What is employee benefit communication? The 10 things you need to know
Your payroll bill is likely to be your biggest business cost. But have you ever thought about your employee benefits investment?
When I worked in reward roles, our employee benefits tended to cost around 20% to 40% of the payroll bill. That’s £200,000 to £400,000 on top of a £1m payroll. Bigger payroll than this? Or a higher percentage spent on benefits? Then your benefits bill will be even higher.
That’s a whole lot of money being invested in your employees’ wellbeing. And if you’re not communicating about your employee benefits, you’re missing an opportunity to drive better ROI from this significant spend.
I’ve worked on a large number of employee benefit communications projects, helping companies drive maximum ROI from their benefit spend. Read on for my employee benefits communications top tips.
1 - Think investment not cost
According to Aon’s 2024 Benefits Trends report, only 18% of responding companies think their employee benefits are well understood. Just 18%! That’s really low considering how much companies are spending.
In the same way you have a marketing budget for your products and services, consider setting aside some money to promote the products and services you provide for your employees. You only need to spend a few thousand to make sure you get maximum return on your benefits investment.
2 - Business benefits of employee benefit communications
Communicating about your employee benefits drives uptake and use. As your benefits package will have been designed to support a range of HR and business outcomes, benefits comms will help your company:
Boost employees’ mental, physical and financial wellbeing so they perform at their best (EAP, private medical insurance, cash plan, financial wellbeing benefits)
Reduce sickness absence and support employees for a quicker return to work (EAP, private medical insurance, cash plan, dental, optical, health checks)
Build employees’ skills (learning and development opportunities)
Ensure employees are rested and refreshed so they can do their best work (leave of all kinds)
Hit your ESG goals (Cycle to Work, electric cars, payroll giving, volunteering days)
Enable people to retire at a suitable time of life (pensions)
Control salary costs and support attraction, hiring and retention by offering a competitive package (all benefits)
Support vision and values by sending a message to your people about what’s important to your organisation (all benefits aligned with your purpose)
As you can see, there are lots of business advantages to be gained simply by communicating your benefits.
3 - Know which employee benefits you’ve got
You’d be surprised at how many businesses don’t actually have a complete list of their employee benefits. This is the starting point for effective employee benefits communication.
Having oversight of all your benefits enables you to cover off every aspect of your package at the right time, in the right way. I recommend auditing your benefits so you know:
The benefit and what it does - describe it in one sentence
The provider - keep track of your provider names and any renewal dates
Who’s eligible - everyone, only certain grades or is it something people sign up to?
When people get the benefit - on joining or by applying at a specific time of year
What they get - for example, your pension contribution percentages, or the percentage of salary covered under a life or income protection policy
How to access the benefit - usually provider contact details
Current or grandfathered - is it still open to new joiners or is it a benefit people can no longer join - like Childcare vouchers, or a TUPE’d benefit?
With a clear vision of all your benefits, you can now start to think about what you want to say.
4 - Simplicity - buckets, narrative and key messaging
Before you start writing, simplify your employee benefits by splitting them into different buckets. This will depend on the types of benefits you have but they can usually be categorised like this or something similar:
Wellbeing - mental, physical and financial
Everyday - discounts, travel
Time off - holidays, parental leave, any other types of leave
Money - income protection, critical illness cover, life cover
These buckets will help you communicate your employee benefits effectively by making them more accessible and easier to navigate and remember. Talking about these categories is far simpler and more memorable than covering off 20 different benefits.
Another way to create memorable, repeatable communications is to develop a narrative and key messages. This is a way of tapping into your company culture and values as well as creating some strategic messaging that makes it easy for people to remember what your benefits are about.
Don’t forget to avoid using jargon and to use clear language.
5 - Go beyond provider employee benefit communications for maximum impact
Your providers will likely share some communications with you. Using these is a great first step and can also play a role in a more mature communications strategy. But most employers want to do more, so:
Consider different channels and how and when to use them - socials, posters, digital guides, video, intranet, team meetings, town halls, email, webinar - there’s a lot to choose from depending on what your organisation has in place.
Create different types of communication for the different channels - think memes for socials, longer more detailed information for guides.
Timing and frequency is key - some benefits should be communicated at specific times of year (for example, Cycle to Work is best covered in early spring when people are thinking about getting out and about) while others (like wellbeing programmes and discount schemes) need year-round comms.
6 - Managers should be a key part of your employee benefit communications
Many benefits are there to support employees in specific situations, like bereavement, pregnancy, ill health and retirement. Your managers are on the frontline and will be the first to hear about employees’ challenges. So giving them the tools to signpost the right information at the right time is vital.
This is probably one of the most important but most overlooked employee benefits communications tactics.
7 - Place your people at the heart of your employee benefit communications
Sure, you’ve got a lot to tell your employees about all the great things your benefits can do for them. The key is to make sure you do this in a way that appeals to your people.
Understanding who’s in your business and their challenges will help with this. You could develop employee personas to help you explore key life stages and what’s important to people at these times so you can tailor your communications to appeal to your people.
8 - Make a plan and execute it
A benefits communication plan is key to your success. It doesn’t need to be complicated. Simply make sure you know which benefits you want to communicate, when and how. Add this information to a spreadsheet and use it to track your campaigns.
9 - Measure your employee benefit communications success
What were your goals when you set out to communicate your benefits? Was it understanding and awareness or use and uptake? Employee surveys are a good way to measure this - before and after you communicate.
You can also use technology to help you do this. Think click-through rates on links, visits to your benefits pages on your intranet, email opens and click-throughs, benefits uptake and use, possibly even impact on recruitment and sickness absence.
10 - Get support if you need it
If this all feels like a lot - or you simply haven’t got the time - consider hiring a pro to help. Just a few thousand pounds invested in your employee benefit communications will help you make the most of your benefits spend and drive a great return on your benefits investment across a wide range of HR and business goals.
If you need a helping hand, hire me and my trusted team of communications experts - drop me a line at becky@clarioncallcomms.co.uk. Or sign up for my email list packed full of employee reward communications tips.