Not Communicating About Benefits Can Cause 'Exponential' Risks
Interview Says Frequent Communication is Critical
Without question, a benefits package is a vital part of the employer arsenal.
But there's a recurring problem: Benefits communication often falls short at organizations, with many employers only talking about, or promoting, offerings during open enrollment. And even then, many employers send out just an email or two without much information or education. Recent research from benefits administration firm Optavise even found that HR leaders are communicating with and educating employees on benefits less than they have in years past.
That often leaves employees in the dark about how to get optimal use out of their offerings.
But that may be starting to change, said Casey Hauch, managing director at consulting firm WTW.
"We're seeing a greater emphasis on communicating benefits and making sure people understand what they have and how to use them," she said.
That's likely due to a couple of reasons: One, because employees continue to say they don't understand their benefits, and two, because employers are realizing the importance of their total rewards package for attraction and retention efforts.
"Benefits are table stakes—you have to have them—but now we're seeing in the research that they actually are a differentiator in terms of why people join and stay in an organization," Hauch said. "So, employers are really looking to promote that as part of the value proposition to get the most bang for their buck to get that awareness and appreciation."
Casey Hauch, managing director at WTW
Just ahead of open enrollment, SHRM Online caught up with Hauch to talk about the latest in benefits communication, how remote workers fit into the equation and the one thing employers should do before open enrollment starts.
SHRM Online: Benefits communications has historically been problematic. What do you want employers to know?
Hauch: When I'm talking to clients, I want to make sure that they're communicating year-round and not waiting for annual enrollment. We can't just dump everything on everybody at one time. However, when making decisions about your plans for the years to come and what your needs are going to be, enrollment is an opportunity during that two-week or whatever window of time you have to say, "Hey, look at your benefits and your total rewards in totality." All of these things work together for employees. For example, by no means is physical well-being uncoupled from financial well-being or from emotional and mental health.
SHRM Online: How is the growing number of remote employees—and having a combination of remote, in-person and hybrid workers—playing into communications efforts?
Hauch: I think organizations are still grappling with that. Compared to previous years in the pandemic, there are more workers who are spread out, some remote, some in the office. It makes it harder to reach people, and it makes everything more complicated because you have to really think about the different people and how to meet people where they are.
Technology has really become our friend, and there's a huge focus on digital communication. For example, we've seen virtual benefits fairs grow in popularity since the pandemic, whereas in the past, organizations would host these things in person and all the vendors would come. Now, they're finding that we can do this virtually and emulate what an in-person benefits fair would be.
It's great because not only is that something that can be available to employees and their families during enrollment to help make their decision, but also throughout the year. We are seeing some employers keep those live so that when a new hire joins, they can go to the website and see all the vendors, get all the information they need. That's the bottom line—making sure everything is in one place. There's a lot more focus on benefits portals and aggregating all this information for people, no matter where they are.
SHRM Online: Are they relying too much on technology? What about traditional methods of communication?
Hauch: I don't think that some of the more traditional ways are dead, by any means, because with people being remote, we still need to find ways to get their attention. Mailing something to the home, even though it's sort of old-fashioned, is still important. That's because sometimes the spouse or the partner is the medical decision-maker, and we want to get in front of them, or maybe they're someone who is contributing to higher health care costs. Reaching spouses and family members is important.
What's changed is we aren't sending a 40-page enrollment guide to everyone's homes anymore. Instead, we are sending a postcard to the home with a QR code that says, "Click here to get the 40-page enrollment guide virtually." That also supports cost management and sustainability.
SHRM Online: Speaking of, open enrollment is coming up. What should employers be doing right now?
Hauch: Employers should be listening to employees and asking them what they think. We are seeing a huge rise in employee listening. There's always been an engagement survey that most employers conducted, but now we're seeing much more frequent listening, whether it be through pulse surveys or focus groups, things like that, that really drill into more detail on the benefits experience. Things asking, "How well do you understand the benefits? Are you even aware of them?" They need that data to be able to inform their strategy. So, I would say a successful enrollment includes that.
SHRM Online: We see that time and time again—employees don't understand benefits.
Hauch: We do. We need to provide tools and resources that help people of all levels of understanding make decisions about their benefits. We often say we need to write at a sixth-grade reading level so people can understand this. Even then, we can't assume that people are even reading the information, let alone understanding it. Putting as many decision support tools as you can out there can help.
SHRM Online: What's the risk if employers don't do a good job communicating their benefits?
Hauch: It's critical. All the factors driving the environment we're in, people's changing needs … People didn't understand benefits to begin with. And stakes are higher now.
If you don't regularly communicate about your benefits, you're missing an opportunity to make sure that your people know that you care about them. You're missing an opportunity to make sure that they know that you have a competitive total rewards package.
And you're risking that they might make the wrong decisions for themselves, whether that results in them coming back and saying, "Well, you didn't give me all the information I needed," or it results in them being over-insured or under-insured and just not spending their dollars wisely.
And we have risks as far as transparency on the employer side. Overall, we're seeing transparency become a really important part of the employee experience and an important factor in people thinking, "Oh, this is a great place to work, and I want to stay here." So, not communicating about benefits—about why you are making changes or why costs are going up and being deliberate about everything—during enrollment, or really anytime, is not going to help. There's a risk of employees losing trust in their employer.
The risks are there if we don't communicate—they are exponential.
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