The tight labor market has required employers to be more strategic than ever, and that goes double for communicating the value of benefits.
Benefits demonstrate empathy. And studies prove, employees are more loyal to organizations that demonstrate empathy. However, employees are not always aware of their benefits, or, they were never communicated fully during the onboarding process. What’s the key to successfully communicating benefits to your employees?
Transparency.
It’s a tough concept to capture in just a few words. Digital transformation expert Oscar Berg puts it this way. “It is about sharing all the information the receiver wants or needs, and not just the information that the sender is willing to share. It is about putting all facts on the table, even when some of them are uncomfortable… It is about enabling people to have conversations where questions can be asked and answered in open and honest ways, creating mutual understanding. It is about removing any barriers that hinder people from accessing the information they could need to be better at their jobs.”
All these attributes of transparency can be applied to benefits communication. Here are three tips for increasing your employees’ perception of transparency in the benefits you offer.
As my colleague, Sherri Bockhorst, mentioned in her March blog, new hire orientation matters. Whether your orientation is 5 hours or 5 days, make sure to set aside time to talk benefits. You already did the hard work of getting your new hires to sign the dotted line. During those negotiations, compensation was probably a major topic while benefits played second fiddle. But now that they’re hired and sitting in your orientation class, you have a fantastic opportunity to highlight the benefits you offer.
HR professionals often talk about “total rewards” as a concept; it’s the entire package of compensation, benefits and perks tied to a set of allocated funds for hiring and retention. To ensure your employees have the same holistic and transparent view of their benefits package, consider using a real-time total rewards solution: a fully integrated online platform that provides a complete view of their entire benefits and compensation package. With one cohesive set of data accessible from anywhere — e.g., a desktop or a mobile app — this kind of solution brings together vital financial and benefits information in a way that isn’t just user-friendly, but consumer-friendly. If you don’t have such a solution, pitch the idea to your decision makers using some salient value propositions. A total rewards solution can:
Increasingly, HR professionals are being asked to do more with less, especially when it comes to benefits: these teams are smaller than ever before, but are expected to deliver 2, 3 or 4 times as many options than they did just 10 years ago. As with many endeavors, the solution is not to work harder, but to work smarter. When communicating benefits to your employees, be transparent and think strategically. The result will be less work for you in the long run and a greater sense of trust among your employees.
Want to learn more about realizing the ROI on your benefits communication spend? Need ideas for making your case to the C-suite? Check out this infographic.