Top tips on helping line managers deliver your benefits message
Employee benefits programmes are known industry-wide to increase employee engagement and productivity, improve employee satisfaction and reduce absenteeism.
The value of a health and wellness programme for both an employer and employees cannot be truly recognised unless people engage with these services and reap the benefits for themselves and their broader organisation. It may be that staff are unaware of what is available to them or there is a stigma attached to using these types of ‘work services’.
Here are our top tips to consider when developing your health and wellbeing benefits communication strategy.
1. First days and updates
Onboarding is the initial step into employee engagement with services and overall benefits education. Outline what is available. A defragmented service (ie everything in the same place) offers the best user experience, but make sure you include a guide of where/how to access services, particularly if you have a complicated programme accessed through multiple channels.
Remember to send easily digested and regular updates throughout the year should anything change or to serve as a reminder to maintain overall utilisation and wellbeing benefits. Communications should use language that encourages action such as ‘sign up here’ ‘access your portal here’ ‘start your journey today’.
2. Tackle stigma on a cultural level
Cultural change does not happen overnight. Stigma around employer provided health and wellbeing services should be tackled by opening mental health/wellbeing dialogue and showing a clear commitment to wellbeing promotion.
Some programme providers will have health promotion officers or key onsite services that helps with visibility and the ‘normalisation’ of services. Other organisations dedicate ‘wellness’ staff members to act as a point of contact to deal with any queries and help make smaller changes within overall culture.
3. Lead from the top
If your employees can’t see management using wellbeing services it can act as a major barrier for others accessing, trusting or engaging with benefits. If management can provide confidential examples of how things have helped in the past it could really be the push/encouragement an employee needs to engage with wellbeing services.
4. Use your EAP provider’s guidance
Communication strategies can be difficult and time consuming. Digitally enabled employee assistance programme (EAP) providers make communication and health promotion of these services far easier.
Many providers will provide tools and resources to make communication as easy as possible. Communications can be tailored to individual organisational brand guidelines or workforce demographics to make sure that your employees are receiving the right messages in a way that makes the most sense to them.
If you would like help to develop a tailored and innovative health and wellbeing strategy for your organisation, contact one of the team today at Spectrum Life.
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Supporting 4m+ lives in the corporate, education and insurance sectors with our health & wellbeing solutions.”
