How can you ensure your employees fully understand the value of your carefully curated benefits package? The answer lies in effective communication. The following steps — audit, develop and evaluate — will help you optimize your employee communications strategy to improve employee awareness of and participation in your benefits plan.

Audit Your Current Communications Strategy

Auditing involves looking at your current communications strategy through a critical lens. What are you doing well? Where is there room for improvement? The goal is to identify the key pain points that need to be addressed.

We recommend talking to your employees to get their feedback, evaluating your existing benefits-related content and identifying any gaps in your current communication channels.

Your workforce is likely generationally diverse and comprised of employees with varying levels of comfort with technology and vastly different communication preferences, so your communications strategy should include a healthy mix of digital and print outreach.

Develop Your Year-Round Communications Plan

Once you’ve identified key pain points in your current communications strategy, it’s time to outline how you’re going to address them. Keep in mind that consistency is crucial. It’s important to deliver a steady stream of content throughout the year to keep employees informed leading up to, during and after open enrollment.

Consider creating a communications calendar to keep track of what content will be developed and provided to employees throughout the year. This can help ensure you’re delivering the right information to your workforce at the right time.

Create & Deliver Impactful Content

Once you’ve determined the “when,” it’s time to address the “what.” What content will you develop and what channels will you leverage?

Creating a variety of engaging, branded materials will help you present a cohesive, thoughtful message that resonates with your employees. Consider developing a digital benefits guide, an interactive benefits website, custom videos and eye-catching print materials.

It’s also essential to leverage a range of communication channels to ensure effective connection with your various employee groups. A multi-channel communications strategy may involve:

• Instant messaging platforms 
• Social media platforms  
• Video broadcasting tools 
• Interactive, trackable content software 
• Mass email platforms 
• Direct mail for postcards, flyers and other print materials 

Evaluate the Impact of Your Optimized Strategy

After you’ve implemented your new and improved employee communications strategy, you must critically evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts.

If you’ve taken a digital approach to developing and delivering your employee communications content, you’ll likely have access to a wide range of valuable data analytics that can help identify which content pieces and communication channels were the most and least effective.

In addition to the data, employee feedback will continue to be invaluable as you tweak your approach. Conduct follow-up employee surveys and focus groups after open enrollment to gauge the effectiveness of your new benefits communications.

Once you’ve collected your data and talked to your employees, adjust your communications strategy accordingly. Continuing to improve your benefits communications year after year will help ensure that your organization’s approach is evolving alongside your workforce and the larger business landscape.

Connect with our team at CBIZ Employee Benefits to learn more about building a strong benefits communication strategy.