“Let’s Go Shopping” Open Enrollment Campaign

About the Program

Category: Personnel Management, Employment and Training (Best in Category)

Year: 2018

Every fall, over 27,000 Miami-Dade County government workers and their families assess their medical, dental, vision and legal needs and decide on the best combination of benefits during the annual Open Enrollment period. More than half of County employees make no changes to their benefits, not necessarily because they are satisfied with their current elections. More often, it is because they defer researching or making changes to their benefits until it is too late. So, their existing elections automatically renew. Unfortunately, they could be missing out on cost-saving opportunities or new benefits they might wish to access. For the 2016 Open Enrollment period, which ran from November 1–22, the Miami-Dade County Human Resources (HR) and Communications (COM) departments took a fresh approach to informing employees of the benefits available to them. Rather than generate awareness through the usual announcements and materials, we treated Open Enrollment like a campaign, utilizing a combination of conventional and novel tactics to keep awareness of Open Enrollment high throughout the season. The theme of the campaign was “Let’s Go Shopping,” and in keeping with that idea, informational material was updated with a bright, bold color palette normally seen in promotions from major brands. Because of the campaign, views to the dental medical and vision web page increased dramatically—56%. Page views to the dependent eligibility page increased 97%. Logins to eNet (the intranet website where employees make their benefits elections) increased 46%.