A stalled economy presents many challenges to employers in regards to recognizing employees and making them feel appreciated. Employees are already feeling the impact with raises and bonuses that have been put on hold, retirement plans dwindling in value, and staffing cuts that may be requiring them to work longer hours to fill coverage gaps. Most organizations overlook boasting about a reward they are already providing employees: benefit plans.

The typical employee doesn't know the actual worth of these benefits. Add together paid time off, subsidized medical benefit, 401K matching, life insurance, tuition reimbursement, employee assistance programs, pension plans, Social Security contributions, tax contributions, performance and sales bonuses, these benefits equal an average of one-third of an employee's salary or more.

Capitalizing upon their Employee Engagement Survey results and action planning process, Resort's International discovered an ace up their sleeve and found a way to put millions of dollars of benefits expenditures back in their pocket.

Employees voiced multiple concerns in the 2005 Employee Engagement Survey with an alarming overall Benefits Satisfaction dimensional score of 49%, a full 14 percentage points below the national average. It was obvious that changes needed to be made to the benefits plan.

It became extremely important for Resorts executives to understand which aspects of the employee benefits package were perceived as value-added by the employees, and which aspects of the benefits package were not. Employees might be willing to forego a specific network, for example, in order to have lower office visit co-pay, eliminate co-pays on generic prescriptions, or obtain a better vision care benefit.

It also was critical to gain insight as to which benefits employees distinguished as vital to their employment with Resorts International. By asking employees to rank those benefits which they held as most important, Resorts International was able to effectively re-allocate benefit dollars to create a benefits package that maximized employee satisfaction.

Phil Fortino, former Resorts International Senior Vice President of Human Resources, realized that organizational communication needed to be clear and concise in regards to the changes Resorts planned on implementing. By creating a communication campaign related to the medical benefit plans, the organization was able to educate all employees on both the plans features (including all services covered and not covered under the plan provisions) and monetary value.

Fortino explained, "We provided each employee with a letter detailing their entire benefit package, as well as the employee cost and the company cost of each benefit. It was an example of an open book philosophy that the employees apparently appreciated. "

Another area that Resorts focused on was the market competitive set. They shared with employees where Resorts' plans stacked against the competitors in each market. "We were not afraid to show them all the data and we encouraged them to ask questions about our plans, said Fortino, "when we needed more doctors in the network we were very aggressive with our carrier and demanded results; which we got. "

Fortino went on to state, "even the tough decisions were in part a result of our reviewing the survey and trying to minimize those changes in order to affect the least amount of people. Our decision to become the first major gaming company with free Generic Drugs was 100% a result of our employees concerns with the prescription drug program. "

Resorts International utilized the employee newsletter as a mechanism for drawing attention to any plan changes and implemented management-specific "Choices" meetings for those employees in supervisory positions. Since many staff level employees will approach their immediate supervisor with benefits-related questions, it is important that this group of supervisors be knowledgeable about the benefits package, and be able to demonstrate the ability to answer employees' questions effectively.

Resort's 2008 Employee Engagement Survey rolled around, and the Benefits Satisfaction dimension results increased a full 12 points up to 61% favorable. Of the 2060 employees participating in the survey, most employees reported that they were happy with their benefits, many calling them "excellent. One of the "value-added changes even received several verbatim comments from employees:
"I like the free prescriptions
"Thank you for the "no co-pay" on the generic drugs. "

Resorts International is an excellent example of the benefits that can be achieved when survey results are put into action. Taking the appropriate steps to truly understand how employees' perceive specific areas or policies of the organization will result in a more lucrative bottom-line.

This is one change Resorts can take all the way to the bank.