The high stakes in employee benefits communications can impact your business. Businesses should recognize that there is a direct correlation between employee benefits and employee productivity.
How you communicate your employee benefits can attract employees to your company or keep them away. How you deliver employee benefits communications can improve your bottom line and the success of your company.
Indeed, there is a lot at stake when it comes to employee benefits and delivering the message to your employees. Here are some steps that will make your benefits communications resonate with your employees.
Set Goals and Review Outcomes
Establish open enrollment goals and create communications systems to achieve them. Your goals should reflect the current employee benefits needs of your employees.
Review the outcomes of last year’s open enrollment period to eliminate inefficiencies that can improve this year’s enrollment season.
Eliminate Confusion During Open Enrollment
Often employees do not fully understand the cost of a health plan or do not understand high premiums and low deductibles or are confused about health savings accounts (HSAs). Companies can minimize confusion by using employee benefits communications that explain complex benefits in a simpler way. A more understandable message will allow more employees to enroll in a benefits plan that is right for them.
Keep Employees Engaged in Employee Benefits and Open Enrollment
The more personalized and customized the employee benefits communications, the more engaged your employees will be with the benefits you are offering. Understand the messaging preferences of different groups of employees in the company. Younger staffers may be more interested in perks that eliminate student loan debt, as compared to older workers who are more concerned with retirement or healthcare. Direct your employee benefits communications in a fashion that will appeal to certain groups and their priorities in benefits.
To engage your employees with their employee benefits, utilize an active and innovative enrollment communication strategy that allows employees to select benefits that fit their changing needs rather than select the same choices from last year’s open enrollment.
Explore Multiple Channels for Open Enrollment
In a recent survey, 80% of companies said that benefit plan participants do not open or read communication material. Companies who want more employees to participate in open enrollment and employee benefits should try choosing multichannel benefits communications to get their messages across.
Try using multiple channels, such as corporate videos to help employees better understand open enrollment or automated open enrollment with technology platforms that will make the process easier and more interactive.
Start Implementing and Perfecting Your Message
These are some steps you can take to get your employees excited about employee benefits and open enrollment. Company-sponsored employee benefits add value to your company and employees.
The communications you use to relay employee benefits and open enrollment to your employees is quite significant. Companies that do not have employee benefits communications should learn to develop them. Companies that already have benefits communications should continue to perfect them each year for a better open enrollment period and a better bottom line too.