Reorienting benefits communications content around individuals and things that people care about, and changing the method and routine in which communications are delivered (and interacted with), will improve engagement, utilization, and, ultimately, influence behavior. This will arm brokers with a potent two-way solution: A cost-effective self-help program for employers and their employees (which is to say a highly saleable deliverable), and a tool that sustains broker-employer/end-user communications—key to brokers looking to demonstrate ongoing value.  

Content matters

The fable of the scorpion and the frog speaks to the immutability of character.

While the scorpion understands this, standard benefits communications rarely display this level of self-awareness. Benefits communications can take many forms but generally it is what it is: corporate, generic and uninspired. We can speculate why these communications tend toward the bland institutional, but the prevailing editorial (or corporate) approach to content is instructive. 

Here's a simple thought experiment: which of the following approaches would you find inherently more compelling? A work/life column in the monthly newsletter on using time management skills, or a concise 500-word feature on Angelina Jolie juggling family responsibilities while on location? A piece filed under disease management on the terms of your STD or LTD plan, or a profile of NHL Hall of Famer Mario Lemieux and how he keeps his health problems in check? An article from an HR administrator on the benefits of diet and exercise with an overview of the company's wellness programs, or an interview with Tyra Banks on being a model of health no matter your size? A checklist to identify risk factors for heart disease, or an incisive profile of former Olympic skater Peggy Fleming on her active approach to lowering cholesterol?

While readers might not find all (or any) of the above personalities inherently of great interest, it's safe to say most will find personality-driven features, profiles or interviews more engaging than articles focused exclusively on issues. This is not a revelation; it's what editors of every publication from The New Yorker to People magazine fundamentally understand. Granted, few HR and/or corporate communications departments have the resources and capabilities required to take this approach to benefits communications, but there needs to be more thinking about the type of content that people are drawn to and fascinated by rather than assuming that good intentions, combined with lively writing and fresh-scrubbed faces will suffice.

How delivery can extend reach, sustain engagement

A reporter once asked Dick Cavett to name the 10 rules of conversation. His first response was that he didn't know there were any rules of conversation. After some prodding he finally came up with several including having a language in common, being in the same room or being within hearing distance of the person you are speaking to. If only it were that simple.

In a typical business day, people at every level deal with a steady stream of communications. And usually, unless a news item hits a user's desktop at just the right time, it's glossed over or simply ignored. The goal is to make benefits communications relevant—and not just every so often or when a decision needs to be made, but every day for general information and entertainment. The overarching mission is to deliver benefits information, news and advice in a fresh, highly readable and attractive package.

According to a recent Aflac study, most employees report their employers communicate less than three times a year about benefits, with 24 percent doing so more than three times a year. In fact, 44 percent of employees claim they receive too little communication about benefits from their employer. Moreover, according to MetLife's most recent study of employee benefits trends, 70 percent of employers say they do not use social media, and the study uncovers some of the perceived barriers to including it in the communications mix. Some 25 percent of employers believe there is a lack of interest on the part of their employees while 37 percent cite lack of resources. 

Despite these reservations, the MetLife study also shows many companies recognize the advantages of using social media. These companies see new media as a way of engaging employees, and 74 percent acknowledge it provides an easy, convenient way for employees to obtain benefits information. Yet only 8 percent of those who do not currently use some form of social media plan to look into it in the next year.

Instead of issuing a steady stream of static, one-way communications—think mailed newsletters or brochures—we have the tools to implement fluid, dynamic interactive programs combining electronic distribution and community. Imagine news and information packaged in the context of a magazine-type profile or feature story as well as an interactive component leveraging a dedicated company Twitter page where a community of users can find timely information and a platform for meaningful interaction during the course of the business day.

Topics ranging from the timely and serious to the peripheral and amusing can both garner attention and prompt a response. Also helpful is to embed links that route users to additional resources.

The bad news is the good news

To paraphrase the well-worn Wall Street maxim, the confusion characterizing the benefits landscape is good news for brokers. Yes, there are significant challenges—from companies looking to cut overhead to threats to their time-honored business model (read: ever-diminishing commissions). However, brokers able to demonstrate value and act as “Sherpa guides” to employer groups—helping them navigate an increasingly complex and dizzying benefits landscape, showing them the path to prosperity, productivity and wellness while minimizing costs—will be able to differentiate themselves in an increasingly punishing and competitive marketplace.  

For brokers, the first order of business is to find ways to broaden and deepen client relationships and help facilitate demonstrably effective solutions that hold the line on health care costs. Brokers, providers and employers all have a clear stake in extending their benefits enrollment platforms and decision support systems with information and tools that make end users (that's employees) more proactive in managing their health and well-being.

The key challenge is in developing, delivering and sustaining effective, “actionable” user communications that engage, inform and motivate. Oh yes, and entertain. Implementing a program that combines popular culture and social media with health and wellness will go a long way in positioning brokers to thrive in an uncertain future. It all comes down to demonstrating value and embracing the guiding principle of the entertainment sector: there's no business like show business.  

Charles Epstein is president of BackBone. He can be reached at 561-470-0965 or [email protected].

Ja'Nene Kane is president and COO of benefitsCONNECT. She can be reached at 916-421-4000 or [email protected].