Even the best staff benefits are worthless if no-one knows about them. Here’s how to shout about your benefits to employees.

Research recently undertaken by AIG UK Benefits indicates that organisations need to re-focus on employee benefits and engage with their employees in the selection of benefits. Individuals need to understand and be aware of the range of products that are on offer to them and how, on an individual basis, they can be of benefit. It's possible to take some simple steps to ensure the communication process in your organisation is working to the best advantage of your people.

Successfully communicating the advantages, scope and potential impact of benefits is therefore an increasingly important activity for employers to undertake – they need to let their people know they are doing something positive for them and ensure they understand exactly what products and solutions are available.

Author: Terry Pegg, head of sales (UK and Ireland), AIG UK Benefits

Topic: Reward, comp & bens

OVERVIEW

The range of employee benefits is growing rapidly and the products available in the market now have the potential to impact on every area of an employees’ life.

WHEN TO USE THIS GUIDE

• When developing, reviewing or refreshing your employee benefits communications strategy.

• Following feedback from employees or managers on your existing employee benefits communications strategy.

• When implementing new employee benefits offerings. Are you confident you have channels and tools in place that are effective in communicating the benefits on offer and will meet the needs of your employees?

10-STEP ACTION PLAN
 
1. Review your benefits portfolio

Investing time to review your benefits offering is a key first step in the communications process: it's no good investing in or communicating benefits that are out-of-date and not relevant to your workforce. Ask yourself if or how current benefits add value? Do you know which rewards are most valued by employees?

2. Position benefits alongside your business strategy

Also consider aligning your ongoing business goals and objectives with a deep-rooted review of your benefits offering. Do you want to attract or retain particular groups of employees? Or do you want to encourage a greater emphasis on work-life balance issues throughout the business? Does the market offer benefits that would enable you to do this?

3. What do you want to say about your benefits?

Once you are confident your benefits portfolio matches the needs of your employees you need to clarify what you want to say about them and to whom. It’s not possible to take off-the-shelf communications programmes and apply them directly to your business; every organisation has different employee structures, needs and opinions. For employees to make informed choices about the benefits that suit them best, they need to be aware of the choices that are available. Therefore, communications need to be focused on both the benefits that are on offer as well as their value (financial and non-financial) to employees and, if applicable, their dependants.

4. Can your benefits provider do some of the work?

Often benefits providers will support your benefits communications programme. They may be able to offer marketing and communications material to use alongside your corporate information. They may also be willing to develop material that is tailored for your business. After all, it is in their interest that employees have the necessary information to support any purchasing decisions.

5. How can line managers help?

Line managers have a unique role to play in communicating benefits; the direct relationship they have with employees (compared with the more removed relationship of HR or senior managers, for example), gives them the opportunity to speak more openly and build on their already established relationship.

However, you should recognise that line managers have other pressing priorities and their buy-in and interest must be sought when it comes to involving them in the benefits communication process. Employee engagement and loyalty are important to their success too and the opportunity offered by employee benefits to share positive information should not be underestimated.

6. Enlist the support of other groups and individuals

The potential to communicate employee benefits through other stakeholder groups, including trade unions and employee committees, should also be considered as they have a key role to play in the development and delivery of your communications strategy.

7. Is there a best way to communicate with employees?

The answer is, in general, no, because organisations have such a huge choice when it comes to talking benefits.

Presentations at induction meetings for new starters, leaflets, booklets and brochures, internet or intranet content, face-to-face presentations and workshops, email alerts, company newsletters or magazines, total reward statements and material distributed at annual general meetings, are, for example, just some of the options available.

8. Don’t be afraid to experiment

In selecting communication channels you should be open to considering and experimenting with a range of communication methods to find the solution that works best for your people, organisation and the particular benefits being offered. Approaching communication in this way ensures a greater number of employees are reached and engaged and that they have access to relevant and up-to-date information.

9. Keep up the good work

Regular communication with employees is essential; without it employees will be unaware of the range of benefits on offer. By communicating proactively with people about benefits, you can ensure employees access to up-to-date and relevant information. In addition you can begin to build employee engagement and trust, which in turn can impact on retention, motivation and productivity levels.

Consideration should also be given to aligning ongoing communications to more general issues and objectives being tackled by the organisation. For example, promoting benefits to support work-life balance or corporate social responsibility issues, can support your organisation’s broader agenda in this area.

10. Step back and think again about your benefits

Taking time to review your offering – and asking others for their opinion – is a key step in the process of offering the ‘right’ benefits and communicating them in the ‘right’ way. This opportunity to refresh key messages about available benefits will ensure they remain targeted and applicable to your changing workforce and their evolving needs.

As well as utilising employee feedback, consider other evaluation measures, such as the take-up rates of individual products, the number of calls to product helplines and the specific problems or issues employees have encountered, to help you refresh your communications strategy.

EXPECTED OUTCOMES | RESULTS

• You can work with your benefits provider to measure a significant increase in take-up of products and solutions.

• Feedback from employee groups, committees and line managers about the available benefits and their relevance to the workforce is positive, open and constructive.

• The number of queries about individual benefit products decreases as employees secure a better understanding of available products as a result of improved communications methods.

• Your confidence in the benefits portfolio and communication channels is increased; you feel happy to talk about and promote the products that are available to employees and encourage them to access information.
 
ABOUT AIG BENEFITS

AIG UK Limited is a member company of American International Group, Inc. (AIG), one of the world’s leading insurance and financial services organisations with operations in more than 130 countries and jurisdictions.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Contact: Terry Pegg
T: 020 7954 7000
E: terry.pegg@AIG.com
www.aiguk.co.uk

ADDRESS

The AIG Building
58 Fenchurch Street
London
EC3M 4AB