All across the country – right now – “Open Enrollment is coming” emails and text messages are going out to millions of employees.

Every. single. one. has. been. carefully. written.

Someone reviewed them – at least twice. They have the dates, the links, and cheerful subject lines – often with exclamation points. As if employees actually ever get excited about benefits enrollment - LOL!

And most of the people who receive them will skim, file – or dump – and move on. Maybe they’ll respond to the Calls To Action.

The entire industry is still caught up in the banging-our-heads-against-a-wall approach: “This year the message is clearer. We’ve explained things better. Surely more of our people will ‘get’ what we’re saying!”

But they only transmit on a single “station,” as if everybody on the list likes rock music the best.

What resonance actually is
The term “resonance” derives from physics. Strike a tuning fork near a guitar, and only the string tuned to that pitch starts to hum. The other strings sit still. Nothing’s wrong with them. They just weren’t tuned to that note.

People work in much the same way. When someone says “I resonate with that,” what they mean is: that hit my frequency. “These people get me. They’re speaking my lingo.” It becomes a feeling.

As I’ve often said, “When we hear what we’re listening for, we also feel heard.”

This year won’t be much different. Earnest, almost-pleading messaging, all going out over a single frequency. And we wonder why only part of the audience hums along.

Six frequencies
Behavioral and psychographic research gives us a way to see this. Drawing on tens of millions of data points, people sort into six distinct personas, each with its own worldview, values, and way of making decisions.

We’re not talking generational differences. Two people with the same age, salary, and plan can be completely different personas – and hear the same email in completely different ways.

In their own words:

Same benefits. Same enrollment process. Six very different listeners.

Why it matters now
Open enrollment is the one window each year when we need people to do something, not just know something. And they’re hearing from everyone all at once.

That’s a crowded dial.

A message tuned to “everyone” gets lost in the static.

A message tuned to someone’s personal frequency, however, cuts through the noise, because it sounds like it came from someone who understands them.

Here’s what that can look like in the very first touch, the simple “O/E is coming” announcement.

What to notice
Persona 2 hears ownership. Your Strategy. Your Move. They don’t want to be managed; they want to be equipped.

Persona 3 hears speed. Fast. Flexible. Yours. Three words, no friction.

Persona 4 hears evidence. Explore. Evaluate. Decide. Don’t sell them. Show them.

And Persona 5? It’s Almost Time to Choose Your Benefits. It looks like the generic version. It isn’t. For someone content and risk-averse, a calm, low-pressure invitation IS the tailored message.

Two coworkers. Same job, same plan, same email. One reads it as reassurance; the other reads it as noise.

Resonance isn’t about being clever. It’s about being recognized.

That’s the real test. Not “did we say it clearly?” but “did they hear themselves in it?”

The last word

Every O/E message carries a frequency, whether we choose it consciously – or not.

The last question

So here’s what I’m wondering this season: which frequency is yours on, and who isn’t hearing it?

~ Mark Head
© 2026. All Rights Reserved.

Aspirations

"Resonance is a responsive relationship and energy exchange through aligned frequencies; its opposite is alienation."

~ Hartmut Rosa, Sociologist

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