Communicating Benefits Effectively to Employees

You could have a great benefits package with plenty of perks, but if you aren’t communicating these benefits effectively to your employees, they may not truly understand what they have or what is available to them. Properly communicating your benefits package to employees is equally as important as choosing what benefits you will be offering. After all, if your employees don’t know what they have, how will they use it? So, what can you do to educate your employees and bridge that communication gap?

Verbal Communication

• Consider allowing only Human Resources personnel to discuss benefits information with employees. Misinformation by anybody else could cause employee relations problems and have the possibility of causing litigation.
• Avoid making any promises regarding any aspect of the benefits plan that the company may not be able to complete, whether saying it formally or informally
• Inform your employees as early and often as possible of the benefits available to them. New hires and open enrollment periods are perfect for initial and ongoing discussion to ensure everyone remains up-to-date
• Provide a number for employees to call when they have questions about their employee benefits plans. If you have detailed questions your human resources professionals don’t know the answers to, your broker is a good point of contact.

Written Communication

• Keep a copy of each communication or disclosure sent to employees
• Educate your employees with materials via email or newsletters that can give them bits of information at different times throughout the year to keep them informed of all of your benefits offerings.
• Provide each employee with a copy of your benefits handbook and direct them on how to find any information they would readily need
• Ask for feedback – survey your employees to gauge their level of understanding and what they feel could improve their experience most

At Faison Group, we strive ourselves in providing all of the benefits offerings you need along with implementation and communication resources.