Five Ways Text Messaging Can Help with Open Enrollment

Open enrollment is a period in which your employees are able to compare all of the various benefits of your company that are available to them and make the selections that best meet their needs. Communicating with employees throughout this period ensures that they take advantage of all available benefits and are happy with their selections. Forget email, the best ways to communicate with employees during open enrollment is through the use of text messaging.

Why Text Messaging?

Text messaging is the simplest, most cost-effective methods of communication available to human resources. Not only are text messages received by your employees almost instantaneously, but they are also much more likely to be opened than other forms of communication, such as email. In addition, using the right text messaging software, you can send text messages to large numbers of employees at the same time with minimal effort. You can also send automated text messages to employees who complete certain tasks, such as changing their health plan.

Here are five ways your human resources department can use text messaging to improve your open enrollment process.

1. Informing employees of the beginning of the open enrollment period

Shortly before the beginning of your company’s open enrollment period, you can use text messaging to let employees know that they need to be prepared to make their selections before open enrollment begins. You can then remind them to take action again when the open enrollment period actually starts.

2. Confirming changes or new selections made

When an employee makes a change to his or her benefits, or when an employee selects a new benefit, you can use text messaging to send an automated confirmation to the employee. This reassures the employee that his or her action was recorded by the company. It can also alert an employee to any unintended changes he or she may have made while exploring or comparing benefits.

3. Reminding employees to complete open enrollment tasks

Many employees wait until the last minute to compare benefits and complete open enrollment, only to find out that the open enrollment period has already ended by the time they are ready to take action. Help your employees avoid this common problem by reminding them that they need to complete open enrollment via text message. Be sure to send your last text reminder while your employees still have time to make selections if they haven’t yet done so.

4. Help your employees avoid open enrollment mistakes

During the open enrollment period, many employees make mistakes that lead them to be unhappy with their employment benefit selections. Some of the most common mistakes include missing the enrollment period altogether, misunderstanding the benefits available or simply keeping the same benefits they had during the previous year. Using text messaging to keep your employees engaged throughout the open enrollment process reduces the risk of these common mistakes.

5. Collecting feedback

Collecting feedback about the open enrollment process in general, as well as the specific benefits you offer employees, can help your company improve future open enrollment periods. Text messaging provides you with a simple method of collecting feedback from employees quickly and easily.

Open enrollment is one of the most important times of the year for employees and the human resources department alike. With the help of text messaging, you can be sure that open enrollment is as smooth and effective as possible.

About the Author:

Ken Rhie is the CEO of Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has over 30 years of experience in the software, internet, and mobile communications industries.

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Give Your HR Department a Boost with SMS Texting

When you implement SMS texting for HR departments, you will see how powerful this tool is for recruiting and training. With the ability to reach employees and potential recruits in an instant, text messaging has many useful applications. In a competitive business world, you need to give your HR department an edge when it comes to finding the best employees for your agency. Through the use of automated SMS, the process of recruitment will be revolutionized.

Send Updated Information to Jobseekers

Keywords are the best way to advertise jobs within your company on job boards. This gives you permission to send marketing texts to those that have signed up by keyword to learn more about the jobs you have advertised. Whenever there is a new position, you can send out a text to those people already want to work for you. When you have new information to share or a job that just opened up, a quick text to potential employees can help you fill the void faster.

Collect Information Through Text Messaging

Embedded links are simple to send through text messaging. Once a candidate is interested in a job, you can send out a link so that you can get the information you need to process their application further. This process can be automated, which will reduce the amount of time your HR employees have to spend on collecting applications and ensuring they are complete. Your HR department can focus on less tedious tasks, and the process of gathering applications will be streamlined.

Set Up New Employees for Work

Once you hire an employee, getting them ready to work on their first day takes some paperwork. You can get your employee setup to work by utilizing SMS texting to share information. You can even send out an offer for a job through texting, or you can ask for additional paperwork to be filled out. When you have employees who will need computer access, a phone line and email set up, this can all be done ahead of time and you can inform them through text messaging.

