Let's face it, employee benefits are often complicated due to the multifaceted laws and rules associated with them. The all-important information is usually lost in the lengthy documents that employees are receiving, leaving them in a confused state. At the same time discussing about it is equally boring for both the employees and the employer. Sometimes, just the thought of discussing medical, life insurance, dental and vision insurance, 401Ks and FSAs, usually make employees running for the exits or checking their smartphones during the ‘Open Enrollment meetings’.
Employee benefits communication, which is often kept as an afterthought by many, is actually extremely crucial because if employees don’t understand their options correctly, they’re bound to make misinformed and rushed decisions. And if they get stuck with a wrong or inappropriate plan, they tend to lose trust in your organization and finally decide to move on.
Faced with this challenge, organizations are required to adopt best-in-class employee communication practices with following aspects properly embedded in it.
1. Ensure Your Employees are Aware of the SPDs and SBCs
To experience an effective and compliant
employee benefits communication, an organization must ensure that its employees get a proper understanding about documents like SPD and SBC. Where
SPD (Summary Plan Description), typically required for stand-alone dental and vision plans, is provided to the participants by group health-plan administrator;
SBC (Summary of Benefits & Coverage) is provided by employers and insurers to all the participating employees either at the beginning of each new plan year or when the individuals enroll in the coverage for the first time.
Understanding the differences between SPDs and SBCs helps in ensuring that the right information is delivered to employee participants at the right time.
2. Create a One-To-One Communication Strategy
Communicating about new benefits plans, modifications in the laws or important dates, through emails or printed materials might look easy and fast but this method is not as effective as you think it may be. On an average, employees receive a number of emails everyday and there’s a high probability of missing an important email in that junk. Thus, employers must make efforts and make this communication more personalized to ensure that each and every detail is properly transmitted to their employees. The best way to achieve this is through one-to-one meetings where along with communicating the regulations, you can answer employee queries too. This will also provide an opportunity for the employees to clear their doubts especially those who might have been feeling shy to ask for in public.
Other modes of effective communication include live meetings (small and large), online webinars and presentations, mobile-accessible platforms, etc.
3. Make Your Communication Process Recurrent
Along with having an
effective communication, ensure that the process is not a one-time affair or is carried out at the 11th hour, right before the Open Enrollment is about to start. Remember, many of your employees might need to hear and/or read complex information more than once so it’s a good idea to communicate your primary messages multiple times, using various modes and wordings. Create a communications timeline well in advance, and release it like a steady flow of information, delivering important data in small and digestible bits. Also make sure that any new programs or changes are also properly communicated and explained properly.
4. Leverage the Power of Social Media
Today’s generation is said to be always online and with a majority of millennials in the current workforce, online media, specially social media platforms, could be a better option to communicate any kind of information. It can prove to be a great medium to share updates, reminders about enrollment deadlines and other important dates, benefits events and various Q&A sessions. Moreover, sharing such information on social media will enable employees to check it at any point of time, unlike office emails or pamphlets that are only accessible in the office premises.
Despite of the complexities, your employees definitely value their benefits. But they might not understand the regulations as well as you think. Insurance isn’t easy to grasp and employees don’t invest enough time in making important enrollment decisions. Thus, you must enhance your communication campaign in order to make this process more effective for your employees and help them make more informed decisions with all choices right in front of them.
