Benefits
Run an open enrollment period
Open a window in which employees are enrolled in benefit plans, choose which plans it offers and when coverage starts and ends, then close it when the window ends.
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In this article
An enrollment period is the window in which HR enrolls employees in benefit plans, for example the annual renewal of the medical policy. While a period is open it governs every new enrollment: the enrollment date must fall inside it, and only the plans it offers can be chosen. When no period is open, enrollments can be created at any time.
Before you start
Activate the plans you want to offer. See benefit plans.
Agree two sets of dates: the enrollment window itself, and the coverage dates that the resulting enrollments will carry.
Create a period
Open People › Benefits › Enrollment Periods and select New period.
Enter the Name and choose the Period type: annual, quarterly, new hire, qualifying event or special.
Set the Start date and the End date of the enrollment window. The end must be on or after the start.
Set Coverage starts and, optionally, Coverage ends.
Keep Open to all employees ticked so that any employee can be enrolled during the window.
Under Plans offered in this period, tick the plans this window offers. Leave them all unticked to offer every active plan.
Optionally tick Send reminder emails and set a Reminder date, and write an Announcement message and a Description.
Select Save. The period is saved as a draft.
Open, use and close the period
When the window should start, open the period's Actions menu and select Activate. The period shows as open.
Create the enrollments under benefit enrollments. The enrollment form shows the date the period's coverage begins.
When the window ends, open Actions and select Close.
While a period is open, an enrollment is refused when:
its enrollment date falls outside every open window; the message lists the open windows and their dates;
the plan is not among the plans offered in the window that covers that date.
Each enrollment created through a period takes the period's Coverage ends date as the date its cover expires. Without a period, it takes the plan's own expiry, if the plan has one. The Enrollments column counts the enrollments each period admitted.
Reminders
When Send reminder emails is ticked, an open period shows Send reminders in its Actions menu. Use it once per period; after that the action is no longer offered for that period.
Edit or delete a period
A period can be edited only while it is a draft. Once it is open or closed, its dates are part of the enrollments it admitted.
Delete is offered only for a draft period with no enrollments.
Common questions
An enrollment is refused with "Enrollment is only open during…". A period is open and the enrollment date falls outside it. Change the enrollment date to a day inside the window, or close the period if it is no longer needed.
Can two periods be open at once? Yes. An enrollment is accepted when its date falls inside any one open window that offers the plan.
What happens when I close a period? Enrollments already created stay as they are. New enrollments are no longer bound by that window; if no other period is open, they can be created at any time again.