How to Level Up Your Benefits Communications
You invest a lot in your benefits, yet your people aren’t taking full advantage of them. This isn’t surprising. There are a number of reasons why employees don’t use their benefits:
- First, benefits are complex and difficult to navigate, and plan documents use unfamiliar terms.
- Second, employees may not be aware of everything you offer or the value of their benefits. And they may not fully understand how to use them.
- Third, benefits may not be tailored to each employee’s needs and preferences.
- And finally, your people may be distracted by the millions of other tasks and responsibilities at work and home that are competing for their attention.
The good news? There are a number of things you can do right now to help your people understand their benefits:
- Communicate about your benefits throughout the year, not just when you make a change or during open enrollment.
- Use multiple types of communications (channels) to spread the word.
- Target your communications to specific groups and needs and personalize when possible.
- Encourage employees to talk about their benefits with HR, their managers, or another leader they trust.
How 2 Clients Found Success Reaching Their People
When SLB looked at their U.S. benefits in 2023, they wanted to make sure their offerings focused on inclusivity and accessibility, so their people could have the same access to resources, regardless of where they worked. They also wanted to help employees improve their holistic well-being. The result was a comprehensive plan to introduce new resources and enhance existing benefits to help people manage different aspects of their physical, emotional, financial, and total well-being. These changes were rolled out to employees in waves.
Segal Benz worked with SLB to create an effective benefits communications strategy that spoke to the different needs of SLB employees. They also discussed and planned for what the future of SLB’s benefits communications would look like for their people.
Listen to SLB’s story, or download the transcript to learn how to successfully:
- Uncover the “why” behind your benefits and align it with your organization’s global philosophy and values
- Create a foundational strategy that addresses both global and local priorities
- Execute communications with targeted outreach
Another client, Honeywell, had a different challenge to overcome. Despite the wide variety of benefits they offered and were expanding, many programs were going unused. Employees were confused about what was available and how to find information, and complaints about barriers to accessing benefits were becoming too frequent. Any meaningful information was buried and hard to find.
Honeywell’s problems weren’t unique. Like many successful organizations eager to attract and retain top talent, they were investing in benefits to remain competitive. And while they were expanding resources to meet a broad spectrum of people’s needs, they were underinvesting in the communications required for employees to engage with those benefits. In short, too many benefits, no communication strategy. That’s where we came in. We helped them create a strategy that would enable their employees to finally find information about their benefits and make the most of them.
Listen to Honeywell’s story, or download the transcript to learn how to:
- Take an integrated, strategic approach to improve employee benefits engagement
- Use innovative technology to connect directly with employees and gain unique insight, allowing you to quickly take action and solve any problems you discover
- Explore the barriers and issues your people face when engaging with their benefits
The Bottom Line
You may have the best benefits in the business, but if your employees don’t know about them, they simply won’t use them. Communicating on a year-round basis is a key to increasing awareness, engagement, and appreciation for the benefits you offer.
We’re proud to work with organizations that value their people. If you want to learn more, we’d love to talk.
Read Next
Laura Hensley, Senior Writer and Editorial Manager, is an award-winning writer and advocate for the reader. She works with some of our largest clients.
