Providing your employees the best benefits plan is a great way to show them how much companies value their health and overall contributions to the organization. However, offering great benefits isn’t enough. Indeed, benefit communication is vital during annual enrollment periods. It helps your employees understand benefits policies and features. Not to mention, it also gets your employees talking about the kind of benefits you offer. Many employees prioritize benefits over vacation or flexible work schedules. In short, employees utterly value benefits, hence the need to effectively communicate a company’s offerings. After all, if they aren’t aware of their benefits, they aren’t that much of a benefit. Here are the three keys to effective benefits communication to connect employees to benefits.
1. Help Your Employees Understand the Value of the Benefits Program
Eligible employees may reject a great benefits plan with good features because they don’t understand the coverage offering or how to access the services. That’s why benefits providers need to ensure eligible employees understand the value of the benefits. To change the narrative, use the best means possible to educate them and get their feedback on the benefits programs and policies. Remember to use simple language that will help employees understand and better connect with benefits.
Work with companies to set aside enough time for company meetings or use different channels to explain the value to workers. Be sure to address the value of the benefits before, during, and after enrollment so that they have up-to-date information. If employees understand the benefit plan’s value, benefits are more valuable to both the employees and the company.
2. Enable Clear and Open Communication for Feedback
As you help your workers understand and know the value of the benefits plan, you need to use the best way to get their feedback. Remember, some employees shy away from getting clarifications from supervisors. Others are also not active with some communication channels. So, to increase their likelihood of engagement, employ different forms of communication channels to probe their understanding of the benefits. Ask questions or request feedback on the benefits from time to time. You can also incorporate random surveys to know how your workers feel about the plan.
Again, while choosing the communication channel, don’t limit those who prefer involving a third party to get clarifications. Providing a digital benefits tool like Benefits Zone helps keep employees connected to any contact information they might need to access. So always keep the channels open and don’t forget to address the concerns they raise.
3. Prioritize Their Most Preferred Channel
You don’t want to be sending your employees’ information they’ll never look at or access. To ensure everyone gets all the information about benefits, take your time and identify their preferred channel of communication. Remember, everyone has a communication channel preference, but a common choice depends on your office setup and area. To identify this, do a random survey then act accordingly. However, keep in mind that most people prefer using their mobile devices to communicate. Consequently, you’ll likely want to incorporate text messaging solutions, social media, or emails to relay your information.
Using the right communication channel helps deliver the message home with ease. And when your employees receive the information on time, it streamlines their decision-making in regards to their benefits plan.
Connect Employees to Benefits Effectively
Effective communication on employee benefits is a win-win situation for all parties. Benefits providers deliver more benefits and retain more cases while employers experience lower employee turnover and a more active workforce. Consequently, employees will also be healthier and happier as proper communication strengthens the worker-employer/management relationship, thus enhancing productivity and commitment. Feel free to contact us for more information on how to help your employees understand the benefits plan.
