Workers can’t engage with benefits they don’t know about or how to use. Yet communications and engagement with benefits can often be an afterthought to an organizations’ overall strategy when the ultimate goal is to drive quality employee experiences.
Getting it right can have a huge payoff. And there’s indications that benefit plan sponsors and members know targeted communications are key: Nearly eight out of 10 Canadian plan sponsors are interested in sending targeted benefits communications to plan members, while 62% of plan members would consent to receive targeted communications based on their personal use of benefits.1
Delivering strong communications
The best recipe for strong communications for engagement with benefits starts with identifying the audience — not only who works at an organization, but speaking to the stage of life they’re in, knowing what benefits they may resonate with and what type of platforms are best for delivering those messages.
Often, how communications are delivered is as important as what’s being said. Workers need to access information on their terms, rather than having information dumped on them. This often overlooked aspect of communication is key to appreciation of the employee benefits program.
Consider some of the factors that need to play into the communications strategy:
Improving employee benefits engagement through insights
Because employees are often segmented into large categories, it inhibits an organization’s ability to target communications. For instance, simply dividing employees by age does not mean each person in a given age group will respond to a certain message or type of communication.
Such segmentation does not account for a person’s lifestyle, motivations or where they are in their career that influence their preferences on benefits.
Generational segmentation is one, of course. But not every Millennial has the same hot buttons or interests, and not every Boomer is a technological laggard. Understanding employees’ needs at any given time of their lives through persona analysis helps identify the right benefits and communication opportunities to generate engagement.
Access on demand and related issues
Good communications creates trust, but what exactly is “good”?
Good starts with delivering information on employees’ terms, making information easy to find and in a format that suits them. Service portals and web guides will have higher usage if the portals have mobile components that appeal to certain workers.
To boost employee benefits engagement, organizations need a multi-channel communications strategy, aligned to the employee population’s interests and preferences. Choosing the right channels is important: For example, 75% of employees would rather view a video explaining benefits than read an email or text.2
Language and tone are important
And finally, language is important. What people want is information on their terms, that doesn’t stereotype or make assumptions about them.
It usually entails straightforward and short sentence structure and verbiage; simplicity is best. Communications that seemingly embrace a stereotype (“You will like these benefits because you’re in XYZ group”) or that is too general (“Employees in your age group”) are less likely to resonate.
HUB International’s employee benefit specialists consult with employers of all sizes and in all industries on every aspect of employee benefits program planning and management.
1 Sanofi "The 2020 Sanofi Canada Healthcare Survey", 2020
2 Vimeo, “2021 Communications statistics in the workplace,” May 18, 2021.