Interestingly enough, when I write a column on most subjects I receive an email or two, but when I wrote about bribing employees in September, I received several lengthy replies. Apparently, we voluntary benefits people are into, shall we say, inducements designed to affect customer behavior in a positive way (we’re interested in bribing people to buy our products). Actually, the column asked for ideas, and many people sent in great feedback.

First, let me be clear about the type of business practice to be discussed. I’m not talking about unethical behavior like actual cash kickbacks. We will discuss what I’ve always thought of as “merchandising” of voluntary benefits.  

First, let’s consider how voluntary benefits are often merchandised. There are many ways voluntary products can be packaged with services that are of benefit to the employer (aside from the intrinsic value of improving the employer’s benefit offerings without increasing cost).  

The actual package recommended often is found during an exploratory discussion with the employer’s benefit staff (spurred by questions like “can you tell me about your communications with your employees—is there any message you would like to deliver to them?”)  Let’s say the response is “our 401(k) participation is too low.” Then the suggestion might be to piggyback an educational update on the value of 401(k) products during a voluntary product enrollment, along with distribution of information on how to participate.  

In short, a classic method of merchandising is to combine their message within our voluntary enrollment process. This has value to employers, employees, and, of course, it gets the employer more engaged in making sure employees attend an enrollment session, or visit their enrollment web site.

Now let’s turn to the employee level. One correspondent, Janet Buzil of Combined Worksite Solutions, suggested the ultimate attention getter for employees: Put $25,000 on the table in front of the employee and say: “this is yours…if you enroll; your family will not struggle when something bad happens.” An insurance contract actually is a promise to deliver cash when it’s needed, after all.  

Aside from the obvious benefit of our products to buyers, merchandising to employees centers around getting them to provide access by attending a meeting, visiting a web page, using an app, or calling in to an enrollment center.  The central message we want to deliver is education about our benefits and how to enroll—along with any employer messages we have agreed to deliver. But the additional inducements might be handouts given to anyone attending meetings (pens, gift cards for popular coffee spots or restaurants, calendars, etc.), or drawings entered on behalf of all who attend (for example, a drawing for an iPad)—note that these cannot be restricted to people who buy our products, everyone who shows up must be offered an equal chance of winning.