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15 Mar 2018
by Joshua Croft

Why there shouldn't be a 'place' in your workplace when it comes to benefits communication

With flexible working hours, diverse geographical locations and an increase in working from home, the workplace isn’t really a ‘place’ anymore. It’s wherever you or your employees want it to be.

7C81-1520616196_WhythereshouldntbeaplaceMAIN.jpg Making sure every single person in your organisation feels included in your employee benefit programme is vital to make them feel valued and part of your team.

If your business is guilty of a one dimensional approach to your benefits then there are a few simple steps you can take to increase engagement and build a benefits programme that your business and people are proud of.

Don’t bin those brochures just yet

Digital methods work really well and are an obvious ‘go to’ method. They’re quick, easy and cheap, but be careful – it would be naïve to assume email is the best method to reach everyone. Don’t rule out producing those employee benefit brochures just yet. You might think that it will cost you too much to produce and be a nightmare to distribute, but it might only be a small demographic that needs to receive them.

Step into someone else’s shoes for the day

Take a step back from your role and put yourself in someone else’s shoes. For one day only you’re going to be Sarah from the warehouse. She gets up at 6am every day to get her children ready for school before jumping on the train at 8am to get to work for a 9am start.

You might have some great benefits that can help make her life a little easier, but if you’re sending her emails when her job doesn’t revolve around being sat at a computer all day then all your efforts will be in vain.

The point I’m making here is that it will always be difficult to empathise with a large collection of people. By putting yourself into someone else’s shoes for the day and conducting a communication analysis, you’ll start building a better picture of your workforce and what communications might work best for them. In Sarah’s case it might be best to put something in the post, or just a few posters dotted around her working environment.

Conduct a communication analysis

Conducting an analysis of where your people spend most of their day is a great way to work out which methods of communication will work best. Better communications equal better engagement. Better engagement means better take-up. Better take-up means better return on your investment.

Here are 4 demographics of your workforce that you might want to consider how you communicate with. We’ve also thrown in some ideas of methods we’ve used for our clients.

At head office

Think about:

  • Personalised emails
  • A dedicated employee benefits website
  • Interactive online games
  • A bulletin board in the kitchen

On the shop floor

Think about:

  • Till top communications
  • Posters in the breakroom
  • An interactive presentation day
  • Benefits booklets

Working from home

Think about:

  • Personalised emails
  • A dedicated employee benefits website
  • Interactive online games
  • Telephone consultations

On the road

Think about:

  • Posters in the breakroom
  • One to one meetings
  • An interactive presentation day
  • Benefits booklets

One size never fits all

Your employees, like your business, are unique and you need to treat them this way. In order to drive engagement with your employee benefits, you need to reach every person with a message which appeals to them and their situation.

I hope this article has given you some food for thought on how you can start to think about the communications channels your business uses, getting your employees engaged with their employee benefits.

For more useful tips click here or join us on our interactive webinar on 21 March at 10am.

Joshua Croft is associate consultant at Johnson Fleming.

This article was provided by Johnson Fleming.

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