Hi there, it's your favorite benefit communicator, Clarity Claire! As an HR professional, you understand the importance of effectively communicating employee benefits, features, and perks. It's an essential part of keeping employees engaged and informed about the valuable benefits your company offers.
But sometimes, finding the correct mix of communication that works for your organization and workforce can be difficult. But don't be afraid! I have rounded up a few of my favorite tried-and-true communication strategies to ensure that your benefit updates resonate with your team clearly and effectively. Let's take a look!
Why Clear Communication Matters in HR
Do you know that 54% of employees want to have targeted, in-depth recommendations about benefits? Or that almost half of all employees say it’s hard to understand their benefits during open enrollment?
These statistics tell us how important it is to communicate the benefits in such a way that it resonates with your team. A lack of communication may cause confusion and disengagement. Employees may not understand or fully utilize their benefits as intended due to this lack of communication, which can ultimately impact their satisfaction and retention.
Effective Strategies in Benefit Communication
Communication of employee benefits is important in ensuring that every person in the organization understands and appreciates what is available to them. When this is clearly communicated, it shows that you care about their satisfaction, which helps increase employee engagement and retention.
Here are some strategies to make improvements to communicate these key benefits:
- Create a Detailed Communication Plan. First things first: having a plan is key. A communication plan simply helps organize how and when updates will be shared with employees. It ensures that everyone receives the same information at the right time. In addition, it provides a road map for managing any changes that may arise.
- Utilize Multiple Communication Channels. Your organization’s employees consume their information differently, so you have to employ different modes of communication to keep them informed. From emails and newsletters to publishing in the intranet and virtual meetings, make sure you cover all the bases to keep everyone in the loop.
- Encourage Two-way Communication. Employee benefits discussions should not be a one-way street. Build a rapport in which employees can talk about their benefit solutions and features, prompting questions and feedback comfortably. This can be provided through Q&A sessions, feedback forms, or even a dedicated email address where employees can send inquiries.
- Train and Equip Managers and HR Teams. Management and human resource teams are responsible for communicating benefits to workers. Ensure they have relevant information that allows them to engage with team members on the advantages. These could be in the form of training sessions or dedicated resources directed to them for responding to questions.
- Measure Communication Outcomes. Finally, you want to measure how well your communication efforts have gone. You can do this by measuring things such as how your benefits administration platform performed, benefit utilization, employee feedback, and number of questions received. By measuring success, you understand where you could improve and optimize your updates to achieve the best outcomes possible.
Employee Benefits Communication Simplified
Clear employee benefits communication can help create a positive culture in the workplace. This helps address one of the biggest pain points for HR: confusion and disengagement, bringing morale and engagement up.
Want to dig deeper into other solutions or tools that might help you work smarter and not harder on benefit communications? Contact a Clarity rep today!
Here’s to clearer communications ahead!
Clarity Claire
