Effectively Communicating Benefits to Employees

[Guest Stacey Irey]

I am currently a college student and am working on a project for effective ways of communicating benefits to employees. Besides the internet and intranet, are there any alternative ways companies are communicating this information? Any insight would help. Thank you.

[Guest Lori Senter]

As a benefits communication specialist, I struggle with just this dilemma every day. "Effective" is such a subjective word. I can give you some basic things that I have learned. If you want to discuss further, feel free to e-mail me directly.

The one main thing underlying all employee communication is that people don't care what you have to say unless it impacts them directly. Employees won't pay attention unless it affects them in some personal way.

Therefore, the idea is to communicate on a regular basis (a repeating cycle) so that you'll hit a few employees each time. I've also found it helpful to communicate in a variety of media (print, e-mail, voice mail broadcast, video, etc.) because, again, you'll hit a few more employees each time.

Benefits communication is no different than any other in that it follows all the "rules" of basic communication theory -- know you audience, make your message stand out from the "noise" around it, etc. Even though you may be sending a message to thousands of people, it's reaching them one by one, and it helps to remember that when you're creating the message.

Well, I could go on and on as this is something I feel really strongly about. Let me know if I can give you more information.

[Guest Vicki Dungan]

Lori's response is on target. I'd just add that Internet and Intranet are great tools, but they will only reach a certain group of people -- those with access to computers at work or at home. If your audience is made up of employees who are on the road a lot (such as a sales force, delivery drivers and others) or who do not work at desks (such as manufacturing plant workers, hospital workers and others), you have to use media that they will be attracted to and find easy to use. The list of possible media is really only limited by your imagination -- in addition to computer-based media, you can use all sorts of print media, video, audio, meetings, calculation tools, etc.

The most important thing you can do -- in addition to knowing and targeting your audience -- is to develop objectives for the communication and measure the results. This is how you'll know whether or not it was "effective."

If you have other questions just post them or send me an email -- Good luck!

[Guest kchristy]

Most people want information "just in time"; in other words, they want what they want when they want it. Lori is absolutely right when she says that if people don't perceive an immediate relevance to them, they filter it out.

Given that, an e-mail from HR about benefits might be treated no differently than if it were spam.

We often find ourselves (we're broker/consultants) being a source of information for employees with questions when the HR folks either don't know the answer or don't have the time for researching answers. When these folks learn something about their plan, they tend to share the info readily with their co-workers, who take it in much more receptively than in a benefits meeting, where those who do show up are often just waiting for the meeting to be over so they can get back to their lives.

Communication of benefits certainly is an art.

[Guest kchristy]

Another thought: a tool that I would appreciate having available to me would be a natural-language benefits query, where I could ask questions such as, "What are the benefits for diabetic supplies", or "What is the maximum age for a dependent on my plan," or "Does my plan cover [whatever medication I'm interested in]." If the query then brought up the relevant sections of the SPD, I would find that very useful.

A sharp company could expand that program to include the full range of benefits offered, and include the employee handbook as well. Employees could then ask questions such as, "How many vacation days do I have left," and "how long do I have to be disabled before benefits are payable under the disability plan."

This, I believe, is a natural progression of technology in benefits. I guess it's just a matter of time.

[Guest dbob]

I struggle with finding ways to measure whether or not our benefits communication is "effective". Clearly, part of the battle is demonstrating to your sr. executives that the communications dollar is well-spent. Any ideas? (and I agree, by the way that it is an "art").

A second question: in rolling out new communication initiatives, has anybody had success with "piloting" a program with a smaller population before rolling it out to the larger group? I look forward to your response(s).

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Thank you,

D.

[This message has been edited by dbob (edited 03-11-99).]

[Guest Vicki Dungan]

Measurement is always the challenge -- as is figuring out what to measure. We try to identify actual behavior changes that we want to accomplish (i.e., enroll in savings plan, save more $, fewer questions) as they are easier to measure than opinions. They also help you show ROI of communication to management. We also have a great system for measuring employee opinions -- using paper, email or web site -- and recommend doing it on an ongoing basis. That way you can measure the effect of specific events (commuication and otherwise) on employee opinion. Since it is electronic, the data entry and analysis are faster and less costly.

On your second question, pilots work well (I've done several) if the subject matter and employee population are appropriate for it. You can't "pilot" something that applies to everyone at the same time, for example. We almost always use focus groups, however, to test communication methods and messages prior to actual rollout. That's something like a pilot in many cases.

Feel free to contact me directly if you wish.

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Vicki L. Dungan, ABC

The Adobe Group LLC

Washington, DC

vicki.dungan@adobegroup.com