Explaining benefits

Help your employees understand their benefits before they need them.

By Todd Shryock

Taking the time, effort and money to put together a competitive benefits package isn’t enough to keep the best employees.

Some may leave for another company because they think they’re getting a better benefits package when, in fact, your company has a similar offering. The difference is, the other company took the time to fully explain all the details and options available, making their package seem like a better deal.

“Benefits are really important to employees,” says Marybeth McNeil, human-resource manager for Schwartz Communications, a Waltham, Mass.-based public relations firm. “If they don’t know what they have, it can hurt your employee-retention efforts. You really need to let them know how their benefits work. You shouldn’t have employees calling from the doctor’s office asking what their insurance covers.”

McNeil uses a series of group meetings to make sure everyone is up to date on the benefits available, and what they need to do to use them properly.

“I find the best way is to get a small group of 10 or 15 people,” she says. “The communication works better with a smaller group. Someone from the health plan, or a human-resources person, will run the meeting. This helps stimulate questions. It’s not only a good time to explain them, but a good time to publicize them as well.”

Meetings are limited to an hour, and are usually scheduled in the morning when attendees are most alert and attentive.

If the company is rolling out a new benefits plan, someone will talk about every aspect of the change, including which doctors are included and what the options are if an employee’s particular doctor isn’t on the new plan.

“I’ve tried communicating some aspects through mailings,” says McNeil. “The thought is, you catch them at home, but less people read it than you would think.”

McNeil supplements her group meetings with payroll inserts and bulletin board postings when necessary. There are also monthly 401(k) meetings for anyone who wants to attend.

Making sure your employees have a full understanding of their benefits can be good for the company, not only in employee recruiting and retention, but in productivity as well. Employees who are less distracted by benefits issues can concentrate more on their work, and employees who understand how to use their benefits stay healthy or get well and return to work sooner.

Towers Perrin, a Chicago-based benefits consulting firm, recommends a five-step process to formulate an effective communications program:

• Define ideal perspectives. What perceptions do you want your employees to hold and which should not exist? For example, how should employees view their benefits relative to the competition?
• Identify current perceptions. Ask the employees what their perceptions are and listen. Conduct surveys and create focus groups that can help target issues. Focus groups also provide opportunities to educate employees about other benefits and to test communication approaches before the formal program begins.
• Evaluate the identified gaps. Once the employees have been interviewed, gaps will appear between the desired and actual perceptions. Evaluate those gaps and develop a strategy to narrow them. The strategy forms the basis of a work plan that includes a schedule, a list of communication materials required and designated responsibilities.
• Implementation. By this point, 80 percent of the work is probably done. Test and retest everything including the messages and the organization of the information to further narrow any gaps. Be willing to make changes as needed.
• Evaluate overall effectiveness. If interim success in meeting goals has been evaluated and refinements have been made along the way, there won’t be any major surprises in the final evaluation.

Approaching this as a strategic process will shape employee perceptions to help meet the company’s business goals, and it will also help employees meet their personal needs.