Study: Communicating Benefits to Employees? Better Do It in Person

We've already shared with you that employees have trouble understanding their benefits. But has there been research done to reveal solutions to the problem?

Gallagher Benefit Services recently released its 2012 Benefit Plan Report, which includes information based on a survey of 264 regional employers employing over 135,000 people.

Many interesting topics were discussed; this post focuses on one in particular: Methods used by employers to communicate benefits to employees and their perceived levels of effectiveness.

The methods used are not surprising. Email tops the list with 95.4% of respondents utilizing it to tell employees about their benefits; group employee meetings follow at 81.8%; and webcasts come in last at 40.5%. But what is surprising, at least to this blogger, is how little faith the respondents have in any of the mediums used.

Only one method received a “very effective” response of over 25%: one-on-one employee meetings, at 42.1%. In terms of combined “very effective” and “effective” responses, only one method received over 80%—again, one-on-one employee meetings. These are the methods that received a combined total of over 50%:

I guess the takeaway is that the personal touch matters! The survey also suggests that different employees respond to different types of communications. Organizations must use a variety of marketing and communications tools and methods to speak to the full range of needs and interests of their workforces.

Thoughts? Questions? Drop them in the Comments section.

(By the way, stay tuned for information on our upcoming webinar, “Changing the Conversation About EAP and Work-Life: Communication Strategies That Work,” on October 16th at 2:00 EDT and featuring some very interesting panelists.)

--Wendy Caster

Wendy Caster is a writer specializing in finance, health and wellness, and organizational management.