Motivating Employees to Live Healthier Lives: Behavioral Science for Employee Benefits Communication

Helping people make decisions that are in their own best interests is at the heart of employee benefits.

There’s no better way to do that than by understanding why people make the decisions they do. Once you do, you can develop strategies to help them make better choices. To gain this insight, many organizations are turning to behavioral science. This field of study helps us understand the influences that impact decision-making, and it explains why we make less-than-optimal decisions at times—especially when it comes to our health and finances.

Employers seek to address employee health and financial issues through the employee benefits they offer. Typically, they communicate the merits of the programs and how they can help. But in the benefits world, information and education often aren’t enough to motivate employees to use their benefits. For that, you need to understand the barriers to engagement and how to breach them.

This guide covers:

• 4 common barriers that stand between employees and the actions they need to take
• How to leverage key principles from behavioral science to overcome those barriers
• 7 effective, easy-to-implement techniques you can incorporate into your communication strategy to help employees make better choices going forward