It’s just a fact that employers, especially those in highly competitive industries, must have a striking benefits package to remain competitive in attracting and retaining the best employees. You probably spend a great deal of time and money providing your employees with an attractive benefits package, but do they actually appreciate what you’ve invested? Do they even have the slightest idea of how much it costs you to provide them with it?

Sadly, most employers will find that their employees have no idea what they invest in providing good benefits. In fact, a number of surveys have shown that most employees vastly underestimate how much their employer contributes toward their benefits. These surveys also typically find that employees tend to have a negative attitude about the benefits their employer offers. Most employees tend to focus more on elements like cost-sharing methods and uncomfortably rising premiums.

The good news is that most employees don’t have this attitude because they’re ungrateful, but rather because they really just don’t realize how much it costs you to provide them with their benefits. Considering you want and need a return on such a major investment, you are left with figuring out how to better educate your employees on your side of the story. Total compensation statements are one way you can show and tell the compensation story and help employees better appreciate their benefits.

Give Employees a Total Compensation Statement

If you asked your employees to write down their total compensation, they’d probably write down their gross income. Even though what you pay toward an employee’s benefits makes up a substantial portion of what you’re paying to keep them, an employee rarely considers what you’re paying toward their benefits as compensation.

You can illustrate the value of total compensation by breaking it down into various parts charts and graphs like the ones myBenefitStatements uses when they create a total compensation statement. When considering benefit total compensation statements, be sure to include any other compensation perks, such as employer-paid license fees, tuition reimbursement, on-site childcare, and so forth.

Include Cost as Part of Your Benefits Education

Most employers, whether it is during orientation for new employees or during annual enrollment periods, will provide at least one setting for employees to learn about their benefits. Employers shouldn’t miss out on the opportunity to also emphasize the value of the benefits being offered and to remind employees that benefits are part of their total compensation. myBenefitStatements is now partnering with a number of employer groups to provide total compensation statements during annual review time to show the total cost of benefits; what you, the employer, pays; and then the portion that the employee pays as well as pay increases and incentives paid throughout the year.

It will be impossible for you to capitalize on your investment in benefits if your employees don’t appreciate what you’ve invested. Remember, total compensation or benefit statements can go a long way to improve how your employees view their benefits.

In addition to the content and presentation of the communications materials themselves, the survey indicates that giving employees enough time to review communications, as well as using a variety of media, are keys to communications’ effectiveness. Employees who had more than three weeks to review benefits education materials were far more likely to say that they had enough time to make informed decisions. And, using at least three different forms of media-such as meetings, printed materials and Web site tools-enhances communication effectiveness because it recognizes different learning styles and helps ensure that the messages sought to be conveyed will be heard by all employees.

These themes from the Unum survey are particularly significant today, because employee benefits communications have taken on increased importance, for a number of reasons-

Employees must make more choices for their benefits today than ever before. In previous generations, employers that offered employee benefits typically provided a health plan, a pension plan, and some life and disability insurance. As health care costs exploded in the 1980s and 1990s, and increasingly shifted to employees, employers introduced multiple health plan options requiring employee choice. Simultaneously, in most workplaces, the company retirement plan morphed from a defined benefit pension plan to a 401(k) plan, requiring employees to choose whether to participate, how much to contribute, and what funds to invest in. Supplemental life and disability options became more available to most employees, along with an array of other voluntary benefits choices (group legal, long-term care, group auto/homeowners, etc.).

Given the array of benefits choices employees now face, education and communication efforts have taken on huge significance, since decision-making that is informed is most likely to result in appropriate choices. While the benefits choices available today do address employees’ individual needs, they also generally pass on to employees more responsibility. This trend first surfaced in the shift from defined benefit pension plans to defined contribution 401(k) plans, in which employees bear the investment risk. More recently, employers’ increasing adoption of consumer-directed health plans takes a similar path. Employees enrolled in these plans shoulder more of the financial responsibility for their ongoing health care costs, in exchange for a lower plan premium. For both 401(k) plans and consumer-directed health plans, education and communications supply the information that is critical to exercising the increased level of responsibility employees bear.

