The proliferation of ideas on how best to attack employee“sickness” is only rivaled by the rapidly growing number of“wellness” programs. But in aworld where 40 percent of employees spend 15 minutes a yearthinking about their benefits decisions, what is the secret tocommunicating and engaging employees in a wellness program thatworks?

We are in that season again. The time of the year when employers(and their brokers) evaluate changes to their benefitprograms. Often, these contemplated changes involvetweaks to existing programs or the rollout of completely newinitiatives. A continued hot topic for 2016 is “wellness.”

While there is great variety to the approaches taken by variousemployers, our research suggests that nearly all employers areconfronting the fact that their investments in wellness are returning mixedresults. When asked why, one of the top answers is that theseprograms are failing to adequately engage the target populations insignificant numbers.

Raise awareness

According to recent studies by Rand and Gallup, while nearly 85percent of employers offer a wellness program, only 60 percent oftheir employees are aware of the program, and only 40 percent ofthose actually participate in the program.

For employers looking to expand a wellness program’s impact,they must work on both increased awareness and increasedparticipation. Our work with employers has reinforced ourpredisposition that employee awareness of particular benefitprograms is best achieved through focused communication tied to theopen enrollment transaction.

With more and more employers moving to passive enrollment andemployee self-service technology platforms, the opportunity forfocused communication around open enrollment is often missed. Weare seeing more employers return to “enhanced” personal benefitcommunications, often including one-on-one counseling sessions,with the specific objectives of improving employee engagement andimproving benefits literacy.

The desire to improve wellness program engagement is a primarydriver of this trend. These one-on-one sessions can be customizedto meet the specific needs of various target populations andfurther offered (or made mandatory) for specific populations whohave yet to engage in the wellness program.

Incent via technology

The role of the benefit technology platform­­ in wellnessengagement is also very important. Our experience suggests thatincentives (either carrots or sticks) must be fully integrated intothe enrollment experience to be truly effective. Variable ratesstructures and the ability to apply wellness credits increases bothawareness and participation.

If these cannot be managed within the technology platform, theireffectiveness is diminished. While many employees are capable ofthe critical thinking and complex math required to compute howtheir participation in the wellness program can positively impactthe overall value of their benefits package, few will take the timeor apply the mental energy to do so. Consequently, the benefitsdelivery platform must do this work for them for a program to betruly effective.

While wellness communication initiatives have always includedposters and payroll stuffers, our research has concluded thatintegrated messaging (videos, storyboards, and data-driven avatars)has proved to be much more effective than blanket communicationsdisassociated from the enrollment workflow.

This is especially true when organizations are trying to movethe needle from low 20 percent participation rates to a greaterthan 50 percent participation. Benefits delivery platforms mustmove beyond supporting basic enrollment transactions in a linearworkflow augmented by a printed (or online) enrollment guide.

These platforms must shift towards a dynamic decision supportexperience using all of the sophisticated tools often typical ofthe best in class retail experiences. Retailers worried aboutshopping cart abandonment rates know that all of theircommunications must be integrated into the flow of thetransaction.

They balance focused, short communications, contextuallypresented with the desire to provide the most efficient shoppingand checkout experience. Employers (and their brokers) need to havethe same sophistication in their thinking (and technologyplatforms) if they are going to significantly increase wellnessengagement.

Manage messaging

An equally important ingredient to increased engagement is themessage itself. Leading employers are beginning to realize thattheir communication around wellness needs to be both well thoughtout and intentionally delivered. Does the wellness messagecomplement the overall corporate message regarding employeeculture? Is the message compelling for the target audience? Is themessage objectionable to the non-target audience?

Finally, data suggests that participation rates are highlycorrelated to first line manager involvement and support for theprogram. Wellness delivery support should specifically targetpeople managers and ensure they have the necessary information tosupport (and explain) the wellness program. Again, integration ofthese messages into a manager’s open enrollment experience is aproven best practice.

From program design through delivery andemployee assistance, wellness programs fight for mind spacewith other initiatives to reduce healthcare expenses. Brokers andemployers must thoughtfully design a wellness program most likelyto result in high engagement — and subsequent impact. And, likeother elements of the overall benefits strategy, an effectivewellness program requires an equal investment in the properdelivery of the wellness program. For many employers, this willrequire them to challenge their traditional thinking about benefitsdelivery (and benefits delivery platforms) to achieve their desiredwellness engagement results.