There are several options for employee benefits communication. What follows is a list of the most effective ways to communicate employee benefits to your employees.
Pre-Enrollment Communication
Before the enrollment begins. Here are several options for communicating with your employees:
- Announcement letter – The announcement letter is used to communicate when the enrollment will start, what’s new and what employees need to do complete their enrollment.
- Enrollment flyer – The enrollment flyer is used to quickly highlight important enrollment details.
- Poster – The poster can be used to post in break rooms, at the time clock and in any other location that employee frequently visit.
- Benefits enrollment guide – The enrollment guide is an expanded guide to what option are available to enroll in during enrollment.
- Power point presentations A power point presentation can be used to post on break room TV screens and also if it includes voice over explanations, on intranet or benefits websites.
- Explainer videos Explainer videos can walk employees through what’s being offered during open enrollment along with benefits specific videos.
- Employee facing benefit summaries Flyers about each benefit are usually available from the insurance carrier and provide more detailed information that you might not be able to include in the benefits guide.
- Pre-enrollment meetings with managers Bringing in the management team ahead of the enrollment will help prepare them for what the enrollment strategy is so they can support your enrollment messaging.
- In person pre-enrollment group meetings I’m a big fan of pre-enrollment meetings that explain the in’s and out’s of what the enrollment offers are and how they work. I also like to follow up these with individual enrollment meetings.
- Webinars For your remote workers, you could also use teams or zoom calls to do group meetings for those employees.
- Digital landing page A dedicated benefits website that houses all important benefits information in one place.
- Texting campaigns – Everyone walks around with a mobile phone and receives text messages. Employees will read text message before email. A customized texting campaign drives participation better than email or paper communications.
- Email campaigns A text campaign should be supplemented by an email campaign with the same messaging. Email does allow you to expand on your message more than text.
Getting benefit information in the hands of the employees before the enrollment starts really gives an employee the opportunity to review their benefits before they have to make enrollment decisions.
During Enrollment Communication
Once the enrollment begins, here are some additonal communication options that work well:
- Onsite benefits counselors Speaking with a live person who can help educate employees on how their benefits work is a valuable tool. I can’t count the number of times that employees have told me that they do not want to enroll but after I walk them through the enrollment process, they enroll in benefits. This is usually because they do not exactly what they can do with their benefits and how they work.
- Call center benefits counselors If you have a decentralized workforce that has multiple locations working multiple shifts, onsite counselors might not be an option. Instead, you may use benefits counselors through a call center. It is not unusual to provide both onsite and call center enrollment support.
- Enrollment platform notifications Most enrollment platforms have the ability to send emails or alerts to employees reminding them to complete their enrollment. These can usually by customized to support the messaging you want for the enrollment such as is this an active or passive enrollment.
- Word of mouth One of the least utilized communication options is having key people within the group promoting and directing traffic to encourage employees to complete their enrollment. Support from the top down provides the most success.
- Continuation of text and email campaigns Texting and email campaigns should continue throughout the enrollment.
These are always great options during the enrollment.
Post enrollment communication
Once the enrollment has ended, here are several other communication options to consider.
- Benefit summaries Benefit summaries list each benefit the employee enrolled in. Sometimes it makes sense to provide printed or electronic copies of these to each employee as a final confirmation of benefits. Adding an additional confirmation step allows you to have a no exceptions policy with regard to changes after the enrollment.
- Post enrollment employee surveys Employee surveys can check the pulse of what the employees thought about the enrollment process to help you improve your enrollment each and every year.
- Ongoing monthly email/text communication Each and every month you can reach out to employees via email or text with benefits tips. This can range from checking their deductions after the effective date for accuracy to reminders to use their FSA contributions and more.
- Call center support for ongoing new hires, QLE’s and benefits questions If you set up a call center for employees to reach out to after the enrollment, this call center can enroll new hires for you, process your qualifying life events and provide general benefits support throughout the year.
It is always a good idea to continue communication with employees post enrollment using some of the above options. This helps reinforce the enrollment decisions employees made as well let employees know they need to raise their hand immediately if something isn’t correct.
Conclusion
These are some of the best benefits communications options to use for pre-enrollment, during enrollment and post enrollment.
When it comes to communication during enrollment, it always makes sense to over communicate through multiple channels.
Many times, employers send one or two communications. It’s easy for employees to set these aside and forget about them or just not read them. If you hit them five to seven times throughout the process, your enrollment completion rate will go up.