Getting the best value for one’s money is always important, but it’s even more so in a difficult economy. When money is tight-like it has been both for companies and employees lately-we want to make sure we spend our dollars wisely…and information is key to making good and appropriate purchases. Surveys indicate that most people spend much more time on other consumer purchases than they do on employee benefits enrollment-which, for many employees, is among their most significant purchases in any given year. Benefits communications can help employees make good spending decisions about their employee benefits.

• Today’s benefits plans are more complicated than ever before. Consumer-directed health plans, for example, work dramatically differently than plans employees were covered under only a few years ago. These plans offer tax advantages to employees, but this too adds a layer of complexity for employees to understand. Again, effective communications can make a difference in enabling employees to get the greatest benefit from these plans.

A study by the Prudential Insurance Company looked at a number of variables that affected employees’ perceived value of their benefits, and the effectiveness of communications topped the list. The study found effective communications can have as much an impact on employees’ satisfaction with their benefits as the actual benefits or amount of money invested in the benefits.

Even when economic factors force cutbacks and layoffs, organizations that focus on a strong communications program help their employees not only understand, but also appreciate, the benefits available to them – which contributes toward positive employee morale.

A separate survey from Watson Wyatt Worldwide dramatically shows the impact of benefits communications:

“Companies with above average benefits but ineffective communications had a 25% employee satisfaction level, while those with below average benefits but effective communications had a 76% employee satisfaction level.”

Stated another way, it can be better for a company to provide fewer benefits but explain them well, than to provide an expansive-and costly-package of benefits that employees don't really understand.

Keep the following considerations in mind when assessing your benefit communications program:

• Written communications should be in simple and understandable, yet engaging, language. Employees will respond best to communications that they can directly relate to, so use specific examples or modeling tools to help employees select benefits and understand how the benefits can work for them.
• Recognizing that different individuals learn in different ways, use various communication methods and incorporate visuals along with text.
• Communicate throughout the year, not only during open enrollment.
• Help employees understand how the company's benefits offerings are particularly relevant to them.
• Communicate the full value of your benefit's program by providing regular benefit statements. Reminding employees of their total compensation is a great way improve your employees' perception of existing benefit programs.

If the prospect of embarking on a benefits communications campaign seems daunting, give us a call. We can help you provide ideas and strategies along with actual communications materials to enrich your employees’ understanding of their benefits.

Don’t underestimate the value of communications and education as a way to strengthen your company’s benefits package. As the research above indicates, dollars spent on communication and education can be as valuable an investment as dollars spent on the benefits themselves.

Be sure to take a look at a few of our sample benefit communication pieces online or give us a call today.

Employee communication materials like total compensation statements, total reward or benefit statements are great tools to help explain and communicate changes to programs.

According to the 2009 UBA Employer Benefit Perspectives survey from United Benefit Advisors, more than 80% of employers felt employees are at least aware of the health care crisis and the reasons for increased cost sharing or benefit reductions; a little less than 20% of employees themselves said they were upset about the benefit reductions or cost increases that their employers implemented. Since communications can play an important role in bringing employees on board with health plan changes, what steps can employers take to make implementation as smooth as possible? Here are a few ideas, both for plan-change-targeted and ongoing health plan communications-

- Make sure employees are aware of the reality of health care costs. Research and publicize to employees national health care cost data and cost trends. Be specific: for example, contrast the average cost of a hospital stay or doctor’s office visit today with that of five or 10 years ago. Do the same for the average cost of coverage under various types of health plans.

- Share specific cost data from your company’s health plans. Employees frequently think of the cost of the health plan only in terms of what they pay in premiums, and overlook the employer’s contribution. This narrow view hides the true cost of health care coverage, as well as what the employer pays toward the cost of coverage (which, ideally, employees should see as part of their total compensation package).

