6 creative ways to communicate employee benefits
Communicating just about anything these days requires lots of creativity.
We’re exposed to a ton of information every day and even the things that relate to us the most can get lost in translation.
With employee benefits, HR leaders and teams need to find creative ways to communicate employee benefits effectively.
Here, we’ll cover some of the ways of communicating employee benefits we know are working for our clients of all shapes, sizes and industries.
Different methods of communication might be needed by businesses with different employee demographics, locations and working models.
We’ve covered some of the most popular ways to communicate employee benefits, including why they’re so popular and how they could work for your business and your employees.
The importance of being creative when communicating employee benefits
Creative employee benefits communications improve employee engagement with benefits, but there’s much more to it than that.
Ultimately, the goal is to put the right benefits in front of the right employees so they can help make a real, personal difference to their lives.
Personalisation is key to this and creativity plays an important role.
Employee benefits communications need to resonate with employees on a personal, individual level and make clear how employee benefits will improve the lives of them and their families.
And with different working arrangements, some employees remote and some in the workplace, employers need to get creative in how they speak to all staff clearly, equally and effectively.
Virtual webinars and workshops
We’ve found that many of our clients are now holding virtual webinars and workshops to communicate their employee benefits to great effect.
This helps include any remote and on-site employees in communications around benefits and are often recorded to allow employees to access these on-demand to suit them if they can’t attend.
This has the added benefit of giving employees flexibility to fit the communications around their schedule, making it more likely that they’ll engage.
For big teams based across multiple locations the virtual element really helps make employee benefits communications more effective and accessible for all staff.
It makes it possible for HR and business leaders at the highest level to attend and give their thoughts and can even support green credentials by reducing the need for site visits.
Open day events
When we worked with Blenheim to introduce a brand-new employee benefits platform and brand to their staff, the HR team at Blenheim hosted an open day for all staff to attend and find out more about the new employee benefits on offer.
We worked with them and produced bespoke brochures specifically for the event for employees to take away and learn more about the new schemes on offer.
Benefit scheme suppliers also attended to help employees understand more about the schemes available.
This works for employers of all shapes and sizes, including Blenheim with their diverse team based across their 12,000-acre estate, but also for smaller teams and businesses too.
Post-covid following long periods of isolation, many staff have been left wanting more face-to-face interaction and open day events like these certainly help provide it.
They’re incredibly interactive too giving employees the opportunity to ask benefits experts and HR teams questions about their benefits face-to-face without fear of asking in front of lots of people.
Accompanied by other employee benefits communications like brochures, flyers and posters, open day events are a great creative way to communicate benefits and improve engagement.
SMS
An often under-utilised form of communication, SMS is especially effective if you’ve got an app through which employees can access your benefits.
SMS is a great way to get short, sharp messages out to staff and is perfect for announcing new employee benefit schemes or opening of scheme windows.
This can include text messages or even through WhatsApp, all providing employees are comfortable and consenting in being communicated to through this medium.
Communications can include links to your online benefits platform, app or even links to download your employee benefits app to boost engagement.
We talk a bit about segmentation in our guide to employee benefits communication which can be easily utilised with SMS communications.
With the right data, employees could be segmented by their previous use of employee benefit schemes for even more effective and creative employee benefits communication.
For example, if an employee has used the Technology Scheme previously, they could be interested in using the scheme again when a new window opens.
Manager-employee cascade
Another great way to communicate benefits is to empower managers to communicate them through their teams.
Managers ultimately know their teams better than most in the organisation and can help communicate benefits in a more personalised and effective way.
Managers can use whichever medium they see fit to communicate the message in the right way for their team which could ultimately improve engagement.
This approach also benefits from all the positive effects of word-of-mouth when trying to communicate an important message.
If an employee is told of the advantages of their new employee benefits by their manager or someone they work closely with on a regular basis the message is more likely to be heard and resonated with than if it comes from further up the chain or from a department.
Furthermore, it offers something different and is a creative way to cut through the noise employees experience on a daily basis.
Emails, posters and handouts
We provide these as part of our employee benefits platforms, with bespoke communications for enterprise platforms, to help clients boost engagement with their benefits and put the right benefits in front of the right employees effectively.
The range we offer gives employers the option to talk directly to remote workers through email and for workplace use, there’s material that can be printed out and put on notice boards or displayed in staff rest areas.
Posters can be great for simply letting staff know in a brief message of the employee benefits now available or opening of scheme windows for example, while handouts give a bit more context for those interested.
These methods of communication are simple, creative and effective in driving engagement with your employee benefits platform and benefit schemes and ensuring employees know all about the benefits available to them that will support them and their families.
Your employee benefits platform
Your employee benefits platform in itself is a great way to communicate employee benefits to your employees depending on how you utilise it.
Your benefits platform can be a hub of information surrounding your benefits and perks and can even host important company documentation and messaging too, all helping to drive engagement but most importantly helping improve the employee benefits experience and helping employees find what matters most to them.
It can also help make your other communications much more effective by cutting down the need to fill them with jargon or excessive wording, helping them cut through the myriad of information we’re all exposed to every day.
This means a simple poster or quick email combined with an information-rich employee benefits platform can be a great creative combo that’s non-intrusive and gets the message across clearly and succinctly, driving employee engagement and improve the employee benefits experience in a creative way.
Whichever creative way to communicate employee benefits you utilise, each method may need to be tested to see what works and what doesn’t.
The methods of communication that work for your business may depend on the size and makeup of your team, how dispersed they are and how computer literate they are.
Ultimately, there’s something that will work for your team and help you get the right message out to the right employees at the right time.
Employee engagement and the right communication is such a hugely important part of providing employee benefits and is often overlooked and under-utilised.
By communicating your benefits creatively and effectively, you’ll ensure that not only do the benefits you provide get the engagement they deserve but that they ultimately affect employees and their families in a positive way.
