How Do You Promote Employee Benefits?

Sunday, April 2, 2023 09:35 Posted by Admin

The average employee looks forward to being in a workplace that offers a great employee benefits program and where their efforts are praised and acknowledged. Job seekers often prioritize companies based on the incentives and advantages they provide.

Job satisfaction and a work-life balance are strongly associated with employee career growth and company advancement. Neglecting the satisfaction of employees can result in a drop in dedication and productivity.

For many employers, providing benefits to long-serving employees or new hires is not enough. You need to promote these benefits to improve awareness and by extension, employee satisfaction.

What Are Employee Benefits?

Employee benefits are incentives or rewards that employees receive in addition to their regular salaries. That is, any sort of indirect payment, either required or optional, can be considered an employee benefit.

A comprehensive employee benefits package often includes health insurance, life insurance, paid vacation, profit-sharing, and retirement benefits, among others.

Some employee benefits packages are mandated by federal law to ensure better lifestyles for employees. Regulations for employee benefits also vary from state to state, such as the rules for time off when an employee is sick.

Small companies are not obligated by the government to give their workers benefits like health insurance, retirement savings, dental and vision care, life insurance, and paid time away from work during holidays.

How To Design An Employee Benefits Package

When designing an employee benefits package, there are some factors to consider, such as:

Deciding your goals and budget

The first step to planning a benefits package should be deciding your exact objectives, as this will direct you when deciding the benefits to offer.

Examine your company’s size, location, business industry, and collective bargaining deals when creating objectives. The goals of your employee benefits program should be flexible, depending on your business strategy and employee needs.

Establishing a budget is just as important as figuring out what employee benefits should be provided to your employees.

If you have an existing benefits plan, use the cost of the current benefits to estimate the costs for the next year, creating a spreadsheet with the yearly expenditure for employee benefits. If your company does not have an existing plan, you may need to get quotations for key benefits to come up with a budget for your program.

Carry out an assessment process

It is essential to thoroughly assess which employee benefits will satisfy the needs of your employees. This assessment should include your personal ideas for an employee benefits plan, the benefits that your competitors are offering, and applicable tax laws.

For the best results, you should take a market-research-based approach to employee benefits planning. You should also consult your employees and analyze employee data to understand their specific needs.

Design a new employee benefit plan

With the information you have collected, you can rank the proposed benefits in order of priority, and use the data to design a new benefits plan. During planning, evaluate how much each benefit would cost and whether or not it fits your budget.

By taking time to put important data together, you can correctly decide which employee benefits to add, change, or remove.

Communicate benefits plan to employees

Companies need to keep their employees informed about the leverage that comes with an employee benefit plan. You should communicate with your employees about the corporate benefits plans and the benefits providers.

Steady communication with your employees makes them aware of their total compensation and assists them in becoming more financially secure.

Regularly assess the benefits plan

It is essential for companies to regularly examine their benefits programs to properly manage their benefits and improve cost savings. This review should be conducted frequently to decide if a program is fulfilling your company’s targets and the needs of your employees, especially before open enrollment periods.

Variations in the economic situation, the legal framework, the business climate, and the components of a workplace have a major effect on benefits packages. You should come up with objectives and calculations to evaluate employee packages and make changes if required.

You may also consider external trends and comparative data from other establishments to evaluate your plan’s efficiency. Employee polls or a regular, comprehensive needs assessment can also help you modify a benefits plan.

How To Promote An Employee Benefits Program

Designing a benefits program is useless if many employees are unable to take advantage of the plan due to a lack of awareness. Some ways to promote company offers are:

Use corporate newsletters

Do you send a corporate newsletter on a monthly or quarterly basis? You can make the most of this promotional platform by highlighting the noteworthy features of your employee benefits program.

Additionally, you could use your company’s newsletter to poll your employees on which plans they find beneficial and on what aspects they require more information.

Create employee benefit marketing materials

Smart marketing professionals emphasize the purpose of their products and services, making it more likely that people will purchase or sign up for them. This same principle can be applied by companies when presenting employee benefits to current workers and potential hires.

When marketing benefits, focus on providing a standard explanation addressing the needs of different staff members. Highlighting the advantages can show more employees key reasons to take full advantage of the benefit packages available.

Create visual informational materials

It can be useful to give your staff members a visual representation of the information surrounding the benefits that you are offering. Visual materials are perfect to encourage employees to take advantage of all the benefits, especially since we live in a multi-media-rich world.

You can create a PowerPoint presentation or an informational brochure that is easily accessible during new hire onboarding sessions to educate new employees on the company’s benefits and other employees who may need to brush up on the details of the benefits options. These can also be uploaded to the company’s website.

Enlist the help of plan administrators

Plan administrators usually have access to extensive promotional and marketing materials that can support your company’s benefit programs. They can provide your staff members with items like flyers, folders, and even branded items like t-shirts, jotters, and pens, all of which can help promote your company’s employee benefit packages.

Provide easy access to marketing materials in all media formats

Employees should find it easy to obtain the necessary information about their total compensation whenever they want, whether they are at the workplace or at home.

The company’s website should have an appealing design and be easy to navigate. Also, employees should be able to stop by the HR office anytime to get all the necessary information on their benefits.

Employers can also create an online enrollment system with a single portal that provides access to benefits-related queries and overviews of the package, helping to clear up any confusion among employees.

Smart Insights, an advertising and marketing firm, made a post on marketing statistics and strategies, mentioning that smartphones have surpassed desktops in terms of use, since 2017. Instead of scanning through long, complicated contracts, a higher number of employees check their benefits information on the go.

Utilize social media

Are your staff members actively engaged through your company’s social media accounts? You can easily promote your benefits offers by including informative bits in social media posts that will benefit both your present staff members and also attract job seekers.

Share employee success stories and previous employee benefit marketing results to encourage and educate employees, increasing employee engagement.

Integrate health and wellness programs

Health and wellness programs are put in place to foster a positive work-life balance and to enhance positive mental health results. These initiatives typically involve medical assessments, rewards, physical health activities, social support networks, and employee competitions.

It is important to promote wellness initiatives on employee benefit marketing channels to ensure staff members are taking optimal advantage of such programs.

Adopt a group health insurance plan

Group health coverage plans are a good way for employers to bring employees onboard with benefit plans. Many employees prefer group health plans to individual plans due to the numerous advantages they stand to gain, alongside their family members.

Employees find it easy to stay longer at companies that prioritize their health, giving employees enough time to check out other perks being offered by the employer.

Designing and promoting an employee benefit plan is crucial to attracting, hiring, and retaining the best candidates. If you want your company to stand a better chance against your competitors, and also ensure the career advancement of your employees, benefits promotion is essential.