With so many employees still working from home this enrollment season, it’s harder for companies to engage with workers about their benefits programs. Companies can’t benefit from informal channels like word of mouth. Email isn’t ideal for communicating complex topics, and with 62% of a worker’s inbox being rated as unimportant, according to SaneBox, benefits messages can get lost in the noise.
Meeting the needs of a dispersed workforce is a challenge, but here are some ways you can help employers make sure everyone is on the same page.
- Get the C-suite on board. Executives are increasingly seeing their health care spend as a strategic investment, according to a report by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. Treat health care strategy like any other business growth strategy. Establish strategic goals, and use data to identify the most efficient parts of an employer’s health plan and what needs to be addressed.
- Gather feedback. Putting the information out there doesn’t mean people are taking it in. People learn and process information differently. Formalize a process to understand what workers have absorbed and what needs to be revisited.
Build relationships with workers. Communicating benefits throughout the year helps build a relationship between workers and the people who have the right answers about benefits. A year-round communication strategy has a 79% success rate, IFEBP found.
