Effective Employee Benefit Communication Strategies for 2018

 

 

Let’s face it, we are more distracted today than we’ve ever been.  So, how do you educate your employees on what your benefits are, how they work, and how to most effectively use them?

 

Here are a few ideas on how to connect with employees in today’s distracted world.

 

 

1) Regular Communication

 

Employee enrollment meetings are an event.  Even if employees understand every detail you go over with them at enrollment, they likely won’t need to use any of the benefits until later into the plan year.

 

You need to continually remind and update your employees on various aspects of the benefits program.

 

Regular communication through email, social media, handouts and flyers throughout the year can help remind your employees of various aspects of the benefits program.

 

For example, all health plans written since the passing of the ACA include preventive care at no cost-share.  Maybe you should set up a campaign to remind employees how important these visits are to their health during their birth month.

 

You can do this same kind of method for any of the elements you feel your employees need to be better aware of.

 

 

2) Video

 

Marketers are using short videos to communicate to their audience.  You should try doing the same with your employees.  Instead of having one long enrollment meeting, break it down into easy-to-digest 15-30 second videos that employees can access any time.

 

For some of my larger groups, I put videos together describing various aspects of the benefits program to them so they can view this information at any time.

 

You can do the same thing for other employee communications.  Put together a quick video on your plan’s wellness benefits.  Do you offer a benefit that’s unique to your particular industry or company size?  Put together a quick 30-second video talking about it.

 

If you want employees to understand, you have to make it easy for them.  Video is the easiest form of communication for most people to absorb.

 

 

3) Help them feel like they have ownership

 

You don’t have to give actual ownership in your company away to get employees feeling like owners.  All you have to do is make it easy for them to see their key performance indicators in real time.

 

Some innovative companies have put flat panel TV’s around their offices with real time estimated revenue numbers and company valuations.  That way employees can see in real time how the work they are doing is impacting the organization as a whole.

 

If you’re large enough to get claims data, share this information with employees.  Make sure to include a predictor of what that will translate in “Next Year’s Premium Dollars”.  And be sure to share it every quarter as soon as you receive the information.  This will allow employees to get a better understanding of how their health care expenses are impacting the amount of money coming out of their paycheck.

 

 

4) Let them know exactly how much you invest in them

 

This one sounds like a no brainer but it really isn’t.  I meet with employers all the time who complain about how expensive their benefits are.  They’ll tell me their employees understand how expensive they are.

 

Yet, when I ask when they hand out benefit statements and how they break down their total employee spend, they tell me they don’t give benefit statements to employees.  This makes no sense.  You should explicitly tell your employees the exact amount of money you spend on them every year.

 

If an employer isn’t disclosing how much their total employee spend is, then why not?  Are you not proud about what you spend on your employees?  Are you paying them a fair market rate of pay?

 

If I were an employee and my employer didn’t share this information with me, I’d assume it was because they were paying me a below-market rate.  Is that what you want your employees to think?

 

 

Final Thoughts

 

The world is distracted.  Today, even small business have to think like large companies in how they educate and inform their employees.  If you don’t, someone else will.  Do you really want to lose your best employees because you didn’t communicate well with them?

 

 

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