Why communicating family forming benefits is as important as offering them, with Lauren Lunniss at BNP Paribas
There is some great work out there when it comes to offering enhanced family-forming benefits, but reward specialists need to think carefully about where they display this information, argued Lauren Lunniss, health and wellbeing manager at BNP Paribas.
Speaking on the Using family-forming benefits to improve inclusion and employee retention REBA webinar on 28 February, in partnership with Peppy, Lunniss said:
“You could have the best benefits package in the world, but if your employees have no idea how to access it, and what’s included for them.
“If you don’t make it easy, particularly when your employees are at their most vulnerable, employees won’t know they are there. You need to just get the information you need in as quick a time as possible.”
Lunniss encouraged a range of communications around family-forming benefits that stretched far beyond awareness days.
She added: “You need to continuously direct to in your communications pieces, it’s not just around awareness days- it’s a continual beating drum.
“It could be something small or it could be a big event, just things to keep that information at the forefront of the employee’s mind. Because when you do an event, it might not have been applicable to them at the time.
“But if you make sure something is applicable to them in the background, when they are ready to start a family or they want to explore their options, they know where to go to because you’re getting that information out all of the time.”
Lunniss also encouraged rewards professionals to reconsider where this policy information is kept.
She said: “If you’re talking about pregnancy loss, typically that sits within the maternity leave policy. Depending on when the loss occurred, the employee may be entitled to some form of maternity pay.
“But while it’s important to keep it in there, it’s also important to ensure that there is the information there directing employees to this policy and saying where it’s held.
“If you don’t, that may be the last place someone going through that experience will want to look, and therefore that individual may not get the support they need while at their most vulnerable time.”
