What actions can you take to ensure benefits plan members use the programs offered by your organization and value your investment in their well-being?

As technology and members’ communication preferences keep evolving, trustees and plan sponsors need to continuously evolve their communication approach to maximize employee engagement, according to the presenters of “Driving Engagement Through Tech: Modernizing Benefits Communication,” a recent International Foundation webcast. 

Valerie Travis, founder and principal consultant at Bespoke Benefit Solutions in Toronto, Ontario, and Melanie Crutchley, founder and lead marketing consultant of Futurpruf Marketing Inc. in Agassiz, British Columbia, provided strategies to gain employees’ attention. Today’s blog focuses on creating a benefits hub, one place for members to go when they need benefits information.

Meaningful Focused Messaging

With digital communications so prevalent today everyone seems “drawn to content that is relatable, engaging and easily consumable. Ensure you’re delivering meaningful, focused messaging that’s going to resonate with and stay with your members,” Travis said. Modern benefits communication should be:

• Well-positioned and timed for high value, which Crutchley described as “exactly what they need when they need it”
• Multi-channel, meaning “at least [1] one main place for members to go when they are searching for information, and [2] at least one way that you push messages out to them,” Crutchley recommended
• Frequent and simple to ensure that your organization is the first place your members go to for benefits information
• Inspiring action so that all communications direct the member “back to that main communication channel such that every communication creates an engagement web,” Crutchley described
• Consistently branded so that members recognize and build trust with your organization as the key source for benefits information.

The main strategy to achieve these goals is the benefits hub, according to the presenters.

Benefits Hub 101

Purpose: The key purpose of a benefits hub is to be a single trusted source for all benefits information. Members go to the hub, then the hub drives outward to various programs and carriers. A typical design is as straight forward as a website with responsive design (i.e., accessible from any device), Crutchley said.

Features: Key features of an effective benefits hub include the following.

• User friendly, easy to navigate and search
• Up-to-date and relevant
• Branded. The goal of branding is for benefits hub users to attribute the benefits to the employer or plan sponsor (not the carrier or vendor). This is important for members to appreciate their benefits, and knowing that their employer cares about their well-being can boost job satisfaction.
• Eliminates barriers like password or company firewall requirements for all basic benefits information. Only personal or sensitive information would require a member login or work-provided computer. Travis and Crutchley recommend that the benefits hub be publicly available so that anyone anywhere can access the basic benefits information. Reasons to consider this approach are:
  • Spouses may be scheduling appointments and submitting claims, so they need access. Employees can use the site in the moment of need (such as the dentist’s office) with their mobile device. Or employees could be at home or traveling.
  • Employees could be more comfortable looking for help on a sensitive issue when they don’t have to log in.

Advantages: With a benefits hub, employees and their families won’t have to be experts at your plan design to find, use and appreciate the benefits. It doesn’t require them to memorize any details or know more than one place to look for an answer.

Advantages for plan sponsors and benefits professionals include:

• One single place to maintain takes less time.
• It is easier to keep up to date and lowers the risk of content becoming outdated.
• Plan sponsor has full control of the design and communication channels. Automation tools can assist with pushing communications out to employees and their families.
• A benefits hub avoids the possibility that plan members could misinterpret who provides the benefit programs and give credit to insurers or administrators rather than your organization funding and delivering these programs.

Get Started

The first step in designing a hub is compiling an inventory of all benefits-related sources, content, formats and channels of your benefits information delivery (e.g., print, apps, links) including insurers, vendors, administrators, intranet and HR platform, Travis said. Once you have all the sources, it “could be surprising how many sources and channels your members have to visit today to find out about their programs,” Travis noted. Travis recommended asking or deciding for each source:

• How often should it be shared with members?
• How often does the content change?
• Who is responsible for updating it?
• How is it branded?

To learn more about adding curated navigation guides to a benefits hub and how benefits professionals can leverage AI in the competition for your employees’ attention, International Foundation and ISCEBS members can view the recording of the International Foundation’s webcast, “Driving Engagement Through Tech: Modernizing Benefits Communication.”

Developed by International Foundation Information Center staff. This does not constitute legal advice. Please consult your plan professionals for legal advice.