What does the research say about closing the engagement gap when it comes to getting employees to use their benefits?
There are many potential reasons why employees may not take full advantage of the benefits provided by their HR teams.
The Top 4 Barriers to Employee Benefit Utilization:
Employees are often unaware of all the benefits that are available to them. HR teams can help address this by communicating benefits clearly and frequently through multiple channels. This has relevance to all forms of benefits, from employee assistance programs to health insurance options for obesity and other conditions.
Solutions:
Offer regular communication: HR teams can communicate benefits information regularly through multiple channels, such as email, newsletters, social media, or intranet sites. They can also use plain language and visuals to make the information easily understandable. It’s also essential to make sure the communication is relevant to the employees’ demographics, life stages, and job functions.
Provide educational resources: HR teams can create educational resources, such as guides, videos, webinars, and workshops, to help employees better understand their benefits. They can also provide access to online tools and calculators that allow employees to compare plan options and estimate costs. Research suggests that educational approaches lead to better-informed decisions among employees.
Host events: HR teams can organize events that focus on employee benefits, such as benefits fairs, Q&A sessions, or brown-bag lunches. These events can be opportunities to bring employees together, connect with HR professionals, and ask questions about their benefits. Additionally, HR teams can invite benefits providers to attend these events to explain their services, products, and support. The in-person advantage helps individuals feel heard and valued, both important for employee retention.
Some benefits can be complex to understand or navigate. For example, retirement plans and health insurance policies have many details and options. Employees may hit decision overload and lose enthusiasm for completing the full process. When benefit enrollments are cognitively demanding, employees with lower concentration abilities are more likely to avoid taking action. HR teams can help by providing resources and support easier to access to help employees make informed decisions.
Solutions:
Go digital for convenience: HR teams can use digital resources that employees can access anytime, anywhere, such as webinars, videos, e-learning modules, and digital guides. Research suggests that organizational resilience benefits from embracing digital benefit offerings. These can be hosted on the company intranet or made available through email or by partnering with digital benefits programs. Creating digital resources can also be cost-effective and can be easily updated or modified as needed.
Be willing to provide in-person training: Even though digital options win with convenience, the personal connections we make may remain most influential. HR teams can organize in-person benefits-related sessions, such as lunch-and-learn sessions, workshops, or seminars. These can be tailored to employee needs. In-person trainings can combat worker loneliness and build a sense of community better than virtual meetings. They are more interactive than most digital options, allowing for more efficient communication.
Partner with external providers: Benefit carriers or financial institutions are often eager to provide educational resources to employees. Communication directly from partners reduces odds of confusion and increases odds of utilization for positive employee outcomes. These partnerships deliver specialized expertise, such as healthy habit support, retirement planning, or financial literacy. Bringing the industry experts directly to the employees helps HR expand their influence and provide a wider range of resources.
Related to complexity, research shows that employees are reluctant to engage in benefits that take a lot of time. These educational seminars matter because they raise employee satisfaction. HR teams can help by offering resources and information that employees can access in convenient ways and by minimizing time constraints for employees.
Solutions:
Offer flexible work arrangements: Optimal employee support may include flexible scheduling for work-related benefits seminars. This helps them stay on-top of work tasks but also honors their personal needs to find out and use important employee benefits.
Streamline the benefits enrollment process: Enough detail in the process must remain for informed decision-making, but ensure the platform and process is clear and straight-forward.
Finally, employees don’t always see the value of certain benefits. HR teams can help by highlighting how these offerings align with employees’ needs and values.
Solutions:
Benefits reminders: Employers can communicate all the benefits available by making this info easy to find on the company’s intranet or displayed prominently in employee spaces at work. Benefits fairs are also a great way to encourage interaction about the value of certain options.
Incentives: Employers can offer incentives to encourage employees to use their benefits, such as discounts, drawings for prizes, or even earning small amounts of PTO as described above. All of these can nudge employees to establish new habits by connecting favorable behaviors to desirable outcomes.
Employee testimonials: Personal quotes or stories can showcase how employees have used their benefits to achieve specific goals or improve their lives, which can inspire other employees to use their benefits as well. This approach optimizes social reinforcement. Anonymous testimonials should also be considered to increase the number of employees willing to share their experiences.
Treo Wellness addresses the four barriers to employee benefits utilization by offering a platform that streamlines the communication, engagement and access to employee benefits. This gives employees a convenient resource hub that consolidates links, documents, and programs into one easy-to-navigate platform.
The HR teams of small to mid-sized companies don’t always have extra time for reminders and communication. That’s why the Treo Whole-person platform provides targeted emails, newsletters, webinars, and social media campaigns to increase awareness and personalized recommendations for benefit utilization.
Even at the employee level, Treo supports those with little time to spare by offering a healthy habit engagement tool that takes just 1-2 minutes a day. This helps employees stay on-track of their health and wellness goals without imposing unrealistic demands of their time.
Interested in how your team can learn more? Email us at info@treowellness.com to connect. We are driven to help your team create a healthier work culture that adds up to high employee engagement and satisfaction.
As Treo’s Global Wellness Researcher, Karlie uses recent research findings to support healthier daily habits. Karlie earned her doctorate in Neuroscience and Behavior and bachelors in Health and Exercise Science.
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