Before you start your Open Enrollment event with employees, make sure to review your portal settings and confirm you have everything you need all set.
Here are some settings to review and some steps you may want to take before you kick off your OE event.
- Confirm your Maxwell portal is live for employees to access
- Review notification settings
- Review payroll and salary options
- Review form settings
- Review for any employees without emails
Confirm your Maxwell portal is live for employees to access
Under Settings > Preferences, make sure "Sandbox Mode" is disabled.
Review Notification Settings
Check to see if you have the "Employee Confirmation of Benefits" system notification on under Settings > Notifications.
Note: This will automatically send you a confirmation email after an employee has checked out of shopping in Maxwell. You may want to turn this setting off during annual OE, so you don't receive an email every time an employee confirms their benefits. Then, you turn it back on after annual OE is over. Learn more about notifications here>>
Also under Settings > Notifications, you may want to check that the help questions are correctly set up to field benefit-related questions from your employees. You or Your Advisor may handle these types of questions, so if you're unsure about your settings, check in with them on that.
Review Payroll and Salary Options
Whether you use a payroll integration, offer financial benefits like HSA or FSA, or have benefits that use salary information to calculate coverage options, it's always a great idea to review the payroll and salary settings and make sure you've applied any updates for your upcoming benefit plans.
Depending on your benefits offering or setup, that could include:
- Reviewing your Payroll Calendar
- Deduction Code Mapping
- Confirming Salary Effective Date Rules (for salary based benefits)
Review Form Settings
Do you have any annual employer forms or OE notices that need to be signed off by employees that aren't related to a particular carrier or enrollment? You should make sure those are added as electronic forms in Maxwell and set the "Auto-Sending" setting to "ON." Learn more here >>
Review for any Employees without Emails
Maxwell can’t send emails with important account or benefit information if an employee does not have an email address. A banner at the top of your dashboard, along with indicators on individual employees, alert you when there is an email missing for any employees.
If you have any employees in Maxwell without email addresses, you’ll need to communicate the steps to access Maxwell with them prior to your Open Enrollment and can provide them with the Getting Started Guide. These employees will not be able to receive the email communications you send from the system, including OE announcements and reminder emails, until they enter their email address.
Learn more about how to view a list of employees without email addresses here >>