6 Tips to Help You Better Communicate Benefits to Your Employees

According to a survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans, only 19% of employees surveyed reported a high level of understanding about the details of their benefit plans. Are your employees educated, informed, and prepared to make the most out of their benefits plans?

Small Biz Advisor recently laid out six ways for employers to more effectively communicate information about their benefit plans to their employees. We’ve summarized the tips here for you:

1.     Email Your Employees with Information about Their Benefits

Emails are especially useful for announcing any major changes to your company’s benefits plan.

Even if there aren’t major changes on the horizon, it can be helpful to send out monthly or quarterly reminders about services and deadlines. Not everyone will use their benefits right away, which is why it’s good to remind them about what’s available.

2.     Hold Educational Seminars about Your Benefits Plan

Seminars can be especially important when you’re launching a new service or bringing on new team members.

To make educational workshops more effective, you can:

• Incorporate tutorials about benefit plans as part of the orientation process for new team members.
• Run seminars for all employees whenever a major change is planned.
• Leave the process open for invites, letting employees schedule an information session if they feel it’s necessary.

3.     Encourage Employees to Use Technology to Learn More about Their Benefits

Are there relevant websites that can help your employees learn more about their benefits? Are there apps that would streamline the claims process? Make sure your employees know about them!

Is your company on the Chambers of Commerce Group Insurance plan? Click here to learn more about the mybenefits® mobile app.

4.     Remind Employees about Claim Filing Deadlines for Core and Healthcare Spending Account Plans

Are important deadlines coming up that your employees need to know about? Whether you put together an email or organize an information session, let them know early. When it’s important, the more reminders the better!

5.     Promote Employee Assistance Programs

Whether your employees are searching for nutritional advice, help with anxiety and depression, or another concern, many benefit plans have built-in employee assistance programs that provide confidential access to experienced health professionals. It’s add-ons like these that can make benefit plans more valuable than many employees realize!

6.     Help Employees to Shop Smart and Get the Most out of Their Benefits

Certain things – including prescription drugs – can come with high price tags. Shopping around will help employees make the most of their benefits without squeezing their wallets.

As an employer, you can help your employees by:

• Informing them about pharmacies you know of with lower dispensing fees.
• Encouraging them to purchase generic drugs whenever possible.

Taking steps to educate your employees about their benefits plan will help keep them – and your workplace – healthy and productive!

HFG offers stable benefits solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. Get in touch with an HFG advisor today to get started! 

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