Now that you’ve cleaned up all the loose ends from annual enrollment, it’s time to look at your summary plan descriptions (SPDs). Or, as some call them, seriously painful documents. If you made major changes to your plan design, you should update your documents to keep them current.
Before you update your SPDs, answer the following questions:
- Is the content well organized and consistent from section to section?
- Did you place the “need to know” information higher than the “nice to know” information?
- Did you write your SPD in the second person (“you” versus “employee”)?
- Do the terms in your SPDs match the terms in the summary of benefits and coverage documents you recently distributed? Although it’s not an official requirement, a representative from the Department of Labor to whom I spoke suggested it’s a good idea.
- Are your sentences 14 words or less?
- Did you format the text in two columns?
- Did you use boldface subheads to make the text easy to scan?
- Did you include hot links in your electronic version so employees can quickly click to the section they want?
Happy writing!