Organize Interviews, Meetings or Trainings Through Text Messaging

When you use text messaging to contact a potential employee for an interview, it can become much easier to schedule. If you have a large group of people you need to gather together for an important meeting, a quick text message to attendees can simplify scheduling. When employees have to attend a necessary training, a quick reminder text to let your staff know the training is about to begin can ensure that your staff are properly trained. For scheduling and reminder purposes, SMS texting is an essential tool to streamline communication within your company.

SMS Texting to Communicate with Everyone in the Company

It’s easy to reach your employees when you implement SMS texting for your company. Most of your employees will have a cell phone that can receive texts, and most text messages are read within three minutes. Whether you have a weather emergency and you need to close, or there is a security risk on the property, you’ll be able to reach your employees right away through text messaging.

Text messaging allows your HR department to have an edge when it comes to recruitment and communication. Through SMS texting, you will be able to provide information to new recruits, and make sure that all necessary employees are reminded of training. To streamline communication, SMS texting is the key.

About the Author:

Ken Rhie is the CEO of Trumpia, which earned a reputation as the most complete SMS solution including user-friendly user interface and API for mobile engagement, Smart Targeting, advanced automation, enterprise, and cross-channel features for both mass texting and landline texting use cases. Mr. Rhie holds an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He has over 30 years of experience in the software, internet, and mobile communications industries.

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If you want to share this article the reference to Ken Rhie and The HR Tech Weekly^® is obligatory.

5 Ways HR Can Harness the Power of SMS

Today’s Human Resources departments have been irreversibly transformed by technology and the evolution of a global economy. These changes have brought about many key challenges facing modern HR departments, including management changes, organizational effectiveness, and development. The key to facing these challenges effectively is improving communications. Strong communication processes allow an HR department to manage change on the fly, know who to train and what to train them on, and improve the organization’s overall effectiveness.

Here are five ways you can use SMS to communicate better and solve some of the key challenges plaguing the department:

1. Scheduling

Managing schedules is difficult, especially when they’re constantly changing. Using SMS is a great way to send out employee schedules quickly. You can send out notices if a particular shift needs to be filled, or if there’s an overtime request. Employees can even use short codes to request their schedule for a specific pay period or request a day off.

2. Sending Meeting Reminders

If you’re trying to schedule annual benefits review meetings, performance reviews, or any other meetings with an individual or a group of employees, SMS reminders will ensure that they don’t slip through the cracks. A canceled or delayed meeting wastes time for both HR and the employees and delays the transfer of valuable information. A quick reminder helps keeps meetings run on-time with minimal additional costs, making it a simple way to improve efficiency.

3. Forwarding Critical Messages

It’s important to have a plan for communicating messages that are time-sensitive. For example, if your office is closing for the day due to inclement weather, people need to know not to try braving the roads to come into the office. Perhaps there’s a memo that demands the attention of all employees or an all hands-on deck meeting announcement. No matter what the specifics are, you need a way to reliably reach out to everybody quickly.

With an open rate of 97%, SMS text messaging is a great option for your emergency communication process. Even more importantly, over 90% of SMS text messages are opened within three minutes or less. When you have a message that absolutely needs to get to everybody quickly, SMS can’t be beaten.

4. Gathering Feedback

Gathering employee feedback is important for a couple of key reasons. First, you’ll have the chance to address employee concerns and increase retention. Just as importantly, you’ll be able to use employee and management feedback to determine skill and learning gaps in your organization. This information should be used to identify areas for an individual, departmental, and company-wide training.

Text messaging is the perfect platform to send out these surveys. They’re simple to put together and can be sent instantly. Employees can respond with quickly and multiple-choice questions can be tabulated on the fly.

5. Motivating and Engaging

The happier your employees are, the harder they’ll work for you. If you have good company news to share, send it out in a mass text message. Throughout each week or month, send one or two quick motivational messages. You’ll be able to keep everybody informed and motivated without any hassle.

Creating employee schedules, gathering feedback, and motivating the workforce are some of your most important tasks. By following the advice laid out above, you can use SMS to make your job easier and help your department communicate with employees more effectively. In the end, this helps you improve the entire organization, from top to bottom.

For more information on how integrating an SMS software can boost HR communications, click here!

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If you want to share this article the reference to Ken Rhie and The HR Tech Weekly^® is obligatory.