The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has permanentlyaltered the U.S. benefits landscape.

As a business leader, you need to stay on top of the rules,regulations and requirements that may impact your business.

But as an employer, it's crucial to communicate benefits-relatedchanges to your employees so you can keep them informed, motivatedand engaged.

Especially now, as benefits enrollment seasonapproaches.

Change—particularly change that affects employees—could impactproductivity, profitability and morale, so it should be proactivelymanaged and communicated.

Here are some tips that can help you build a strategiccommunications campaign to inform employees of benefits-relatedchanges.

A. Obtain buy-in from key stakeholders

Gain the support of senior management to ensure access toresources and budget. Communicate how the campaign will help toeducate employees, drive behavior and improve employeeengagement.

Emphasize the business connection between effective benefits communication andcontrolling tangible costs, such as onboarding and training newhires.

B. Build the plan

Develop the communications campaign with the help oforganizational allies, including human resources, marketing, publicrelations and corporate communications. Identify key audiences(full-time, part-time, and home-based employees, etc.); tiecampaign goals and objectives to business outcomes; develop keymessages for each audience.

Select the delivery vehicles to most effectively and efficientlyconvey campaign messaging across all target audiences. Use theentire arsenal—from traditional print mail, posters, email andvideos to podcasts, smartphone apps, and social media.

If budget permits, reach out to external resources, such as adesign or public relations firm, for their expertise.

C. Launch the plan

Your company's employee population varies by gender, age,marital status, worksite and more. Therefore, your campaign mustreach all employees using the communications vehicles they use mostoften or are most comfortable using.

For instance, employees in an office environment might haveinstant access to electronic information, but those resources maynot be available in a manufacturing plant or a warehousesetting.

Baby boomers may read bulletin boards and emails, whilemillennials may prefer information via smartphone. Social mediaconnections are growing by leaps and bounds. Consider providing anapp that allows employees to view their secure personalinformation, as well as your employee portal on their smartphone ortablet.

D. Quantify plan performance

Measure your campaign's performance using metrics that willprovide clear insight into pertinent data. HR surveys are among themost effective tools to measure the performance of communicationcampaigns.

These surveys enable management to identify trends that canaffect the business over the near-term and long-term, like employeesatisfaction, retention trends and related costs.

A strategic benefits communications plan can engage youremployees and help them to understand the full value of yourcompany-sponsored benefits, as well as fuel job satisfaction andworker productivity.