Perhaps the most important communication tool of all in explaining the value of a benefits program is a digital decision-support tool.
If even a fraction of the money invested in benefits was spent on communicating their value to employees, we would have a more engaged and appreciative workforce. According to the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of employee benefits accounts in March 2020 for nearly a third of total employee compensation (29.8 percent). Employees aren't typically as invested in the value of benefits because they don't know enough about the available plans, or haven't had adequate time to calculate the financial impact.
With so many changes happening in the workplace and with personal health and finance concerns, employees are likely to focus much more of their attention on benefits offered during open enrollment than in years past.
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Compelling digital communication was a nice-to-have for HR; now it's a must-have. With the pandemic, HR leaders have learned to embrace technology and digital communication tools to communicate more effectively with employees. Open enrollment comes on the heels of many new changes. Workforces are remote and HR leaders are gearing up for an open enrollment period like never before.
The benefit of a good education
According to a recent Colonial Life report. 73% of employees spend less than an hour, and 41 percent invest less than 30 minutes, reviewing their benefits at enrollment time. You can't rush employees in the final two weeks of the open enrollment period and expect them to take the time to appreciate their benefits if they haven't had enough time to review all the options.
A better-educated workforce will choose and use their benefits more appropriately. A benefits-education plan should include:
- Timeline: This should be shared early with employees and include key milestone dates for upcoming communications.
- Compelling content: Benefits package overview, FAQs, explainer videos, self-guided tutorials or slide decks, digital postcards, etc. Ensure all of these resources are multilingual if your workforce is.
- Convenient distribution: Employees need to be able to access the information at their convenience. Making the content available via microsite or portal and accessible via mobile device or tablet is critical. Many employees will want to review plans with a spouse or partner and should be able to do that from anywhere. Consider both email and an opt-in, text-based system for reminders on important deadlines, benefits changes or policies to ensure the message is getting across to all employees.
- Engagement tracking: How will you measure the success of the open enrollment program? Set goals and track results such as email or text open rates, site visits, time spent on videos and microsites, percentage of enrollments completed prior to deadline etc. This will help determine how well your communications plan resonates with your audience and allow for adjustments as needed.
Whatever method of communication you choose, plan to start communicating early. Explain any new benefits or changes to plans upfront. Take time to demo any new technology or tools you will use this year to help them in their benefits-decision journey. Preparing employees in advance for the changes ahead is key to a streamlined open enrollment period.
Decision support makes costs clear
Perhaps the most important communication tool of all in explaining the value of a benefits program is a digital decision-support tool. When it comes to health care, each employee has a different set of needs. While a PPO may be suitable for one person, an HMO may be more cost effective for another. If the only deciding factor used to determine the best plan is the monthly health plan premium costs, employees could make a costly mistake. Educational materials and decision-support tools can help with key factors like the impact of deductibles, copayments and coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums.
When employers are modifying or introducing new benefits and employees have to review entirely new options to what they had in years prior, decision support is very helpful. HR and benefits providers understand that employees want to make the right decision and choose the best plan for them without doing a lot of heavy lifting. Offerings like PLANselect, BENEFITchoice and other decision-support tools, use AI to help quickly determine the very best medical, voluntary and supplemental benefits for each individual. In the past, things like benefits fairs and in-person plan-review sessions helped employees arrive at more informed decisions. This year, decision-support tools are replacing those events to help employees quickly and clearly understand plan options and total costs.
Decision-support technology is unique in that it takes the employee through a completely confidential journey of questions about their medical needs and their likelihood to use health insurance. Simple survey questions regarding past and predicted healthcare use helps employees calculate the total costs and see the full picture before arriving at the best decision.
These tools can be embedded into payroll or existing HR portals and enhanced with national or regional healthcare cost data. That data is then matched to employee responses to specific questions about health, wellness or financial concerns, creating a total view of the appropriate plan costs. Employees can quickly see which plan is the best for them in a ranking of plans by highest value score to the lowest, considering the total cost and things like in-network, coinsurance, etc. HSA calculators can also be used to understand how much to set aside in an HSA or how to maximize tax savings.
By leveraging these easy-to-use tools, employers can help employees enroll in the optimal medical and voluntary plans such as LTD, pet insurance, 401k, dental, FSA, vision, life insurance, etc., for their specific needs. This can result in lower out-of-pocket costs for the individual and saves HR and benefit providers time in walking individual employees through the evaluation of specific plans to find the option that best meets their needs.
Moreover, when combined with explainer videos and a digital postcard, decision-support tools see engagement as high as 70 percent. Meaning employees will spend less time asking questions of HR and more time engaging with benefit options on their own. A win-win for both employee satisfaction and a much-needed time saving for HR teams.
Better decisions are better for everyone
Communicating and promoting benefits are just as important as the benefits you offer. You can save or cost your employees and employer depending on how well you communicate and engage employees. Choosing the wrong individual plan can cost the employee and the organization a great deal of money.
Educational and decision-support tools can remove complexity, eliminate impractical gut-instinct decisions and replace them with decisions based on data and calculated cost savings. Aligning overall benefits to the specific needs of your organization makes for less expensive benefit renewals, reduced healthcare costs to the organization and the employee, an improved healthcare system and happier, more engaged employees.
Wayne Wall is Founder & CEO of Flimp Communications. Wayne has spent his career building global technology companies that help solve challenging problems for businesses and people. He is passionate about helping clients with benefits communications needs and improving employee engagement. Flimp Communications provides educational video content, benefits decision-support tools and interactive engagement solutions to more than 600 corporations throughout North America.
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