For HR and Benefits teams in counties, municipalities, and school districts, Open Enrollment (OE) is more than just a seasonal project; it’s the single most visible initiative of the year. Employees are counting on accurate plan details, seamless technology, and clear communication. Finance teams are watching budgets. Union leaders and retirees are tracking plan design changes.
With so many eyes on OE, preparation is everything. A Pre-OE Benefits Audit provides your team with the opportunity to resolve errors, align data, and refine workflows before the rush begins.
Why a Pre-OE Audit Matters
Public sector organizations face unique enrollment complexities: strict compliance requirements, multiple bargaining units, retiree groups, and budget cycle deadlines. Without a structured pre-audit, issues often surface during OE, when your team has the least capacity to fix them.
The result? Delays, employee frustration, and costly administrative cleanup.
Consider this: 45% of employees do not fully understand their benefits (MetLife). If you’re not proactively preparing, confusion and errors are almost guaranteed to compound under the OE deadline crunch.
Eligibility & Data Accuracy
The foundation of OE success is clean data. Before enrollment begins, confirm that employee, retiree, and dependent records align with payroll deductions, union contracts, and plan rules. Even a small mismatch—like a dependent aging out or an employee status change—can lead to incorrect coverage and frustrated calls to HR.
A Pre-OE audit should include:
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Reviewing dependent eligibility documents.
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Cross-checking payroll deduction records against active plan elections.
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Verifying retiree coverage against promised benefits and contribution tiers.
By resolving discrepancies now, HR teams avoid scrambling during enrollment to fix issues that should have been caught months earlier.
Note: 80% of employers still rely solely on spreadsheets to analyze employee benefits data (Mercer). If you fall into this category, you could be missing costly errors.
Vendor File Feeds & Integrations
File feeds and integrations are the lifelines between HR, payroll, and carriers. If they break under the pressure of OE, employees may experience delays in coverage or billing errors, which can damage trust.
Testing feeds before OE ensures:
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EDI files are transmitting correctly to carriers.
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Payroll deductions match elections in the benefits system.
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HRIS or ERP systems (like Tyler Munis or Skyward) are synced without delays.
Proactive testing gives IT, HR, and vendor partners time to identify and fix issues before the volume of OE overwhelms help desks and carriers.
Plan Setup & Rules Validation
Public sector OE often involves plan design changes (new contribution levels, eligibility tiers, or negotiated union benefits). Each of these updates must be configured correctly in the benefits system. A small rules error can create cascading problems: incorrect employee costs, incorrect eligibility for retirees, or overpayment by the employer.
Pre-audit steps include:
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Reviewing plan year configurations in the benefits platform.
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Validating contribution tables and coverage tiers.
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Testing eligibility rules for unique employee groups (e.g., part-time staff, union members, retirees).
By validating plan setup now, HR avoids the nightmare of reprocessing thousands of elections after OE closes.
Communication Readiness
Even the best plan setup fails if employees don’t understand their choices. A Pre-OE audit is the time to finalize communication calendars, test message clarity, and align with how employees prefer to receive information.
Key actions include:
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Reviewing last year’s communication performance (email open rates, meeting attendance, intranet clicks).
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Ensuring OE guides and FAQs reflect current plan designs.
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Coordinating with union reps, school principals, or department heads to amplify messaging.
Strong communication planning reduces confusion, increases participation, and lowers HR ticket volume during OE.
Support Capacity
During OE, questions spike. Employees want guidance on plan changes, retirees need help navigating contributions, and dependents ask about eligibility. Without adequate support planning, help desks and HR teams can quickly become overwhelmed.
To prepare, HR should:
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Review last year’s call volume and ticket types.
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Identify peak weeks or days when questions surged.
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Build self-service resources like FAQs, online chat, or video explainers.
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Adjust staffing or cross-train HR team members to handle inquiries.
Anticipating demand now ensures employees get answers quickly and confidently, reducing the stress on HR staff.
Turning Preparation into Confidence
A Pre-OE Audit isn’t just about catching mistakes; it’s about building confidence across stakeholders. Employees trust that their elections will process smoothly. Finance leaders can see deductions line up with budget expectations. IT and vendor partners can verify that data integrations work under load.
For HR, the payoff is peace of mind: fewer fire drills and more focus on strategy.
Bentek: Purpose-Built for Public Sector OE
Bentek partners with 300+ public sector employers to streamline the most complex parts of OE prep. From dependent eligibility audits to automated payroll reconciliations, our platform gives HR teams the assurance they need heading into the busiest time of year.
👉 Want to simplify your OE prep? Schedule a demo with Bentek and see how a purpose-built benefits platform can make a difference.
