

The window is closed, and employees have moved onto their new benefit schedules. They can forget about open enrollment for another year.

Sadly, you and your HR team can’t forget there’s still much work to do, with tasks such as:

1. Issue new documentation

There’s an urgent need to issue some documentation, especially Evidence of Coverage for healthcare plans. While most of this should happen automatically, you may need to follow up with the provider in some cases. Be sure to allocate some time after the window to review and confirm the documentation.

2. Reconcile insurance invoices

You need to reconcile employee changes with incoming insurance bills. As each insurance bill arrives, review the employee listing against the revised employee elections made during Open Enrollment. Ensure the employee is enrolled in the correct plan with the correct dependent coverage and take prompt action on any errors.

3. Review payroll deductions

Review employee deductions to ensure they are applied accurately. If an employee has been overpaid or underpaid, then the first step is to speak directly to the employee. Explain the error and agree on adjustments to their upcoming paychecks. It’s a good idea to confirm these adjustments in writing and store the written confirmation in their benefits plan. Make sure to send these written instructions to the payroll team so they can implement their changes.

4. Verify compliance

Healthcare benefits often involve significant compliance work, including issues related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), ongoing coverage for former employees (COBRA), and Medicare/Medicaid. Check in with your internal auditing team to verify that they are satisfied with all activity during open enrollment. If you discover any regulatory breaches, gather all relevant documentation and consult with your compliance expert to determine the next steps.    

5. Gather employee feedback

Now that this window is closed… It’s time to think about the next window! This is an ideal moment to conduct employee surveys, especially about the enrollment process itself. Ask them if the system was user-friendly, if they understood their options, and if they’re happy with their new cover.

Make open enrollment a success

Open enrollment is a vital part of your broader HR strategy. It's an opportunity to check in with employees, assess their satisfaction with their Total Rewards, and identify areas for improvement in engagement.

Seeking assistance with your open enrollment? Book a call with a Helios HR consultant and let's talk about how our expertise can benefit you.