“The Great Resignation” has proven to be quite a challenge for organizations in all sectors. While it has inspired workers to seek more flexibility and options to redesign their working lives, it has placed employers under immense pressure to rethink how they attract and retain talent.

Naturally, one of the ways they try to achieve this is by providing employees with competitive benefits. But in an environment where the needs and expectations of today’s job market are constantly changing, it’s become more difficult than ever for organizations to create a package that meets their unique requirements. Additionally, the remote work environment has made it more difficult to effectively communicate with existing employees and keep up to date with their benefits options.

As such, it is becoming increasingly critical that HR and benefits teams adopt the right strategies and processes to enlighten candidates about their offers and educate employees on how best to take advantage of them. They need to keep the momentum of open-enrollment season, which is when employee engagement typically spikes, and learn how to better leverage effective long-term communication to put their benefit offerings to their advantage. service. Here’s how.

Recognize the drop in registrations after the opening
Open enrollment season is one of the busiest times of the year for HR. Often, multi-pronged communication strategies are needed to create these vital two-way channels for sharing health insurance information with employees. Employers often implement these measures during the OE season. But after a few months of effective communication, awareness unfortunately tends to dwindle, which can leave employees confused and frustrated.

Beyond open enrollment, employees aren’t fully aware of their benefits, especially when it comes to some of the more complex benefits available to them, such as health care. In reality, 62% of American workers say they only have a basic understanding of their healthcare options and benefits. In ordinary times, this would present a significant challenge for HR teams who need to educate their colleagues about their healthcare options. But during this historic reshuffling of workers and an incredibly competitive job market, this could have adverse effects on growth.

Hiring qualified talent is already more complicated than ever, so employers need to close the existing knowledge gap in order to support and retain employees. Because in truth, having a solid understanding of an organization’s benefits package can be enough to convince an employee on the fence to stay – which could be the difference between increased communication or more resources devoted to recruiting. . Meanwhile, a well-communicated benefits plan could also persuade a candidate to accept your offer. Therefore, it is imperative that every organization and its HR team practice effective and informative communication throughout the year. Those who do will likely see a great return on investment.

Empower employees to maximize their benefits
This year’s open enrollment season highlighted just how important proactive communication is when it comes to effectively engaging your employees. According to the aforementioned study, 46% of employees surveyed said their employer had not yet started communicating information about open enrollment on November 1 – the first day of the start of OE. Given the scale of the stakes for workers during open enrollment – the only time they are eligible to update their health insurance coverage to meet their needs for next year – this is extremely disturbing.

The reality is that a lack of appropriate and timely communication around this event could have serious financial and emotional consequences for employees looking to change their coverage, and the fact that nearly half of all employees had no received communication about this before the start of the period should be alarming. Given the importance of open enrollment, it’s fair to assume that less relevant events, such as coverage updates or changes, new benefits, or savings account details, are missing. also thorough communication.

Between HSAs, FSAs, HRAs, PPOs, HPOs, HDHPs, EAPs, welfare benefits, and even more benefit options, there is an exorbitant amount of detail that employees need to know. to get the most out of their health care benefits. Fortunately, there are three recommended ways to improve benefits communications in a way that enables employees to understand and use the benefits available to them.

1. Proactive communication: It is the responsibility of the benefits team to proactively communicate benefit changes, updates and reminders. By providing this information upfront, employees will feel less in the dark when comparing the benefits they are using versus the benefits available.

• Self-service center: When questions arise, there should be an accessible location that houses all the information for each benefit. This will allow employees to know exactly where to go for information on their benefits.

• A dedicated contact: When employees can’t find an answer to their question on the hub, they should have a trusted, designated contact within the organization to go to with their benefits inquiries. Responses should be timely and helpful, and like all internal communication efforts, employees should feel able to engage in honest two-way communication.

When organizations are able to do these three things, they can increase loyalty and satisfaction by providing better employee experiences. Employees will have complete assurance that they have adequate information about their benefits, allowing them to make the best decisions for themselves and their families. Employers should also reap the rewards. On the one hand, this type of engagement could open up an incredible opportunity for them to reevaluate and ultimately improve their benefits experience. Plus, it could lead to a pretty remarkable return on investment in the form of better employee satisfaction, greater retention, and improved reputation which, in turn, would help them attract the best. talents.

Using technology to improve the employee benefits experience

Many organizations today need to communicate from an all-remote or hybrid capability, which can be challenging, especially considering that 23% of employees say their employer still relies on meetings in person to communicate on open registration. Organizations looking to deliver a frictionless benefits experience to a distributed workforce would be wise to implement intelligent messaging technology that meets the needs of today’s employees by leveraging seamless communication. personalized and two-way. Many of these technologies provide scalable automations and easily adhere to communication channels already in use, such as text messaging, DM platforms, and even existing internal communication hubs.

Supportive technologies can help benefits teams by applying systems that provide employees with thorough and proactive communication, timely responses to inquiries, and an abundance of insight into benefits details. Additionally, using these technologies can help create an effective communication strategy that equates to more employee engagement and loyalty. By giving employees immediate visibility into their policies and facilitating more streamlined and personalized interactions, their unique needs can be met more quickly and the relationship with the employees organization will be strengthened.

Communicating the complex benefits landscape to a distributed workforce is no easy task, but changing benefits communication strategies to allow employees to take advantage of all of their benefits not just around open enrollment, but throughout the year could offer huge rewards for organizations looking to support their employees. and increase retention. By supporting employees beyond open enrollment and effectively communicating all benefits offered, employees will feel loyal and secure year-round.

Ford Blakely is the founder and CEO of Zingle Inc. As a frustrated, entrepreneurial consumer, Ford sought to find an easier and faster way to order his latte in the morning. It did – and in 2009, Zingle was born as the first two-way business-to-customer communication platform. Zingle empowers businesses to engage, support, and respond to customers in more meaningful and impactful ways. The Zingle platform combines artificial intelligence and machine learning with workflow automation and mobile messaging, enabling brands to deliver exceptional customer experiences in real time. Leading brands across different verticals, including hospitality, food and beverage, retail, and more, use Zingle to increase efficiency, improve operations, and delight customers.