Teaching employees about their benefits during the open enrollment season and beyond is a great way to boost workplace satisfaction, according to the Society for Human Resources Management. Seventy-nine percent of those who rated their benefits education as excellent or very good also rated their employers positively. In contrast, those who said their education was fair or poor tended to rate their employers lower.
Most employees don't really understand their benefits. They might have heard them explained, but without a careful plan of education, necessary information can be lost in translation. For example, only 52 percent of workers whose jobs provided disability insurance said their employers explained it to them properly. Companies that want to stand out as impressive and important can do so by educating employees in a fair and responsible way so that they understand their benefits and know exactly which would be of the most benefit.
Every employee needs a different set of programs. Older employees may be more concerned with health benefits than younger employees, and everyone will want something different when it comes to planning for retirement.
"It's vital for employers to provide the right tools and information for employees so they can understand their benefits options and choose the coverage that is right for them," Bill Dalicandro, vice president of Unum's consumer solutions group. Unum is a disability insurance provider.
Teaching employees about their benefits
The best way to keep employees in the know about benefits is to hold classes. These should be at a convenient time when it wouldn't hurt anyone's schedule. For example, having a lunch where speakers come in and present short lectures about saving for retirement and figuring out how to shop for health insurance, disability plans and life insurance. These are the major categories that workers need to think about when it comes to planning for their future, according to CNBC. As such, companies should focus on helping their employees in this regard.
Really, what employers want from their company is to know that the HR managers in charge actually care about the workers and want them to plan for the future. Thus, the best way to let employees know they matter is to present the information in such a way that it becomes clear the real concern is for the workers to be healthy with enough money in their savings to be able to retire at an appropriate time. When people are made aware that others in the company care for them, then their motivations will naturally increase.
Providing appropriate benefits packages
Small Business Trends reported that most companies actually see an influx in applications from potential employees when the business brings a retirement plan into its collection of benefits. This is because workers want to work for businesses that will help them plan for the future. Even if the employees work somewhere else down the line, it helps when benefits packages follow. There are many examples of these programs that are run independently, and include accident, life and dental/vision packages.
The number of companies that offer programs like 401(k)s has increased from 2007, when the number was only 72 percent. Now, 79 percent of companies offer this as a regular incentive. Eighty percent of employees who are given the option to have a retirement plan in place will take that opportunity to put money away. Before the recession, people were less concerned about saving for their eventual exit from the workplace. However, the difficult economic times have pushed the issue of money forward in the minds of many workers who survived through the recession in a challenging work environment when many businesses shut down or reduced their employee loads.