As business owners well understand, one of the most reliable ways in which to retain workers or get them more engaged in their work is through employee benefits. While many employees readily recognize the perks that come with their profession, communicating these perceived advantages is one of the biggest challenges for employers, according to the results of a new survey.
More than any other pursuit, employers spent the most time over the past year working to improve employees' understanding of their benefits, according to a recent survey from the National Business Coalition on Health. Second to this was working to lower overall health plan costs, at 47 percent, and maintaining compliance.
Where employers found the most success was through direct communication. Nearly three-quarters of respondents said that benefits communication helped them achieve their goals last year.
Year-round benefits engagement a major challenge
What also proved to be challenging for employers last year was keeping employees engaged in their benefits over the long term. Approximately 75 percent of professionals indicated their biggest difficulty with benefits communication was encouraging workers to stay in touch with their benefits throughout the year, such as making sure to schedule appointments with their primary care providers. Limited communication made this hard to do, as nearly two-thirds said that they only talk to their workers about their benefits on an annual basis during enrollment season.
Brian Klepper, NBCH CEO, indicated that employee benefits is an issue that every business owner who makes coverage available to their workers has to address yearly in order to determine what plan offerings are doing for their staff and what can be done to improve them.
"Given that health care benefits are critical to employer recruiting and retention efforts, it's important that we better understand how organizations are addressing their benefits communications in light of industry changes due to health care reform and compliance issues," said Klepper. "This is really about what it takes to be much more effective."
The benefits workers get from their employer are one of several reasons why the typical employee opts to stay with a company rather than see what else is available. Nearly 50 percent of respondents in a CareerBuilder poll said that good benefits was among their top justifications for staying with the job they presently have.
Another key component of employee satisfaction and retention is taking interest in employees' personal lives and career goals. Close to 50 percent of participants in a separate poll said that they felt like their boss understood what their aim was occupationally speaking, based on a survey done by Answers Corporation.
"Considering the high cost of replacing employees – anywhere from one-fifth to 200 percent of the person's salary – a true commitment to measuring and improving the employee experience should be an operational imperative for American employers," said Eric Feinberg, senior director of product strategy at Answers.
Less than half of employees have ever taken part in an employee experience measurement program, which business owners may want to consider running to gauge how workers feel about where they are with the company and where they'd like to be a year from now.
