Effective Employee Benefits Communication
Having a solid employee benefits plan in place is crucial to the success of your business, but the success of your employee benefits plan heavily relies on how effectively you communicate information about the program.
Effective communication ensure that your employees understand the benefits you offer and any policy changes your plan undergoes, but effective communication also has several other benefits. Let’s take a closer look at a few key reasons why effective communication matters before delving into the top ways you can make sure you’re crushing your employee benefits communication.
3 Reasons Why Effective Communication Matters
There are many reasons to engage in effective communication strategies, including increasing employee participation in programs, clarifying messages you’re sending your employees, and boosting their overall retention of benefits and policies.
Increase in Participation
When you share more information with your employees about their benefits and the various programs they may be eligible for, they’re more aware of the different benefits your insurance program offers. And, once your employees are aware of your insurance programs, they’ll be more likely to engage in them. These participation boosts can come from more strategized communications like email series on 401(k) plans or something as simple as memo updates on policy changes or additional benefits options.
Clarification of Messages
A problem often found in benefits communications is the lack of clarity in messaging. Making sure that your messages are clear and easily understandable goes a long way in promoting effective communication between you and your employees.
Boost in Retention
By sending out regular messages and communicating updates on policy changes, cost-saving opportunities or discount programs, you ensure that information about your employee benefits program stays fresh in your employees’ minds. This continuous communication of policy-related information can boost employee understanding and retention.
6 Ways to Effectively Communication Employee Benefits
There are several ways you can effectively communicate your employee benefits. From creating a strong strategy to using feedback appropriately and committing to consistent communication, let’s look at six of the top methods you can use to improve your employee benefits communication today.
Have a Game Plan
When it comes to having successful benefits communication, the most important part is developing a strong strategy from the start. This strategy will guide all of your communications by highlighting your mission and marketing it for a specific audience so that it is as effective as possible.
Make a Budget
Once you have a strategy in place, you then need to determine how much of your budget you’re willing to dedicate to promoting effective employee benefits communication. This number will look different for every agency, so don’t try and overspend to promote faster results. Effective communication takes time to develop, so for many agencies, more modest budgets are perfectly satisfactory.
Build a Solid Website
You need to have a central location where your employees can go to find all of the benefits information they need, and the best place for that is a website. With the right website, branding, and management, you can create a means of passive information communication that makes sharing and receiving news about your benefits easier for both you and your employees.
Use Employee Feedback
Once you have a benefits communication system in place, take the time to gather feedback from your employees. Giving them a voice and listening to their opinions about your communication strategies can go a long way in not only helping you improve your communication methods, but also increasing the retention and engagement levels of your employees. Your employees will be more invested in a company that is invested in them, and promoting a clear and competitive benefits program is the key to drawing top-level employees.
Keep Information Simple
One of the worst things you can do when trying to build effective communication strategies is to allow technical jargon and complicated phrasing to overwhelm your message. While you may be familiar with all the technical terms associated with the benefits program, your employees won’t have that same knowledge. By using more simplified, easy-to-understand language, you can make your benefits program appeal to a wider range of employees who will be better equipped to understand the benefits and policy updates you’re trying to communicate.
You can even create a benefits booklet that consolidates all plan information in an easy to distribute format. It can be distributed digitally or posted to your site so all employees can have access to benefits information.
Commit to Year-Round Communication
Finally, after you’ve communicated everything you need to about your benefits, you need to make sure that you don’t stop communicating. Keep your programs, brand, and goals fresh in the minds of your employees by keeping them up-to-date with any changes, reminding them of benefits, and showing them how their benefits are working for them throughout the year.
Beckham Insurance Group offers a team of knowledgeable and experienced employee benefits representatives. Building a benefits package can be stressful and confusing, but we’re here to make it as easy and stress-free as possible. Contact us today to learn about the help we provide.
