How To Communicate Employee Benefits Effectively
Employee benefits and rewards are fundamental when it comes to attracting and retaining top talent within your business. They also have the power to boost morale, engagement, productivity and workplace culture.
But the truth is that your benefits offering won’t deliver these results or help your people thrive without a strong communications strategy. You could have the best benefits and rewards around, but they’ll collect dust on the shelf if your team don’t know they’re there, or how to make the most of them.
Currently, only 40% of employee benefits are used on average. The key to increasing engagement with your benefits and rewards programme is regular, open communication from HR to keep people in the loop about what’s on offer to them. However, only 51% of employees feel that communication with HR is open. So, it’s time to bridge the communication gap!
Join us as we share the importance of clearly communicating your benefits offering to employees and top tips for HR professionals. With these insights, you’ll be ready to drive employee engagement with your benefits and rewards programme to boost your business long-term. Hooray!
Why is it important to communicate information about employee benefits?
Without effective and engaging employee benefits communication, your team won’t fully understand what they have access to or how to make the most of the benefits and rewards on offer to them. This can lead to all sorts of issues, from employees feeling undervalued or unsupported by their companies to decreased motivation and morale. All things no business wants to be faced with!
It’s clear that currently, employees are frustrated with communication gaps and that they feel there’s a disparity between leaders and team members. Therefore, it’s crucial that you identify ways for your C-suite and HR team to improve communication strategies and practice transparent, open communication.
To highlight the importance of effective employee benefits communication, here are just some examples of how it can positively impact your business and your people:
- Raises awareness: Clear communication of your benefits will ensure that your people understand what’s available to them which will, in turn, encourage them to take full advantage of their benefits and drive usage.
- Boosts engagement: By ensuring your team are properly informed about their benefits, you’ll help ensure they feel valued and supported. This will help you build stronger connections with your team, which naturally increases engagement and employee loyalty.
- Increases productivity: When people understand how to utilise benefits such as wellbeing tools and health cash plans, they can take steps to look after their overall wellness which will boost productivity and performance.
- Improves employee satisfaction: Open and honest communication in the workplace contributes to a happier, more supportive culture which increases employee wellbeing, job satisfaction and retention.
- Enhances business performance: When employees understand their benefits and make the most of them, they’re often more engaged, productive and motivated which all massively benefit business performance.
One final thing to highlight is that employees value empathy and connections, which is why engagement, productivity and performance are 14% higher in businesses that offer recognition schemes than those that don’t. So, it’s worth exploring how you can focus on meeting your people’s needs for recognition and connections through the benefits and communications you deliver.
5 ways to successfully communicate employee benefits
To ensure your benefits and rewards programme is successful, you need to clearly and openly communicate with employees about what they have access to and how it works. Thankfully, there are several steps you can take to improve communication practices and help your people get the most out of their company perks. Here are some best practices on how to communicate employee benefits:
1. Encourage regular communication
For many people, it’s easy to get swept up in day-to-day work and other life admin and forget to make the most of their benefits. That’s why it’s important to keep reminding your employees to explore and enjoy the benefits and rewards they have access to.
But this isn’t the only reason that regular communication is crucial for a successful benefits scheme. By consistently sharing information, updates and reminders about company benefits, you’ll help keep your employees engaged and ensure that they understand how to access and utilise their perks and rewards.
When it comes to the frequency of communication, 38% of HR managers suggest shifting from quarterly or annual updates to monthly updates. By introducing a monthly comms schedule to share updates and reminders about rewards and benefits, you’ll also better meet your team’s expectations, as 25% of employees want more frequent updates on rewards and recognition.
2. Implement tailored communication strategies
When it comes to employee benefits, one size doesn’t fit all. So, it stands to reason that your approach to communicating your benefits and rewards shouldn’t always be the same across the board either! While 40% of HR professionals recommend consistent messaging company-wide, 31% suggest that it should be tailored to each department.
By customising your communications to suit individual teams and considering the specific needs and cultures of departments, you’ll better connect with your employees and provide content that resonates with them. This will drive engagement and help your people understand their benefits, so they can get the most out of them.
3. Utilise multiple communication channels
If we’re being honest, we’re probably all guilty of missing the occasional email or message. In a world filled with information coming from all angles, it’s hardly surprising! So, bear that in mind when it comes to communicating with your employees about their benefits.
Increase the chance of getting your message through to them by using a variety of comms channels, such as emails, intranet updates, team meetings, digital platforms and even posters in the office, if you have that option. The best approach is to really get to know your team and understand which communication channels are the most effective, so you can tailor your approach accordingly. By leveraging a mix of communication tools and aligning your comms with your employees’ preferences, you’ll drastically increase connections and engagement.
4. Foster open and honest communication
When communicating with employees about anything, not just their benefits, it’s important to create an environment where HR professionals, managers and staff are comfortable taking part in open, honest conversations. This helps build trust and allows people to share feedback that helps better shape workplace practices in a way that benefits everyone. It also aligns with 76% of C-suite executives who affirm the openness of communication channels.
By openly and honestly communicating with your team about their benefits, you’ll ensure they feel kept in the loop and have the opportunity to provide feedback when needed. This will go a long way toward engaging people and creating a healthier company culture where they feel included in developing the schemes they’ll be using.
5. Champion emotional empathy
Nearly 7 in 10 (70%) of C-suite executives recognise the importance of emotionally connecting with their employees. The reason is that empathy is key when it comes to engaging your employees and supporting them. By showing that you truly understand your team’s needs and the challenges they face you’ll build stronger connections with them. In turn, this will help you cultivate a healthier workplace environment and drive morale, which will positively impact your entire business.
Furthermore, by better understanding your people, you’ll be able to tailor your benefits and communication so they’re more effective. To help you achieve this, promote initiatives like town halls, Q&A sessions and leadership visibility programmes. These all enhance emotional connections which will bring your team together, ultimately boosting engagement, culture and morale too!
Empathy and Employee Recognition | Learn MoreEnhance your employee benefits communication with Boostworks
It takes time to build strong relationships with your team and foster healthy, open communication that creates trust. But having the right tools in place will help you get there faster and more efficiently. Oh, and expertise in the art of communicating with employees, of course!
That’s where we can help. We’re a team of people experts with over 22 years of experience collaborating with businesses of all shapes and sizes to engage their people and help them thrive. We combine our understanding of people with our tech solutions to deliver meaningful benefits that make a real difference.
As part of our services, we also offer Boost Comms which is designed to help you connect with your team and keep them in the loop about what’s on offer. We send a range of creative and engaging comms resources such as emails and app push notifications to your people to help them make the most of their Boostworks platform. As part of this service, we also give you access to on-demand assets to use on your side. Pretty neat, right?
Find out more about how we can help you build connections with your employees. Book a demo today and let us show you how we boost!
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