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Whether your open enrollment period has just ended, or you're preparing for one in the spring, there's a good chance you may be offering some timely new benefit options for employees. And even if your benefits themselves aren't changing in 2021, your employees' needs likely have due to the pandemic. They may need direction finding existing benefits programs they never considered before. With lockdowns, isolation and the general disruption to everyday life, mental health and overall wellness have become top priorities, and many companies are seeing the positive impact of programs that focus on these key factors in employee health and job satisfaction.
But offering benefits and getting employees to use them are two very different things. Despite the best intentions, the most robust program in the world is ineffective if no one takes advantage of it.
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In most cases, low adoption stems from lack of awareness—employees simply don't know what's available to them. The booklet or handouts provided during onboarding or open enrollment is a start, but many employees don't take the time to fully understand their options. Or, because most benefits communication is a one-time data dump, they simply forget about them when a need does arise.
It's well-established that healthier, happier employees are more productive, so companies that make the investment in a strong, wellness-driven benefits program want to make sure their employees take advantage of these benefits. Otherwise, they're not just losing out on getting the full return on their investment, they could also risk losing employees to another employer with a better-publicized benefits program.
One of the best ways to drive yearlong adoption of benefits is with a comprehensive communications program that keeps employees informed of what's available and encourages them to use it. Here are some tips that can help drive better adoption through better communication.
1. Market and "sell" the value of your benefit offerings. Many companies are adding or have existing flexible spending accounts, telehealth access and mental health benefits, but simply announcing them doesn't go far enough to drive employee engagement. Instead, treat benefits like products and "sell" them to you staff. Use compelling language that makes them want to take advantage of them.
This is especially true around mental health services. While things are improving, there's still a fair amount of stigma and shame around those issues, and some employees may be hesitant to leverage those benefits. Normalize mental health with open communications and encourage employees to tap into those benefits.
2. Communicate the "why." Many times, benefits communication is fact-based: the options, what's included and details on deductibles and logistics. But employees may not understand why these benefits are valuable and how they can help in various situations. For example, some people may think that if they're not sick, there's no need to go to the doctor. Explaining the benefits of routine, preventive care can encourage them to be more proactive about their health.
It's equally important that employees understand the specific benefits options that can help them during the pandemic. For example, not everyone is comfortable with in-person doctor's visits right now, so it's critical employers share information about the other forms of care (and their associated costs) currently available via company health plans – like telehealth.
Others may not fully understand how their health savings or flexible spending account (FSA) can help them save money, even on over-the-counter purchases. Providing examples and different scenarios can boost utilization.
3. Tailor messages to each employee's situation. The recent graduate who just came on board likely has very different health insurance concerns than a full-time employee with a spouse and two children. Likewise for a health care company, under the current circumstances, the IT worker may be more interested in 401(k) matching than a frontline nurse or physician whose primary need is more personal time off.
Even if the benefits offered are the same across the board, customizing your messages for each audience is critical for effectively communicating the availability and advantages of benefits offered, and ultimately driving adoption.
4. Ongoing communication is a must. A single message won't change behavior; it requires frequent, ongoing reminders and motivation. That's why communicating benefits only at open enrollment and onboarding doesn't work—employees need regular reminders to reinforce the message.
Use holidays, events or changes in seasons to remind employees how their benefits can be applicable—like using FSA funds to purchase spring allergy medications or leveraging mental health benefits to manage wintertime blues.
5. Be proactive to get ahead of questions. Things are a bit uncertain right now for a lot of companies with some being forced to revisit their financial spending, including total rewards budget. Any time there's change, it raises a lot of questions for your employees and many will want to know how these changes will affect their benefits.
Get ahead of those questions and quell rumors and uncertainty with proactive communications that anticipate and answer the most obvious questions. Be honest, transparent and give them opportunities to direct specific questions to the right person. Even if the news isn't entirely good, your employees will appreciate your up-front approach.
6. Use the right channel for the audience. Many companies post their benefits information on an intranet portal, but employees need to 1) have easy access to it and 2) remember to go there. The delivery driver or the respiratory therapist are likely not sitting in front of a computer all day—if at all—and have zero down time to remember to check in on their benefit options.
To get benefits messages out to employees, companies must use a variety of channels based on what works for the intended audience. And, use the channels they already work in every day. Send updates or reminders via email, text message, Slack and even "snail mail" to make sure the information gets to people over the channel that makes the most sense for their situation.
With so much concern around general wellness right now, employee benefits are valuable tools for keeping staff both healthy and satisfied. But there's also a lot of noise out there, and it's easy for important benefits information to get lost in the shuffle or forgotten altogether.
That's why during a crisis such as the pandemic, it's more important than ever to implement a comprehensive, ongoing communications program keeps benefits availability top of mind and encourages employee adoption while also maximizing ROI and the health and welfare of your employees.
Keith Kitani is CEO and co-founder of GuideSpark and brings over 20 years of digital communications and eLearning expertise to creating, building and leading GuideSpark as it transforms workplace communications. Keith's career has been focused on building companies that develop digital solutions to connect people and information. He and his co-founders created GuideSpark to bring technology and innovative content together in a way that transforms employee communications, leading GuideSpark into a team of nearly 300 professionals and serving 650 customers including 20 percent of the Fortune 500.
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