Tips to Keep Benefits Communications Going Strong All Year Round

For many organizations, benefits enrollment typically happens sometime in the fourth quarter for the upcoming plan year. That means many employees chose their 2020 benefits in October or November of 2019. Chances are your organization may offer a mid-calendar year open enrollment (also known as “off-cycle” open enrollment), to take some pressure off during the busy close-of-year period.

No matter what time of year you offer your benefits enrollment, it’s very likely that your employees may already be a bit hazy on what they signed up for in the months prior.

As an employer or HR professional, it’s important to keep plan communications consistent to ensure that employees understand what benefits they have access to and how they can make the most of them. The key is to be smart and strategic in how you communicate benefits information to employees. By implementing these tips, you should be in good shape to keep the communications flowing easily and effectively throughout the year!

1

Make It Relevant

Relevant communication is the number one way to keep employees informed and engaged with their benefits. A well-timed message about flexible spending accounts (FSA) grace period or health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) procedures will show employees that you have their best interests at heart while allowing them to make smart decisions for themselves to get the most value from their benefits package. Otherwise, flooding busy employees with a glut of information about benefits will cause many to ignore even the most well-intentioned messages. Rather than send a lot of information, communicate the things employees actually want to know about their benefits (or the things they might not know, but you now they definitely need!)—at the right time. How can you figure out what matters to employees? Do a little research. What are the questions employees most frequently ask about their benefits? What are pain points for benefits use and tracking? Are there deadlines approaching that your employees need to know about? If you aren’t sure what employees are struggling with regarding their benefits, ask them!

2

Keep It Short and Simple

Create a targeted message with a clear point and call to action for employees to remain engaged. Sending a 500-word email or asking employees to sit through a long presentation that covers EVERYTHING they need to know will not bode well for busy workers and short attention spans. You will be more successful in your benefits communications by keeping it short and simple. Send one brief email with a clear call to action like a button that takes them to the benefits portal section addressed in the message, and it will be easy for an employee to take a minute to follow through. For a longer-term campaign, you could post flyers with your benefits message at the coffee pot, in the lunch room, or anywhere else with a lot of foot traffic, so people see it often. Whatever method you choose, just know that one key message per communication is the goal!

3

Vary Messaging Medium

Vary the way you communicate messages, because not all employees learn or retain information the same way. Some people are visual learners and will benefit from written or image-based communications via email, text, or posters. Others need interaction to remember information. You can have a short meeting about benefits each quarter, or you can send an online presentation that requires employees to answer questions to move through it, getting them to interact with the information. Have managers make a short video in which they relay the benefits message and send it by email or display it on screens throughout the office. Get creative and change the messaging medium frequently to target all learning types! Switching things up also makes it more fun for you.

4

Create a Benefits Communications Calendar

Create a benefits communication calendar to mark important dates and months throughout the year. Remind employees of important benefits deadlines and health goals for certain months. Check out our FSA spending calendar and this blog article on maximizing HSAs, FSAs, and HRAs year-round for ideas to remind employees of ways to utilize their funds throughout the plan year. With a calendar of curated messages, you can be strategic in your benefits communications efforts without losing steam or running out of ideas. Plan for the entire year, and you can easily stick to your goal of providing a regular, targeted stream of communications from January to December (or your mid-year plan cycle, if applicable).

5

Offer Incentives for Engagement

If you are struggling to encourage employees to engage with benefits messaging or programs that require their input, offer an incentive to motivate them. It can be something small like a personal thank you message when they respond to an email or meet the enrollment deadline, or you could offer a reward. For example, you could offer entry into a raffle for a prize such as a $20 gift card for employees who download the benefits app on their phones by a certain date. If you’re looking for honest feedback on benefits options, enrollment processes etc., you could provide participants a token of appreciation like a shout-out in the company newsletter or a coupon for coffee at a nearby cafe. Figure out what will work in your office and see how you can make benefits communications more fun and rewarding for everyone!