Published on: October 5, 2026
It’s day three of open enrollment. Your open enrollment guide went out on Monday, and your inbox already holds questions that page six answers. One employee wants to know whether the dental plan changed. Another asks what an HSA is, again.
The guide isn’t missing information. It’s missing readers.
Nearly half of benefits-eligible employees spend less than 20 minutes reviewing their workplace benefits during open enrollment, according to Voya’s 2024 research. In the same release, 91% of working Americans said they typically pick the same health plan as the year before. A dense PDF won’t break that habit. A guide designed for a 20-minute skim can.
Below, you’ll find what to include in a benefits enrollment guide, six steps to build one, a communication timeline and a free template to start from.
An open enrollment guide is a document employers share during the annual open enrollment period that explains available benefit plans, costs, changes from the previous year, deadlines, and how employees elect coverage for the next plan year.
HR teams and benefits brokers also call it a benefits enrollment guide. Its job is narrow: help each employee make a decision before the window closes. That sets it apart from the other documents employees receive.
| Document | Purpose | When employees get it | Who usually produces it |
| Open enrollment guide | Explains choices and changes so employees can elect coverage | Each open enrollment period | HR, often with the broker |
| Year-round benefits guide | Reference for using benefits all year | Onboarding and on demand | HR |
| Summary of Benefits and Coverage (SBC) | Standardized, legally required plan summary | At enrollment and renewal | Carrier or plan administrator |
| Summary Plan Description (SPD) | Full legal description of plan rules | Within 90 days of coverage | Plan administrator |
Only the first document is written to help someone choose. The SBC and SPD cover legal requirements, so your guide should explain choices in plain language and link to them rather than repeat them. If you also need a reference employees keep all year, see our employee benefits guide templates.
An open enrollment guide should include this year’s changes, key dates, eligibility rules, a plan comparison chart, cost scenarios, account details, ancillary benefits, enrollment instructions, life-event rules, a glossary, contacts, and required notices. Order the sections by the questions employees ask first, not by how your carrier structures its documents.
Most employers with group health plans distribute several required notices alongside open enrollment materials. Put them in an appendix or a linked section, so they stay easy to find without burying the plan details.
This list follows NIS Benefits’ 2027 open enrollment notice guide. Plan type and company size change your obligations, so confirm the final list with your broker or benefits counsel before you publish.
To create an open enrollment guide, audit last year’s version, lead with this year’s changes, build a plan comparison with cost scenarios, design for a 20-minute skim, add interactive elements, then publish securely and track who reads it. Each step below removes a reason employees stop reading.
Pull last year’s guide and every question HR answered during the last enrollment window. Each repeated question marks a page that didn’t do its job.
Then cut what’s outdated: retired plans, old rates, and carriers you no longer use. HRMorning’s advice for benefits communicators starts here too, with an audit before anything new gets added.
Inertia drives most enrollment decisions. When 91% of employees keep last year’s plan, a guide that hides this year’s changes on page 12 almost guarantees nobody sees them.
Open with a one-page summary of changes, and state each one as a consequence. For example: “The PPO deductible rises to $2,000 in 2027. The HDHP deductible stays the same.”
On that same page, say whether doing nothing keeps current elections (passive enrollment) or leaves employees without coverage (active enrollment). Add that flexible spending account elections usually reset each plan year, even under passive enrollment.
A single comparison table beats three separate plan pages. Use the same columns for every medical plan: premium per paycheck, deductible, out-of-pocket maximum, copays, network, and HSA eligibility.
Numbers alone still confuse people. In a Justworks survey reported by SHRM, 54% of employed Americans said they weren’t aware of their current plan’s full scope. Cost scenarios close that gap by turning jargon into yearly totals.
Pick two or three profiles your workforce recognizes, such as a single employee who rarely visits a doctor or a family with two children. For each profile, show annual premiums plus expected out-of-pocket costs under every plan. Don’t recommend a plan. Show the math and let employees decide.
Your reader has limited time and one goal: find the answer and move on. Structure every page so that answer takes less than a minute to locate.
Accessibility matters as well. Use readable font sizes, strong color contrast, and alt text on every chart, so employees using screen readers get the same information.
A PDF tells employees about their benefits. An interactive guide takes them to the next step.
In Flipsnack, you can start from the digital benefits enrollment guide template or upload your existing PDF, then add videos, buttons, and links, so employees act from inside the guide instead of hunting for the portal.
Benefits details are internal, so share the guide through access controls. Use an unlisted link with a password, or require single sign-on (SSO) so only employees can open it. For seasonal staff without company accounts, one-time passcodes grant access without a login.
Flipsnack’s statistics show views, clicks, and average time spent, so you can see which pages employees read before the deadline. Use that data mid-window. If the HSA page gets little attention, send a reminder email focused on HSAs.
When a rate changes during enrollment, edit the guide and the same link updates, so nobody makes decisions from an outdated version. Print still has a place for employees without work email or devices. Give them a short printed summary with a QR code that opens the full guide.
