With open enrollment season rapidly approaching, employers and insurers are gearing up for the three P's that accompany a benefits adjustment: publicity, planning and patience.

New estimates from Guardian show that consumers are now spending an average of 1.4 hours reviewing their benefit plans – a positive shift from MetLife's 30 minute estimate earlier this year, but still not enough in the eyes of employers and benefits providers.

To put this in perspective, people spend an average of 6.8 hours before purchasing a car, 4.9 hours doing holiday shopping, and nearly 1.3 hours before purchasing a new pair of shoes.

What explains the discrepancy? "People don't want to think about the end of their life," something that many benefits address, says Barry Petruzzi, second vice president of group life and disability for Guardian. "It's the thought that 'it's not going to happen to me.'"

Researchers also have found that employees frequently don't update their benefits arrangements after significant events – like marriages, divorces, and births of children.

That's where the publicity comes in: Metlife's 2006 study of open enrollment benefits trends showed that a majority of workers look forward to their company's fall open enrollment period. But good publicity involves planning. Encourage employees to take time to research their benefits needs by comparing their benefits to purchases like a car or house, suggests Petruzzi.

"If you tie it into benefits and say 'how could you afford these things if you had a death in the family or an unexpected disability?' then employees might listen," he says. Morbid, but true.

Since employees frequently research such decisions on the Web, make sure that your company intranet or paper literature provides information on how to access the necessary Web sites. Make paper literature as simple as possible and distribute it in easy-to-read formats. If employees have all of their benefits information in one place, it's easier for them to review at their leisure.

Lastly, have patience. HR managers, like all employees, are busy. Take the time to explain to employees what each option means. According to Guardian, 70% of employees don't even know the difference between group and individual life insurance.

"A lot of people may think they know what they have, but they really don't," says Petruzzi.