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<\/div>\n?As employee benefits open enrollment season looms, HR professionals will be spending a lot of time and resources to create and send messages to employees about benefits plans. Yet, many of these efforts fall flat.<\/p>\n
A new study<\/a> by LegalShield, a platform for legal, identity and reputation management services in North America, found that a majority of employees (81 percent) would welcome more information about their company-sponsored benefits throughout the year. However, the study also found that 47 percent of those surveyed didn’t know enough about each voluntary benefit to make an informed enrollment decision.<\/p>\n Why are employees not getting the message, and what should HR be doing differently?<\/p>\n The Employee Benefits Communication Landscape<\/p>\n Most employees are aware\u2014at least generally\u2014of their medical, dental, life insurance and disability benefits, said David MacLean, vice president of strategic growth at LegalShield. <\/p>\n But “once you start to get into the realm of some of the other voluntary products like critical illness, accident, group legal plans, group identity theft plans, pet insurance, it becomes a little bit more of an unknown,” he said. <\/p>\n Too often, the result of that lack of awareness and understanding means that they’re “flying blind” during open enrollment, he said. <\/p>\n There’s a disconnect between what employees know about benefits and what HR and the organization think employees know, MacLean said. <\/p>\n “Many employees don’t know what voluntary benefits are offered and don’t feel well-informed to make a decision,” he said. HR, on the other hand, because they’re often communicating about several different benefits\u2014sometimes as many as 20 or 25\u2014feels that they’re communicating a lot.<\/p>\n They’re often not communicating throughout the year, though. <\/p>\n “To employees, it all converges in that 10 to 14 days that is open enrollment, and they’re bombarded,” MacLean said. Plus, most employees actually spend very little time thinking about their benefits even during open enrollment, he added. They just “kind of click through” the various options.<\/p>\n The Problem With Open Enrollment Communication<\/p>\n Most often, companies focus the bulk of their benefits-related communication during open enrollment season. That can be problematic.<\/p>\n “It may not be a convenient time for [employees] to think about it. They may be jammed up with personal issues or issues at work,” MacLean suggested. <\/p>\n The big “aha” he drew from the research is that “open enrollment is an excellent time for employees to codify their elections, but it’s not a good time for employees to really understand what benefits are appropriate for them and which aren’t and to make informed decisions.” There’s just too much coming at them in a short timeframe, he said. <\/p>\n The key takeaway for the disconnect that this research suggests\u2014employees, en masse, say they want more benefits communication and<\/em> HR thinks they’re already communicating a lot\u2014is that yes, they want more education, but “I think they want it in digestible and relatable ways,” MacLean said.<\/p>\n Megan Yost is senior vice president and engagement strategist in the communications practice of Segal, an HR and employee benefits consulting firm with locations in the U.S. and Canada. A common employer mistake, she said, is trying to cram “too much information in at once. If you think about it from the employee perspective, if you give them too much information at once, it just frustrates, confuses and intimidates them\u2014therefore, they don’t do anything, or they just stick with what they’ve done before.” <\/p>\n MacLean and others offered some specific tips to help close communication gaps around benefits offerings.<\/p>\n Tips for Closing Benefits Communication Gaps<\/p>\n 1. Use different messaging and channels for different cohorts.<\/p>\n Benefits communication shouldn’t be one-size-fits-all. A new, recently graduated, 22-year-old single employee has different benefits needs and interests than a married employee who is 62, nearing retirement and dealing with significant health concerns.<\/p>\n “Zero in on the messaging that’s likely to be more relevant, and flip the script,” MacLean suggested. “Get into specific generational messaging that is relatable and delivered in bite-sized pieces.” <\/p>\n Matt Wolf is senior vice president of business development for Greenlight, a financial technology company based in Atlanta. He said that in a recent Greenlight survey, “we found that working parents, in particular, are seeking better family-friendly benefits that can help support their financial wellness.” <\/p>\n In fact, he said, “98 percent of working parents said employee benefits that impact their family’s well-being are important.” <\/p>\n Wolf added that 81 percent of respondents also said the state of the economy has increased their financial stress and anxiety. Respondents “ranked financial education as one of the top three most important additional employee benefits, alongside mental health and professional development,” he said.<\/p>\n In addition to sharing different information based on employee needs, organizations should also use different channels, said Reyna Herrera, benefits manager with Servicon, an environmental, custodial and maintenance services provider based in Culver City, Calif. “No one method works for all, so providing information in a variety of ways is important,” she said.<\/p>\n She recommended the use of all available technology\u2014from text, email and snail mail to live presentations with reinforcements through reminders from direct managers. When you have a diverse workforce, Herrera said, “you have some individuals that rely on text and social media and others that rely more on live explanations or traditional regular mail to receive and review materials. Add to that different cultures, language and other barriers, and that adds another layer to the communication challenge.”<\/p>\n Not only do we all learn and retain information in different ways, said Herrera, but “we have a better opportunity to retain information by hearing it frequently.” <\/p>\n 2. Use the entire calendar year to educate people in very small, specific ways.<\/p>\n