MetLife’s 2015 US Employee Benefit Trends Study found that only 45% of employees “strongly agree” agree their companies’ benefit communications helped them to understand how they would pay for specific services or were effective in educating them on their options. As a result, organizations are innovating in benefit communications just as they are with intranets and other employee documents.
Do benefit communications really need to evolve? Well, just two weeks ago, Employer Benefits Adviser ran a story with the headline Employers out of touch with employee perception of benefits.Satisfaction with benefits is a major factor in job satisfaction, which affects everything from retention to referrals to productivity. Inferior benefits communications are not only boring, they’re confusing, sometimes causing workers to miss out on benefits or overpay for others. So it’s in every company’s best interests to create clear, compelling benefits communications.
Visual
Just as employee communications and intranets have become more visual, benefit communications are becoming less text-heavy. For example, insurance broker Hub International has begun adding infographics to its benefit communications, making it much easier for employees to understand their many options. Graphs, tables, diagrams, and comparison charts are also very helpful, especially to the younger generation accustomed to visual information. I’m also a fan of big, clear icons, and categorizing sections by color or other thematic imagery.
Mobile
Yes, even benefit communications are going mobile. Insurer Barney & Barney offers apps that cover everything from retirement plans to paid time off to health and wellness. The feature I most admire is “Tap to call,” letting employees instantly contact the right department or insurance company to answer their question in any given section of the site. That’s something a giant paper document can’t do. And mobile devices’ smaller screens mean that employers must use less text and more imagery, just as I recommended above.
Year-Round
Why only communicate benefits information during open enrollment? A recent LIMRA study discovered that half of employers now provide information about benefits throughout the year. Ted Katz, Executive Vice Presidents of Group, Voluntary & Worksite Benefits at MetLife says, “Communicating during open enrollment season may not be enough. Incorporating personalized benefit messages reflecting employee life stages and events throughout the year and offering educational tools…can help make sure workers receive the benefits information they need.”
With mobile apps and comprehensive intranets, it’s easy to provide workers with this information at all times. And once the enrollment period ends and the new benefits kick in, why not send an email to employees reminding them of their new products and services? And how about another email, say, 30 days later?
Meeting Face to Face
Despite my love of all things tech, I understand that personal interactions are still the most valuable. Even an issue as complex as benefits communications can gain from face time. Prudential’s most recent “Study of Employee Benefits, Today & Beyond,” found that employers believe the most successful communications methods are group meetings and seminars (74%) and one-on-one meetings (72%).
Are you just putting materials in the mail — or in email — and letting employees fend for themselves? The best organizations show they care about their staff by actively engaging them during open enrollment and addressing their concerns in person.
Personalization
Speaking of which, one size does not always fit all when it comes to employee communication. You may have four different generations working at your organization, and seniority ranging from a high-school intern to the CEO. Not all communications — or benefits, for that matter — speak to every segment of your workforce. Innovative companies have discovered this and now deliver more customized communications.
For example, Southern Wine and Spirits of American created three different three mailers, addressing specific 401(k) benefits based on a worker’s seniority. The mailers included an enrollment form to detach and send in, so employees could immediately begin participating in the program — a clever way to combine information with a simple call to action. For its ingenuity, Southern Wine and Spirits won IABC’s 2014 Gold Quill award for HR/Benefits Communication.
In conclusion…
It’s clear that benefit communications are just as important to employee engagement and employer branding as other internal communications. They continue to evolve as technology and workers’ needs change. At Brandemix, we can help improve your employees’ benefit experience with a creative communications campaign designed to engage, educate, and inform. We offer an integrated approach comprised of the best web-based and traditional methods customized to speak to your unique workforce.
If you’d like to improve your benefit communications, contact me for more information.
Jody Ordioni is President of Brandemix.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jody Ordioni is the author of “The Talent Brand.” In her role as Founder and Chief Brand Officer of Brandemix, she leads the firm in creating brand-aligned talent communications that connect employees to cultures, companies, and business goals. She engages with HR professionals and corporate teams on how to build and promote talent brands, and implement best-practice talent acquisition and engagement strategies across all media and platforms. She has been named a "recruitment thought leader to follow" and her mission is to integrate marketing, human resources, internal communications, and social media to foster a seamless brand experience through the employee lifecycle.
