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.

Recent studies show that many employees are confused or frustrated while selecting their benefits (Employee Benefit News, April 1, 2009, p. 17). In some cases self-service online enrollment has become “no service.” Use our open enrollment forms in conjunction with employee meetings/seminars to ensure your employees make informed benefits decisions.

Our new benefits enrollment forms are…

• Customizable to show your benefit offerings
• Easy to understand
• Full-color—enlisting your employees’ attention
• Easy to complete and return on the spot during elections meetings

With more than 20 years of employee communications experience, myBenefitStatements is your skilled partner. We collaborate with hundreds of brokers and employers all over the country to create effective employee communications tools. Hard copy, easy to complete forms from myBenefitStatements are one of our specialties.

To see samples and request a price quote, visit www.myBenefitStatements.com or contact Sarah Fakan at (800) 865-4485 ext. 104. If email is more convenient, please send us an email at Info@myBenefitStatments.com

In a recent study, employers ranked effective communications during open enrollment as their number one challenge, as employees become increasingly engaged consumers of healthcare and other employer benefits.

Our new enrollment forms are…

• Customized to show your benefit offerings
• Personalized for each employee
• Easy to understand and complete
• Full-color – catches employees’ attention
• Hardcopy – encourages employees to sign and return on the spot during elections meetings
• With more than 20 years employee communications experience, myBenefitStatements is a skilled partner.

While the use and popularity of the web has increased dramatically, many employers prefer to use hard copy open enrollment forms.  Employers and employees alike face an ever-increasing complex myriad of benefit options leaving many employers to look for a combination of tools that create a more tangible approach.  Hard copy, easy to complete forms from myBenefitStatements are one of our specialties.

myBenefitStatements collaborates with hundreds of brokers and employers all over the country to create effective employee communication tools.  Employees will find our customized enrollment forms appealing and easy to understand and complete.

To see samples of our enrollment products visit http://www.mybenefitstatements.com/samples .  If you prefer to see a hard copy sample…give us a call and request a free supply of benefits enrollment forms to show your clients.  Please e-mail or call Sarah Fakan, Sales & Marketing Director, at (800) 865-4485 ext. 104 or Info@myBenefitStatements.com.