Gen Z and millennial workers are confused about open enrollment—and they don’t know they can turn to HR for help

Getting a root canal, breaking an arm, and giving up sweets for a month are just a few things employees would rather do than pick a health insurance plan.

Over half of Gen Z and millennial workers (51%) admit to randomly choosing a health insurance plan because they didn’t understand their choices, according to a recent Justworks report. Now, you may be wondering, “Why didn’t they reach out to their HR team?” Well, the report found that 45% didn’t know who to ask about open enrollment.

Factors, like the complexity of the US health insurance system and personal sensitivity around health, could be contributing to this confusion among “zillennials,” Julia D’Amico, VP of benefits at Justworks, told HR Brew.

“Often asking questions involves talking about things that are very personal…a lot of employees don’t know if that’s a thing that they can go to their HR lead to handle,” D’Amico said.

D’Amico shared what people pros can do to help younger workers navigate open enrollment.

What can HR do? Tough decisions can cause anxiety, D’Amico said, but there are few steps that HR pros can take to help zillennials make the best choice. And they can start before open enrollment even kicks off.

“Be proactive with your employees, not only reminding them that open enrollment is coming up, but be proactive about informing them of the resources that are available to them, including their support, the HR professional support…in order to demystify open enrollment,” she said.

Since many younger workers don’t know they can turn to HR, D’Amico recommended creating a dedicated space for employees to ask questions.

“Just letting employees know that there’s going to be a dedicated time and space to ask questions about open enrollment means that you’re not going to wait until the very end of open enrollment and then get flooded with nine or 10 questions on the very last day,” she said.

What’s next for zillennials? D’Amico suspects that previous generations of workers were likely just as confused about open enrollment as zillennials. However, as the stakes of picking the right health plan have gone up, so has the level of confusion.

“The generation before millennials was probably just as confused, but health costs weren’t quite as expensive, and so a mistake of choosing one plan versus another plan wasn’t going to materially impact their financial position,” she said. And while she hopes the proliferation of technology in the benefits space will reduce confusion for zillennials over time, until then, she emphasized the importance of a human touch.

“On the one hand, software makes it super fast and easy to go through open enrollment,” she said. “But, that speed needs to be balanced with thoughtfulness, with consulting human experts, consulting your family, and so that’s where I think millennials, and everybody, in particular, need to be really thoughtful, that this is one of the most important decisions that they make every year.”