Posted by Jamie Rivard on Tue, Feb 22, 2011 @ 04:00 PM
One of the positive aspects of health care reform is that it has forced employers to evaluate their employee benefit programs on a consistent basis. No more planning 60 days out from open enrollment. In addition, the need to communicate changes and rules to employees are now mandatory. So you ask, how do we get started?
Learn how to communicate with your employees. That’s different from telling them something or sending out emails. Effective communications is both a function and a practice. Have you surveyed your employees and asked how to most effectively communicate? That might be a good starting point. As a company, you are spending 40% or more of your payroll on benefit cost. Are you also taking the next simple step of effectively communicating those benefits? A study done by Colonial Life shows that only 21% of employees fully understand their benefits.
Revisit the value of 1 on 1 meetings with employees. If you can logistically make this happen, you absolutely should. In this post-reform era of increasing deductibles and out-of-pocket cost to employees, they deserve to understand what their personal financial liability is and how the effective placement of voluntary benefits can reduce that risk. You just can’t communicate that in an email or newsletter. Allegiance Health Care in Jackson Michigan utilizes one on one meeting with their employees regarding their benefits. In fact, the meetings aren’t even mandatory, yet 80% of their employees attend.