Open Enrollment Can Be a Key Engagement Opportunity

Open enrollment season is in full swing, and employees are tasked with selecting the workplace benefits that will serve them best in the year ahead. But surveys show employees might need all the help they can get in making the best choices for themselves this fall.

Decisions and Regrets

According to research that MetLife conducted in October, 43% of the 2,002 U.S. adults surveyed said that in the past, they . Separately, only 21% reported having “carefully review[ed]” their options each year.

“Millions of Americans use [open enrollment] to make important decisions about their health and finances,” says Jamie Madden, senior vice president of workforce engagement and benefits connectivity at MetLife. “But … many feel overwhelmed. They’re in a hurry. Cost is serving as the main guide.”

Among the 43% of respondents to MetLife’s survey who reported wishing they had made different benefits decisions after open enrollment ended, the top reason for their regret was having been focused on monthly costs over breadth of coverage (35%). Of survey respondents overall, 47% said they have cut or are considering cutting their workplace benefit elections as costs rise.

Madden says that financial pressure is not new to this open enrollment season, but persistent.

According to Morgan Stanley at Work’s “State of the Workplace: 2026 Financial Benefits Study,” 61% of employees said they have reduced their contributions to , such as 401(k)s, emergency savings and health savings accounts, and 56% said financial stress negatively impacts their work and personal lives.

At the same time, some 80% of human resources manager respondents cited in Morgan Stanley’s study said they worry employee financial issues negatively affect productivity, and 53% reported believing financial stress-reducing benefits matter most to job satisfaction—even more than mental or emotional support (26%) and physical wellness benefits (19%).

Employers may have substance behind their worry, after all: 85% of employees said they would feel more invested in their company if it offered financial benefits tailored to their needs, and 91% would consider switching jobs for benefits that help them reach their goals.

Guiding Benefits Decisions

In considering how to help employees, “it matters that employers offer [them] information, tools, and resources in order to make the right decisions,” Madden says.

Morgan Stanley’s study found that 79% of employee respondents said they think their company needs to do a better job helping them understand how to maximize the financial benefits offered.

When asked what would help increase confidence in their benefit elections during open enrollment, 30% of respondents to MetLife’s survey named side-by-side comparisons of options, 29% said plain-language explanations of what is covered, 28% said estimates of what they would pay out of pocket under the different options and 20% said personalized recommendations based on their health and finances.

According to a survey that New York Life Insurance Co. conducted in September among 1,040 employed adults, 59% of respondents said they wanted more education about their and 62% said they wanted greater flexibility in where and how they access guidance about them. Although nearly 90% of respondents said they knew how to enroll and where to find information, only 36% said they knew all the details about their potential out-of-pocket medical costs.

New York Life’s survey also found that the benefits employees want may also be among those they know the least about, demonstrating the role employers can play in increasing benefits awareness and education. Some 49% of respondents identified supplemental insurance as one of the benefits they would most like to receive from their employer, second only to an employer match on a 401(k) or other retirement savings plan. However, only 15% of respondents who had access to supplemental benefits said they were aware that their employer offered them.

“Employers have the opportunity to continue to position benefits as critical investments in employee long-term health and financial security,” MetLife’s Madden says. “Benefits serve as a ‘safety net’ for employees.”

Targeting Healthcare Costs

Employers and employees alike are also concerned about the high costs of prescription drugs, especially GLP-1 medications for weight loss, this fall, says Chris Byrd, senior vice president of health and benefits Inc., a company that provides employee benefits software and payment solutions.

The biggest driver of next year’s forecasted 13.9% increase in employer health benefit costs is anticipated to be GLP-1 medications for weight management, according to Marsh Inc.’s 2026 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans.

Meanwhile, the Employee Benefit Research Institute and Greenwald Research’s 2026 Workplace Wellness Survey found some 25% of workers with health insurance say their current plan covers GLP-1 medications for weight loss, up from 16% who said they covered the drugs in 2025. Meanwhile, 45% of workers agreed employers should as part of their health benefit offerings.

According to the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans’ 2026 GLP-1 Drugs Pulse Survey for the U.S., 60% of corporate plans cover GLP-1 medications for diabetes only—the traditional use of GLP-1 medications—up from 55% that did last year.

With steep price tags and employee expectations to manage, Byrd says employers can offer health reimbursement arrangements for GLP-1 medication coverage to cap spending while guaranteeing workers subsidized access to weight loss management tools.

An HRA is an employer-funded group plan to which the employer contributes a set amount, that reimburses employees for qualified medical expenses, up to a fixed dollar amount per year, and insurance premiums.

Byrd says the “selling point” of an HRA for GLP-1 medications is that employees might be able to obtain the drugs at lower prices than what the employer would be charged by a pharmacy benefit manager and in turn charge through health insurance. He says that the concept of an HRA for GLP-1 medications is relatively new, so he would think adoption has been modest—yet growing—to date.

In addition to HRAs, Byrd says employers have an “affirmative obligation” to educate their employees about the benefits of tools like health savings accounts, including their tax benefits. He adds that employers should contribute to employee HSAs, if they do not already do so, since the premiums for HSA-eligible, high-deductible health plans tend to be lower than those of other plans.

Byrd says research from Wex has shown that employer contributions can help encourage an employee to put money into an HSA. The “sweet spot,” he says, is a contribution of $750 for an individual or $1,500 for a couple or family.

Thinking About Other Benefits

Tim Pitney, TIAA’s head of lifetime income distribution, says open enrollment is also an important time to focus on more than medical benefits.

“This whole marriage of health and wealth really needs to get to the next level,” Pitney says. “So often, I think, open enrollment has been focused on just the medical benefits because you have a specific window during which you can make changes [for them].”

Pitney says he recommends sponsors engage participants in retirement conversations as much as they can, when they can, including during open enrollment. Plan sponsors might use the occasion as an opportunity to make sure participants are taking advantage of their employer matching contribution, for instance, and to communicate to participants any plan design changes the sponsor has recently made, he says.

“When [participants] come to the table during open enrollment, what a great time [it is] to garner their attention [toward benefits] that we’re constantly trying to highlight,” says Pitney.

The Morgan Stanley at Work study is based on a survey, conducted in January, of 1,000 employed U.S. adults and 600 U.S. HR leaders.

EBRI and Greenwald’s survey included responses from 1,238 U.S. workers ages 21 through 64, with online interviews conducted in June and July.