What we’ve got here is failure to communicate.” Paul Newman in the film Cool Hand Luke didn’t enjoy hearing this, and plan sponsors don’t enjoy hearing it either—particularly when they’re trying to communicate benefits and pension plans to employees. But some plan sponsors are failing to reach members as, more than ever, employees are bombarded with the detritus landing in their inboxes and mailboxes and infiltrating their minds. “The overload of information requires that [communication] be innovative, creative and eye-catching,” says David Krieger, president of Krieger + Associates in Toronto. “[It should] grab people’s attention—and make them want to read it.”

Attention-grabbing communication not only helps employees understand and appreciate what benefits they have, it also makes overall business sense. According to Towers Watson’s 2009/10 Communication ROI Study Report, companies that are highly effective communicators offered 47% higher total returns to their shareholders over the last five years compared with companies that are ineffective communicators.

So, how are consultants helping employers communicate their pension and benefits plans better? “We’re trying to persuade plan sponsors of the difference between merely providing information and actually educating people to understand and change their behaviour,” says Annie Massey, a principal with Mercer’s workforce communication and change business in Toronto.

Historically, employee communication has been paper-based: mailed-out annual reports and statements, thick pension plan booklets and detailed employee kits—but technology has not replaced these more traditional communications. While the Towers Watson study indicates that almost two-thirds of responding organizations use the intranet to communicate benefits, half continue to rely on print materials. “There’s a place for email and the pension plan booklet, the kit, but there’s also a need to get people engaged first of all before they’ll even turn to those tools.”

Engagement, in other words, is all about communicating the right way.

Lights, communication, action…

Film actors and screenwriters communicate for a living. By extension, then, Actra Fraternal Benefit Society (AFBS)—the federally licensed insurance company that provides insurance and retirement benefits to performers and writers in English-language film and television—should have no challenge reaching its 17,000 members. Unfortunately, that sounds too much like a movie script.

AFBS’s main communication culprit is its membership’s creativity. “We’re preaching to a very experienced and creative community that has extremely high expectations for all of our communications material,” says Robert Underwood, president and CEO of AFBS. “We have to make it compelling, and our delivery has to be a little bit unusual.”

AFBS overhauled its corporate website this year and relaunched it on July 12. The Society hired a videographer to interview 50 of its members across the country to share their (unscripted) stories about AFBS. One video, for example, features actor John Dunsworth coming in and out of character as Mr. Lahey from the Trailer Park Boys. “If it wasn’t for Actra Fraternal Benefit Society, I would not have insurance of any kind,” Dunsworth says. “It’s a gift, for me, to be able to work in the art that I love so much and to have my employer pay for maybe a problem that I’m going to have.”

“Because we’re a not-for-profit insurance company—but it’s actually owned by members—they have something more than a passing interest in the organization,” Underwood explains. “We’re not the employer, but we would typically fill the role of a plan sponsor.”

Another challenge for the Society has been the ton of paper—annual reports, brochures, booklets, financial statements—generated over its 35-year history. “Our writers write scripts and our performers read scripts, but without qualification, none of them ever read anything!” To save more paper ending up on the cutting-room floor, AFBS mailed out a PIN to each member to encourage them to register on the new site. “That way, they can pick up their personal financial information and investment account balances online,” explains Underwood.

A blog will likely be part of the next stage of communication for AFBS, but Underwood notes that reputational risks will have to be assessed before that can become a reality. Right now, however, the video clips have provided an entertaining way to promote the benefits of AFBS. “That’s how we’ve dealt with ‘Insurance and retirement are boring’ and ‘We have no interest in reading anything’ to ‘I wonder if my new clip is up on the site.’”

That’s definitely a wrap. BC