• Satisfaction with company benefits like health insurance and retirement plans is strongly correlated with an employee’s understanding of these plans.
• Highly visual, consumer friendly, and interactive online tools can be used to drive employees to the right health insurance with the goal of containing costs for both the employer and employee.
• Regarding retirement plans, the goal is to use the same online tools to increase employee participation and assist the employee in attaining a comfortable retirement nest egg.

Benefits can influence turnover and productivity indirectly by having a positive effect on employee buy-in to a company. Companies continue to spend millions of dollars annually on benefits without employees even realizing it. If for no other reason, an employer should be doing everything possible to educate its employees on the value of the benefit plans, as well as how they operate. Employee turnover and lost productivity — both expensive in themselves — can have a great impact on the overall profit of the company.

Two of the most common benefit areas that employees are at a loss to understand, are health insurance and retirement plans. Just the terminology alone can be overwhelming, or to anyone not familiar with benefit plans.

Health care plans

Employers need to educate employees in a way that is clear, concise, and easy to understand. Employers need to develop communications designed to influence opinions and change behaviors — to drive the right employees to the right plans. The goal is to contain health care costs for both organizations and employees and to help employees become good healthcare consumers.

If available, online tools for healthcare education can offer:

• Healthcare selection information,
• Medical cost estimators,
• Consumer Drive Health Plan (CDHP) modeling,
• Flexible Spending Account (FSA) calculators,
• Needs analysis,
• Educational tours of doctors/hospitals,
• Claims status of personal account,
• Account balance (if applicable, i.e., Health Reimbursement Account (HRA)), and
• Current, reliable information on medical conditions and prescription drugs.

Many insurance carriers can now provide a system of unbiased health information and tools that enable users to assess health risks, evaluate treatment options, and learn how to live healthier. Ideally the system would be highly visual, interactive, and consumer-friendly, making it very informative to employees and family members. The content would be current, well-researched, physician-reviewed, and unbiased.

Retirement plans

If available, online tools for retirement plan education can offer:

• Daily valuation of account balance,
• Retirement planning modeling,
• Investment options,
• Prospectus information,
• Beneficiary designations,
• Investment election,
• Deferral percentage, and
• Pension calculator tools.

When it comes to retirement plans, the goal is to increase participation and assist employees in attaining the goal of being able to retire with a comfortable nest egg.

Benefit communication methods

Technology now makes benefits communication a bit easier by providing the means to do this. However, it is up to the employer to take advantage of the new technology and use it to its fullest potential. If these electronic advances are not available to an organization, then paper-based information and enrollment can also be used.

There are several vehicles that can be used to accomplish this goal. They include:

• Newsletters,
• Group meetings (either by employer or vendor),
• Individual meetings (usually by vendor for those interested),
• Announcement letters and fliers for new plans or changes to existing plans,
• PowerPoint presentations,
• E-mail communications,
• Posters,
• Weekly “lunch & learn” sessions,
• Side-by-side charts showing employee/employer contributions to plans, and
• Total compensation statements.

It can be a bit overwhelming for employees to look at benefit options for the first time and make decisions affecting the medical and financial future of their families. Imagine how relieved an employee will be to be educated in advance on how the benefits plans work and the various options to choose from. Open enrollment period is the prime time to implement this, but don’t let it be a one-time only attempt. Employee communication and education should be an ongoing process for a company. A little preparation goes a long way.