…cont’d
Strategies that work
One way to engage employees is to involve them. Russ Oehmen, vice-president of Fraser & Hoyt Benefits in Halifax, says some of the most successful employers have done just that. “Several employers have set up a benefits committee with employee representation to clarify the current programs available and review staff needs and wants on a continuing basis.”
This approach—running focus groups and involving employees in developing communication plans and being part of a committee that drives communication in the organization—has evolved from the traditional one-way directive, says Diane McElroy, senior vice-president, communication, with Aon Consulting in Toronto. “We found this was a very impactful way of enhancing the communication that was already there,” she says. “You’re networking and actually asking the audience you’re trying to communicate to, to help you develop the best way to do that.”
Segmenting or targeting certain employees is another engagement tactic. For instance, for one company where employees were not maximizing the company match potential to its pension plan, Aon created a personalized one-page communication that calculated the amount “left on the table.” As a result, hundreds of employees increased their contributions. “That’s a small example of a call to action type of communication that is very specific, very targeted,” says McElroy.
Singling out experiences works, but sometimes engagement requires planned bombardment of information, too. Last year, Toronto-based Kinross Gold reviewed its benefits plan in the U.S. and decided to make changes. “We wanted to move in a different direction in terms of really working with our employees to help them manage their health and the healthcare costs as opposed to it being more of a paternalistic approach,” says Tara Wiseman, director, total rewards, with Kinross Gold.
First off, the company learned that its employees didn’t fully understand benefits terminology such as premium and copay, let alone their benefits. To combat this, shortly after releasing a brochure introducing the new approach to benefits, Kinross Gold published a newsletter that explained key terms. A postcard—reminding employees of the upcoming open-enrollment group meetings—was sent to the homes of 1,000 U.S.-based employees about two weeks before a DVD was mailed. The DVD included an introduction by the regional vice-president and a PowerPoint presentation showing what the company was doing and why and the actual plan changes involved. The meetings followed soon after, with a participation rate of 90%-plus.
Social media
While employee involvement, a call to action strategy or bombardment of information work well, social media may eventually be the way of the future for its more “conversational” way to reach employees.
McElroy says HR blogs and Twitter accounts interact with members rather than simply providing fact-based material. For example, consider this tweet from the University of British Columbia’s HR department: Go paperless w/your Sun Life benefits claims. Get your $$ faster. Save a tree. And, maybe win $1,000 before June 27. http://bit.ly/b7BymF. “To me, it’s almost a live conversation. You can almost feel some of the enthusiasm coming through.”
Jean Iozzo, president of Watermark Human Capital in Calgary, has implemented one company’s employee meetings to a Facebook page. “We did enrollment meetings for the last five years,” says Iozzo, “[and] over the years we’ve found that the participation has gone down.” The company now sends out tweets to employees’ cellphones because not all the employees have an internet connection or a continuous connection.
Use of video messaging embedded within the electronic format is also increasing, says Scott Bunker, senior vice-president, human capital, with Aon Consulting in Toronto. “We’re seeing that occurring at the highest levels of organizations, where CEOs are interested now in delivering messages about the rewards program.”
But many employers are slow to engage in social media. According to Towers Watson’s study, only 4% of Canadian survey respondents are using social media to communicate benefits. While the perception may be that employers are concerned with more traditional fears around social media—IT issues, losing control, decrease in productivity, legal issues, negative comments by employees—this is not what the study uncovered. “Employers aren’t [using social media] more now, they tell us, because they don’t understand it perfectly yet, and they just don’t have the resources to look into it and use it effectively,” says Ofelia Isabel, Canadian practice leader, rewards, talent and communication, with Towers Watson in Toronto.
Jacob Clark, lead consultant with London, Ont.-based FIRM Consulting, is not surprised employers are slow to adopt social media. He says it’s even been a struggle for them to adopt earlier technology—at least for the small to mid-size market. “Since the mid-’90s up until today, it’s been a long transition for people to be up on online plan administration and using email,” he says, adding that in the past year, he’s had two companies indicate they prefer to communicate through telephone and paper. “A lot of our employers are trying to determine whether they should allow people even to have access to [social media] at work rather than use it to their advantage corporately.”
And, according to a recent survey from the National Business Group on Health—a non-profit group of almost 300 large U.S. employers—even employees aren’t overly interested. Roughly 75% of respondents said they would have no interest in receiving health benefits information via Facebook, and approximately 80% said they had no interest in receiving this information via Twitter.