What We’re Watching: Helping Gen Z Navigate Open Enrollment
As Generation Z becomes a larger part of the workforce, employers are facing a new open enrollment challenge: helping younger employees confidently navigate benefits decisions that may be entirely new to them.
For many Gen Z employees, choosing a health plan, understanding a deductible or evaluating voluntary benefits may be unfamiliar territory. Research from MetLife found that 60% of Gen Z employees don’t fully understand their benefits, while 35% lack confidence in the choices they make during open enrollment.
That uncertainty isn’t necessarily surprising. Many young adults can remain on a parent’s health plan until age 26, meaning their first few years in the workforce may not include much firsthand experience selecting health coverage. When it is time to make those decisions independently, many turn to others for guidance. Research from Justworks found that 57% of Gen Z workers rely on recommendations during open enrollment, with nearly three in five turning to their parents for help choosing a health plan.
For employers, this presents an opportunity to rethink how benefits information is communicated—not just during open enrollment, but throughout the year.
Make Benefits Easier to Understand
Benefits are complicated, especially for someone encountering terms like deductible, coinsurance, out-of-pocket maximum, HSA and PPO for the first time.
Employers can help by making benefits education more approachable. Instead of relying solely on lengthy plan documents or enrollment presentations, consider supplementing traditional materials with FAQs, infographics, short videos and other bite-sized resources employees can reference when they need them.
Even small changes can make a difference. Defining commonly used benefits terminology, providing real-world examples and clearly explaining the differences between plan options can help employees understand not only what their choices are, but how those choices could affect them.
Meet Employees Where They Are
How benefits information is delivered matters, too.
MetLife research found that Gen Z employees prefer channels such as videos and podcasts, social media, in-person conversations, workplace messaging platforms and text for benefits communication.
That doesn’t mean employers need to abandon traditional enrollment materials. Instead, it reinforces the value of using multiple communication channels and formats. An enrollment guide may provide the details, while a short video, Teams message or quick FAQ can help reinforce the information employees need most.
Look Beyond the Medical Plan
For younger employees who remain on a parent’s health plan, open enrollment can easily feel irrelevant. But medical coverage is only one part of an employer’s benefits package.
Open enrollment is also an opportunity to educate employees about benefits they may not realize are available to them—from retirement plans and financial wellness resources to voluntary and lifestyle benefits.
Helping employees understand these offerings and how they fit into their lives can make the broader benefits package feel more tangible and valuable.
Give Employees Time to Make a Decision
When employees don’t understand their options, it can be tempting to select the cheapest plan, repeat last year’s elections or rush through enrollment altogether.
Providing information early gives employees time to ask questions, compare their options and consider how their needs may have changed.
Employers can also encourage employees to look back at the previous year. Which benefits did they use? What did they spend out of pocket? Were there resources available that they didn’t take advantage of? A simple benefits checklist or self-assessment can help turn enrollment from a passive annual task into a more thoughtful decision.
Think Beyond Open Enrollment
Perhaps the bigger takeaway is that benefits education shouldn’t begin and end with open enrollment.
Employees are more likely to appreciate and use their benefits when they understand them throughout the year. Regular reminders, educational resources and timely communications can help employees connect their benefits to real-life needs—and make the next enrollment period less overwhelming.
What We’re Watching
As Gen Z continues to make up a greater share of the workforce, benefits communication will need to evolve with it.
For employers, the opportunity isn’t simply to communicate more. It’s to make benefits easier to understand, easier to access and more relevant to employees at different stages of their lives.
A thoughtful benefits communication strategy can help employees make more confident decisions while reinforcing the value of the investment employers are already making in their people.