- Use concrete examples to illustrate how health plan spending can cut into the ability of the company to make outlays in other areas. For example, determine the approximate dollar amount increase in the company’s health plan contribution one year to the next, and compare it to some other company expense. Is the amount of the increase equal to an employee salary? Stated differently, has health plan spending growth prevented a needed hiring? Use this process to show how health plan cost increases can eliminate raises and bonuses, result in the cancellation of company events, delay the purchase of new equipment, and the like.

- Help employees see that when they use their health benefits astutely, they not only save themselves money, but also keep plan costs down as well. For example, when employees use preferred providers, they receive the highest plan benefit, and the plan pays the lower, negotiated preferred provider rate. If employees have begun to understand the point above-how health plan spending can impact salary increases, staffing, investment in equipment, etc.-this can motivate them to use the plan more wisely.

- Use statistical data to show employees how, generally, unhealthy people use more health care, resulting in higher plan costs. If employees accept this, they’re more likely to try to follow recommended preventive care schedules, attempt to change unhealthy behaviors, and overall aim to become more physically fit.

Employers want employees to be active participants in controlling rising health care costs. To-the-point communications can bring employees on board in this effort, resulting in more manageable costs for employer and employee alike.

Contact us to discuss how we can help you to communicate with your employees.

January 31, 2010

Portfolio format statements are:

Easy to read
Fully customized
Large format
More area for charts and graphs
Full-color
Reinforce corporate identity

Dimensions:

8.5” x 11” pages (unfolded 11” X 17”)

Get a Free Quote

Multi-page formats are:

• Easy to read
• More area for charts and graphs
• Full-color
• Reinforce corporate identity
• Customized

Dimensions:

• 8.5” x 11” pages (unfolded 11” X 17”)
• 8.5″ x 7″ pages (unfolded 8.5″ x 14″)

Value format:

• Easy to read
• Simple format
• Pre-set pie chart
• Pre-set lines of compensation
• Pre-set colors and design
• Full-color double-sided printing
• Lowest price

Dimensions:

• 8.5” x 11” single page (bi-fold)

Standard format statements are:

• Easy to read
• Simplified format
• Two-sided
• Full-color
• Customized
• Lower cost option

Dimensions

• Unfolded 8.5” X 11” or 8.5” x 14”

Folding Options:

• No fold
• Bi-fold
• Tri-fold

• Easy to read
• Two-sided
• Full-color
• Customized

Dimensions

• Unfolded 8.5” X 11” or 8.5” x 14”

Folding Options:

• No fold
• Bi-fold
• Tri-fold

Employers are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on benefits, but their employees aren’t grasping the value of these benefits.

Total compensation statements show employees the full value of their compensation and can be a highly effective communication tool.

Contact us today for a printed supply of  “9 Ways Benefit Statements Can Help!”, a brochure that shows your clients how benefit statements can work for them. Call (800) 865-4485 or email info@myBenefitStatements.com.

• Easy to read
• Two-sided
• Full-color
• Customized

Dimensions

• Unfolded 8.5” X 11”

Folding Options:

• No fold
• Bi-fold
• Tri-fold

–2005/2006 Employee Job Satisfaction and Retention Survey from Salary.com

How many employees did you replace last year? You do the math and then compare the replacement cost with the fee for total compensation statements.

The typical employer can provide a total compensation statement for every employee at a fraction of the cost of replacing just one employee! Why wouldn’t you use benefit statements?

Check out samples of our benefit statements or request a benefit statement services quote.

You want a team of creative professionals who understand your industry, your business, and how to communicate with and motivate your employees. You want someone who can customize your benefit statements to meet the needs of your participants while relieving the Benefits Department of unnecessary detail work. You want to partner with an organization that delivers on the expectations it sets, and who keeps the focus on producing the outcomes you need to achieve.

Choose myBenefitStatements and allow our experience and expertise to work for you. myBenefitStatements offers added value to you through personal, professional, and dedicated service at a reasonable cost. We won't stop working until we've achieved the look and feel you desire for communicating total compensation to your employees. Whatever your benefit statements needs, we've got you covered!

Simply pick up the phone right now and give us a call or fill out our online request form and we will contact you! Two easy ways to add a valuable resource to your company benefits.