The decision to enroll in vision benefits, or any health insurance plan for that matter, can be an intimidating experience for employees. They likely have several offerings to choose from, and while it’s an important decision, reading through insurance speak materials and looking at boring plan comparison chats isn’t making it easy for employees to decide to enroll. Benefit companies should be making it easier for employers and employees.

One way employers can simplify and boost benefit enrollment is by offering the kind of innovative electronic tools employees favor. With that in mind we created our friendly “LevEye” guide. An interactive video that kicks the intimidation factor to the curb.


LevEye is the adorable animated host of EyeMed’s new interactive decision support tool that members can visit at enroll.eyemed.com. Have a little chat with LevEye yourself and see how LevEye makes it easy (and fun) for members to understand how EyeMed fits their lifestyle and vision needs.

Are you using interactive video decision tools?

LevEye walks employees through a benefit using very basic language and asking simple questions that result in a best-fit recommendation. Some people use the term “concierge” to describe this new breed of interactive benefit communications.

Such guides are becoming increasingly popular among health plans and employers, who are using them within their benefit enrollment portals because they produce results. When we added an interactive vision benefit decision guide in a test with a large employer, we saw a 3% increase in enrollment.^[7]

In a case study on video benefits communication noted by SHRM in 2017, 94% of the employees who viewed a benefits video took some action after doing so, including logging into the online enrollment software and accessing benefits information.^[1]

Not only can tools like LevEye make benefits decision-making more enjoyable for employees, they may also leave employees with a better understanding and appreciation of the benefits available to them.

Communication technology that works for employees

At this point, most employers are aware employees are expecting benefits communication and enrollment to be simple --just as tech-savvy, self-service oriented and on-demand as other aspects of their lives. And if you need more compelling evidence about employee (consumer) habits, consider this:

• 52% of healthcare consumers searched for care-related information using online resources in 2015.^[2] (Surely that number is even higher now.)
• 62% of employees in one study chose electronic communication, including interactive tools, as their favorite way to receive benefits information^[3]
• Research conducted at Stanford University has shown (video) animation to be a useful educational tool with high viewer recall.^[4]
• Millennials, who equal 1 in 3 workers today^[5] (born between 1980 and 2000), consume video for more than just entertainment--80% of them consider video content when researching a purchase decision.^[6]
• What’s more, 7 out of 10 Millennials are likely to watch a company video when shopping online, and 60% prefer to watch a company video over reading a company newsletter.[6]

Benefiting employers too

This we know: the more employees know about their benefits, the more they use them^[8]. It stands to reason, if employees don’t fully understand why they should enroll and what level of benefit might be best for them, they’ll end up less satisfied on the job.^[8] And, the employer misses out on real cost savings, like gaining $7 for every $1 employers invest in vision coverage.^[9]

Ask your vision benefit company what they offer employees for interactive enrollment guides and other self-service digital tools like benefit portals, apps, texting, educational sites and more. Employers should expect more digital tools from vision companies to make the employee experience easy and to encourage more to enroll—like enroll.eyemed.com. It’s good for everyone.

To learn more about what makes EyeMed vision benefits easy and why more members typically enroll, use their benefit and stay in-network with EyeMed, visit eyemed.com.

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Sources:
1 SHRM, Ready for Prime Time? Using Video in Benefits Communication 5 “The Pew Internet Project, mobile technology section, 2012. http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx
2 “The Pew Internet Project, mobile technology section, 2012. http://pewinternet.org/Commentary/2012/February/Pew-Internet-Mobile.aspx
3 ALEX Benefits Communication Survey. “What Your Employees Think About Your Benefits Communication.”
4 SHRM. “Open enrollment tools evolve.” https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0711tech.aspx
5 Pew Research Center, 2015: http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/11/millennials-surpass-gen-xers-as-the-largest-generation-in-u-s-labor-force/
6 Animoto Online and Social Video Marketing Study, 2015 https://animoto.com/blog/business/millennials-video-infographic/
7 EyeMed open enrollment client test, 2015
8 Unum. “Employees not as happy with their workplaces or benefits, Unum finds.”
9 Workforce.com, “Special Report: Vision and Dental Benefits — More to See, More to Chew On,” 2015