An open enrollment communication plan spreads short messages across eight weeks, and every message points back to one guide. Start planning two months out, announce changes a month before the window opens, launch with the full guide, send topic reminders weekly, and close with a deadline push for anyone who hasn’t enrolled.
| Phase | Timing | Message | Channels | Where the guide link goes |
| Planning | 8 weeks before | Confirm rates, plan changes, and notices with your broker | Internal | Draft the guide |
| Preview | 4 weeks before | “Changes are coming,” plus key dates | Email, intranet, manager briefing | Save-the-date with the deadline |
| Launch | Day 1 | Kickoff announcement | Email, Slack or Teams, flyer with QR code | Full guide |
| During the window | Weekly | One topic per reminder: HSA, dental, life insurance | Email, benefits fair, info sessions | Deep link to the matching page |
| Final push | 3 days before the deadline | Reminder for employees who haven’t enrolled | Email, text, manager nudge | “How to enroll” page |
| After close | 1 to 2 weeks after | Confirmation, survey, next steps | Guide becomes the year-round reference |
The guide does the explaining. Every other message stays short and sends people to the right page.
HR leaders interviewed by Mitratech describe the same approach: map timelines and touchpoints first, then build FAQs and user guides around that map. They also recommend automated, personalized messages to non-respondents in the final week.
Keep the launch email under 100 words. Its only job is to get employees into the guide.
Subject: Open enrollment is open: choose your 2027 benefits by [deadline]
Hi [first name],
Open enrollment runs from [start date] to [end date]. Here’s what changed for 2027:
Everything you need, including plan comparisons, costs, and how to enroll, is in our [2027 benefits guide]. Most employees finish in 20 minutes.
Questions? Book a call with [HR or broker contact].
Before you send it, confirm the “20 minutes” line against your own enrollment data, or cut it.
To turn this checklist into a repeatable process for your team, adapt the open enrollment SOP template.
HR teams and benefits brokers move open enrollment guides online to cut printing costs, correct errors without reprinting, and see which employees actually read the material. Printed guides still serve employees without devices, so most teams keep a short printed summary alongside the digital version.
| Capability | Printed guide | Static PDF | Interactive digital guide |
| Cost of a mid-window correction | Full reprint | New file, new send | Edit once, same link |
| Knowing who read it | No | No | Views, clicks, and time spent |
| Reading on a phone | Not applicable | Pinch and zoom | Phone-friendly layout |
| Access control | Physical handout | Forwardable attachment | Password, SSO, or one-time passcodes |
| Video and enrollment links | No | Limited | Embedded on any page |
| Employees without devices | Works well | Needs a device | Needs a device |
Digital wins on updates, tracking, and access control. Print still wins for frontline teams without work email, which is why a one-page printed summary with a QR code remains good practice. For a deeper comparison, read our guide to printed vs digital employee benefits guides.
PINEYWOODS Benefits is a four-person employee benefits consulting agency in Tampa, Florida, founded in 2020 by Jeffrey Lenderman.
Before Flipsnack, the team built benefits guides in Publisher and PowerPoint, exported them as PDFs, and printed them for clients. Every error meant a reprint.
Today, PINEYWOODS keeps reusable benefits guide templates in Flipsnack and customizes them for each client, with embedded links and videos.
Fast forward to now, all of my clients get interactive benefit guides and only a few still ask for printed versions, the ability to fix errors on the fly without having to reprint guides was a game changer.
Jeffrey Lenderman, Principal and Lead Consultant
A template gives you the structure, so your time goes into plan details instead of layout. Each option below opens in Flipsnack, where you can add your branding, plans, and enrollment links.
Best for: HR teams at mid-size companies running one open enrollment for the whole workforce.
Real-world application: Use its 10 pages for changes, key dates, eligibility, plan options, and step-by-step enrollment.
Common mistake to avoid: Don’t paste the carrier’s SBC into the plan pages. Summarize, then link the full document.
Best for: Companies that share benefits documents behind SSO.
Real-world application: Map medical, dental, and vision coverage to their own pages, then finish with a contacts page for HR and carriers.
Common mistake to avoid: Don’t embed a video on every page. One explainer per complex topic is enough.
Best for: Employers that want one document for open enrollment and year-round reference.
Real-world application: Its 22 pages fit full plan details, wellness programs, and retirement benefits, with open enrollment content up front.
Common mistake to avoid: Don’t make employees scroll through 22 pages to find the deadline. Put enrollment essentials in the first three pages.
For more layouts, including onboarding and school enrollment guides, browse our enrollment guide templates.
A useful open enrollment guide answers three questions fast: what changed, when it’s due, and how to enroll. Everything else supports those answers.
Build for the employee who gives you 20 minutes, track what they read, and fix the gaps while the window is still open.
Your guide competes with inertia. Make this year’s changes impossible to miss.
An employee who misses open enrollment usually can’t change benefits until the next open enrollment period, unless a qualifying life event such as marriage or a birth opens a special enrollment window. Under passive enrollment, most current elections carry over, though flexible spending account elections typically don’t. Under active enrollment, the employee may have no coverage for the new plan year, so your open enrollment guide should state which rule applies on its first page.
A benefits enrollment guide should be short enough to read in about 20 minutes, the time nearly half of employees spend reviewing benefits, according to Voya. For most employers, that means 10 to 12 core sections. Move legal notices and full plan documents into an appendix or linked pages, so the main guide stays focused on decisions.
Explain open enrollment as the one time each year when employees can choose or change their benefits without a qualifying life event. Lead with three facts: what changed, the deadline, and what happens if they do nothing. Then use cost scenarios and a plain-language glossary in your open enrollment guide, so terms like deductible and coinsurance come with real numbers.
Most employers no longer need a full printed open enrollment guide, but a short printed summary still helps employees without work email or devices. A digital guide costs less to correct and shows who read it. Benefits consultancy PINEYWOODS Benefits moved all clients to interactive guides and cut guide costs by 80%, with only a few clients still asking for printed versions.
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