How to communicate your employee benefits to ‘offline’ workers
In the current digital age, communicating is hard enough, especially when you consider how heavily people are exposed to information day in and day out. But that challenge is even bigger when you are trying to communicate with individuals who don’t typically use digital devices. Yes, despite many of us being slightly glued to our phones, there are still plenty of people who are less chronically online!
It’s also likely why many companies struggle to effectively communicate their benefits offering to what we call ‘offline’ workers. These are individuals who don’t have a corporate email address and typically don’t use a laptop or computer in their day-to-day jobs. On top of that, they also might not have much direct communication with managers and team members outside of the physical workplace. These individuals might work in sectors such as retail, hospitality, construction or healthcare. As you can imagine, as more elements of the modern workplace move into the digital space, this can provide a hurdle in communicating employee benefits effectively.
For this reason, you need to be creative when communicating your benefits offering to offline workers. Thankfully, there are plenty of effective ways of doing this. From events to merchandise, your company can target offline workers and share with them your fantastic benefits offering so they don’t miss out. To keep it short and simple, let’s take a look at five of the best ways to do this…
CREATIVE WAYS TO COMMUNICATE YOUR BENEFITS TO OFFLINE EMPLOYEES
Company events should be high on the list of priorities for any employer, particularly those with offline workers. They have numerous benefits including strengthening teams, boosting social wellbeing and providing valuable networking opportunities. Plus, they provide an ideal backdrop for promoting the launch or revamp of an employee benefits platform.
By gathering your team together in one central location, you’ll be able to efficiently communicate and showcase the value of your benefits platform on a wide scale. The interactive element and buzz of in-person events will also be a powerful tool for generating excitement amongst your people. On top of this, you’ll be able to utilise the physical space and incorporate all kinds of merchandise and promotional collateral – such as posters, leaflets, coasters, badges and TV displays – to further drive engagement.
By ensuring attendees have something physical to take away with them that features your platform logo and the URL or QR code they need to access their benefits, they’ll have a constant reminder long after the event has finished. They’ll also have all the information they could possibly need to access their platform and get involved – no more missing out on great benefits!
1. HOLD IN-PERSON EVENTS
2. USE PHYSICAL PROMOTIONAL ITEMS AND MERCHANDISE
Promotional items and merchandise are your best friend when you’re communicating your benefits offering and platform to offline workers. From pre-launch and all the way through their platform’s journey, you can promote your benefits as well as keep users up to date on any new releases and campaigns via a variety of branded items.
But before you start handing out freebies, think about what your employees will really enjoy receiving and will use frequently. For example, once your platform has launched, you could send a welcome pack to employees’ home addresses with an introductory postcard or leaflet and a selection of branded items. For offline workers, this might be the first they’ve heard of your platform, so you want to make it really clear what is on offer, the value it can bring them, and how they can access it. Plus, you’ll be giving them a nice, personalised pick-me-up that they’re sure to appreciate and remember.
In the modern working world, noticeboards and posters might seem a bit old-school. But if your employees won’t be accessing an email inbox or company intranet where you can post updates, break rooms and public spaces where employees will be spending a considerable part of their working day can be a great alternative.
That said, you shouldn’t completely disregard digital communications. If your employees use screens and tablets, or there are TV displays in your workplace, it can be really valuable to incorporate these into your communications strategy.
Just remember that when communicating with any employee, it’s important to put yourself in their shoes. How can you make it as simple as possible for them to engage with and get the most out of your platform? For example, for some employees, it could be as simple as providing a QR code on posters that directs users to your benefits platform when scanned with a smartphone. Alternatively, if your employees don’t have their phones on them, or they don’t have one full stop, you could provide a kiosk with a tablet in their social area that they can use during their breaks to sign up and use the platform. It’s all about finding simple yet effective ways to connect with your people and make it easy for them to find out about and access your benefits offering.
3. UTILISE COMMON SPACES AND SOCIAL AREAS
5. ENCOURAGE MANAGER PARTICIPATION
Line managers are arguably the most important channel and driver when it comes to communicating with employees – especially if these employees can’t be reached online. Managers can be provided with tools such as presentation slides or they can even discuss company benefits with individuals during catch-ups. The added bonus in that is that individuals are more likely to resonate with the message when it’s personalised and comes from a manager they work closely with as opposed to someone further up the chain who they have minimal interaction with.
But seeing as this channel of communication allows for two-way dialogue, it’s crucial that your managers have the necessary training to ensure they’re equipped with knowledge about your business’s employee benefits platform. That way, they’ll be able to provide employees with a deeper level of understanding, answer any questions confidently and, overall, champion the platform.
Once you have successfully launched your benefits platform and it’s being used, a great way to ensure offline employees are aware of what they have access to is through general day-to-day discussions around the workplace. If your people are really enjoying the platform, encourage them to be advocates by launching a referral scheme whereby they can earn a set number of points or monetary reward for each successful referral they submit.
This way, individuals will be rewarded for spreading the word and recommending their benefits platform, meaning they’ll be more likely to communicate with their colleagues. As a result, awareness will continue to grow, and you’ll very likely see an increase in users signing up for the benefits platform – great news!
5. ENCOURAGE USER ADVOCACY USING REFERRAL SCHEMES
FINAL THOUGHTS
In a modern workplace where it seems everything is now online, targeting offline workers with your employee benefits communications might seem like a challenge. However, there are lots of creative channels that you can use to promote your benefits platform that don’t involve the internet including the ones we’ve covered.
Hopefully, the tips we’ve provided you are useful, but make sure you also reach out to your offline employees to understand what types of communications they prefer and will respond to. That way, you can be confident that the approach you take will be effective and positively contribute to the success of your employee benefits platform.
And if you get stuck, remember that you can always get in touch with us to discover more about how we can support you with your benefits offering and communicate it to your people. We know that there’s no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to both employee benefits and communications, which is why we offer a wide variety of communications support and targeted messaging to support clients in any way that they need. So, why not find out more about how we can help you communicate your valuable employee benefits to your people.
