Employee Benefit Statements

[Guest Louis Gray]

I am looking for software that is used to produce Employee Benefit Statements. The infomation for the benefit statements is coming from ADP Perspective. If anyone has used software that gives good results, please let me know.

[Guest astees]

Fringe Facts software from Benefit Software Inc. www.bsiweb.com

800-533-1388

[Guest Chuck Miller]

I'm with astees... Fringe Facts is as good as it gets for creating generic benefit statements.

Now the question becomes, will a generic statement work for you... will it accomplish what you want? Presenting employee total comp and benefit costs do not guarantee they will have a greater appreciation of being employed by your organization.

Statements, to be truly effective, have to be marketing tools... tools that sell your comp and benefits program to employees. If Fringe Facts will do that for you... go and buy. If not, maybe you need to think about a less generic solution.

Any communication that doesn't do what you want it to do is money down the drain.

[Guest Chuck Miller]

To follow up with Mr. Gray's question, the following recently appeared on Dear Workforce, a part of Workforce Magazine:

An excellent way to demonstrate the total value of compensation is to provide employees with personalized benefit statements that show this information in a clear and specific way to each employee.

A benefits statement is a popular and cost-effective tool. The statement text can include tables, charts, and summary pages, and can range from a single page to a booklet. Statements can be delivered electronically, using any of the following methods: online via the Internet or a local intranet, e-mail attachments in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) or other format, or CD-ROM in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Paper statements can be mailed to the work site or directly to each employee’s home.

Benefit statements can:

Illustrate the overall cost, coverage, and value of benefits

reducing complaints and turnover

Convey personalized messages, information, or a corporate image

Increase knowledge of current or future benefit issues such as taxes, alternative benefit options, or plan changes

Be used as a retirement planning tool

Track benefit costs

Encourage feedback from employees.

Generally, effective communication that leads to a greater appreciation, comprehension, and education of benefits can help in the recruitment and retention of key employees.

SOURCE: Lydia Moore, vice president and practice leader, Personalized Communications and Pension Systems, The Segal Company, New York, New York, July 26, 2002.