Most employers invest real effort in benefits education. They hold open enrollment meetings. They send guides, comparison resources and summary plan descriptions. They layer in emails and reminders. And still, employees reach out weeks or months later, unsure about how to use the coverage they selected.
The instinct is to conclude that employees aren’t paying attention. But that framing misses the real problem. Many of the employees who ask for help do pay attention. They review their materials. They ask smart questions. What they couldn’t do was apply what they learned to a situation they hadn’t experienced yet.
