Your Open Enrollment Checklist: Before, During, and After
A successful open enrollment season starts well before employees make their benefit choices—and continues after the enrollment window closes.
For brokers and HR teams, the goal is to help employees understand their options, complete their elections on time, and have those choices accurately reflected in payroll and carrier records.
Use this checklist to coordinate the work across all three phases. Adjust the timing to each employer’s enrollment window, payroll schedule, and carrier requirements.
Before Open Enrollment: Help HR Prepare Employees
☐ 1. Build a communication plan.
Work with HR to map out the employee messages needed before and during enrollment. Include the initial announcement, opening-day instructions, progress reminders, and final deadline notice.
Every message should make the essentials easy to find: enrollment dates, coverage effective date, where to enroll, and whom to contact for help. Choose communication channels that reach the full workforce, including employees who do not regularly check company email.
☐ 2. Explain what’s changing.
Help HR prepare a short summary of changes to plans, employee costs, coverage, or the enrollment process. Use plain language and explain what each change means for employees.
Provide access to the full benefit materials alongside the summary. Employees need enough information to identify their questions before they begin making elections.
☐ 3. Give employees a preparation checklist.
Help HR share a few practical steps employees can take before enrollment opens:
- Confirm access to the enrollment system.
- Review current benefits and the coming year’s options.
- Consider healthcare needs, providers, prescriptions, and family coverage.
- Gather any required information for eligible dependents.
- Save the enrollment deadline and contact information for assistance.
Early preparation gives employees time to ask questions and HR time to help.
During Open Enrollment: Keep Communication Moving
☐ 4. Make the opening message actionable.
When enrollment opens, give employees clear instructions for getting started. Include the enrollment link, deadline, benefit materials, and available support.
Explain whether employees must actively elect or waive benefits, whether any elections carry forward, and what steps count as a completed enrollment. These instructions should reflect the employer’s specific process.
☐ 5. Use employee questions to guide follow-up messages.
Check in with HR throughout enrollment to identify recurring questions. A short update about plan costs, dependent information, or how to submit elections can help several employees at once.
Keep reminders focused and easy to scan. Employees should be able to identify the action they need to take without searching through a long message.
☐ 6. Follow up on incomplete elections.
Review enrollment progress with HR and identify employees who have not started or have not finished.
Tailor follow-up messages to the action still needed. Someone with an unfinished election may need submission instructions; someone who has not logged in may need access help. Allow time to resolve questions before the deadline.
☐ 7. Send a clear final reminder.
Include the exact closing date, time, and time zone, along with the enrollment link and support contact.
Remind employees how to verify that their elections were submitted successfully. Confirm that HR has a process for handling unresolved questions as the window closes.
After Open Enrollment: Verify the Results
☐ 8. Audit the elections and track exceptions.
Review election information for completeness and consistency. Check selected plans, coverage levels, covered dependents, effective dates, and any required supporting information.
Document missing information or discrepancies, assign an owner, and track each item through resolution. Coordinate the review with payroll and carrier deadlines so corrections can be addressed in time.
☐ 9. Confirm payroll deductions are ready.
Work with HR and payroll to verify that deductions reflect the final elections and employer contribution arrangements. Check amounts, deduction frequency, and the first affected pay date.
Pay particular attention to new elections, plan changes, added or removed dependents, and waived coverage. Confirm updates before payroll’s cutoff, then review the first affected payroll to verify that deductions were applied as expected.
☐ 10. Verify carrier files were sent, received, and processed.
Brokers should coordinate with the parties responsible for file delivery to confirm that each carrier’s enrollment information was sent by the required deadline.
Track receipt and processing responses separately from transmission. Review rejected or missing records, assign follow-up responsibility, and verify that corrections were received and addressed. The available confirmations will vary by carrier and delivery method.
Keep Everyone Working From the Same Checklist
A shared checklist helps brokers, HR, payroll, and enrollment partners see what is complete and what still needs attention. Add an owner, due date, and status to each task, along with a place to document exceptions.
Clear communication helps employees complete their choices. Careful follow-through helps those choices become accurate deductions and carrier records. Both are essential to a successful open enrollment experience.
