The Value of Face to Face
Introduction
In recent years technological developments have changed the landscape of employee benefits communication. At one time a leaflet and a passing reference to available benefits during an employee’s induction programme was considered sufficient. In contrast, employers today have a vast range of options when it comes to communicating with their people about the employee benefits on offer to them and ensuring that they understand the potential value of their benefits package.
Given the options available to them, employers need to take time to plan and prepare their strategy for benefits communication to ensure it’s ‘right’ for their workforce and engages employees. From benefits books and leaflets, emails, websites, SMS messaging and poster campaigns to pay slip messaging, articles in company magazines or total reward statements, the choice when it comes to benefits communication is significant.
With information coming from so many sources it’s understandable that some employees could become overwhelmed when they begin to look into the employee benefits on offer to them. For many, the task of reviewing their employer’s benefits offering and looking into specific products and offers may be considered just too daunting to even start.
Faced with impending benefits information overload, many employees welcome the prospect of being able to sit down, face to face with someone to discuss their benefits package and the options available to them. Many employers acknowledge this and recognise the importance of maintaining personal interaction in benefits communication, especially on a face to face basis between employees and benefits providers, to enable their workforce to make the most of what’s on offer.
Face to face communication of employee benefits, whether in a group situation or on a one-to-one basis, has consistently enabled organisations to engage individuals with employee benefits and helped them to understand precisely how products or services can help them based on their personal circumstances. Perhaps surprisingly, it can also often be carried out on a more cost effective basis from an employer’s perspective than other forms of more remote communication.
Improved face to face communication, in our experience, not only encourages greater engagement, interest and take-up of benefits, but it also produces a benefits programme that is better understood and valued by employees. And as the tough economic climate we’ve experienced in the last year or so looks set to continue and as public sector cuts and wage freezes take hold, benefits’ return on investment will become an even more important issue.
The competitiveness of an employer’s benefits package, it seems, has never been more valuable. Given this, the opportunity to ensure employee understanding and engagement with the benefits on offer is one that employers cannot ignore.
This report discusses the value of face to face communication and considers how employers can effectively introduce it as an integral element of their benefits communication strategy. Referring to the findings of Personal Group’s recent research into employees’ experiences and preferences of benefits communication, it outlines the steps to successful face to face benefits communication and learns how one organisation, Merseyrail, got their benefits programme on track by making time for face to face interaction.
Alison Kidgell
Group Marketing Director
Personal Group
