The result is that people don't look for savings or even think there are bargains to be found. If you don't know about the tax benefits of an HSA, you won't sign up for one. If you don't know about the cost differences between emergency care and urgent care, you'll spend a $1,000 or more at the ER instead of $150 at urgent care.

We're all complicit in this situation. Employees don't care to Google all the jargon and acronyms. The insurance industry has done a spectacular job of making everything unintelligible to consumers. HR's open enrollment seminars and brochures can often be boring, confusing and ineffective. We all need to simplify our communications. A not-so-funny example is that some employees are surprised to find out there's a high deductible on their company's HDHP. Perhaps simply calling it by its full name, a high-deductible health plan, rather than its acronym will eliminate the element of surprise.

Moments that matter

One approach to health care benefits communication has achieved results: tapping into “moments that matter.” It is a way to make health care information relevant, but it has limitations.

Moments that matter are the transformational events in life: marriage, pregnancy, childbirth, divorce, getting a job, losing a job, etc. HR platforms have started to create health care content for these events.

For example, an employee becomes pregnant but doesn't want to announce it at work or tell HR just yet. Thankfully, HR built a web portal for maternity leave, where this employee can get her questions answered about benefits, scheduling time off, adding her newborn to insurance and so forth.

The trouble is that most health care situations aren't moments that matter. If an employee breaks a collar bone skiing and needs a second opinion about surgery, the first thought won't be, “Oh, I'd better check our company's health care portal!” Chances are, he or she won't know about the second opinion program. Something needs to be done about that.

Borrowing a play from marketers

Twenty-first century marketers have accepted that people are perpetually distracted, overloaded with information and skeptical of anyone who wastes their time delivering even more information. So, they run campaigns to overcome the clutter. That's what HR should do too.

Whereas an enrollment seminar is an event, a campaign is ongoing. It hammers home the message that employees can save a lot of money by learning. It's shamelessly self-promotional and willing to use interest-peaking subject lines and rich media to get attention.

The campaign does a little bit at a time, all the time. One open enrollment email blast might share an infographic comparing the plan options and runs scenarios of what employees would pay for three procedures on each plan. Another email could plug telemedicine in a video and discuss when to use it. Maybe another showcases an employee who saved $3,000 in out-of-pocket expenses by using your programs.

Unlike marketers, you don't have to worry about unsubscribes. That doesn't mean people won't ignore or trash your emails, though, so you need to keep everything short, relevant and useful.

Finding context

Marketers must find a context other than, “Hey, buy this so we can make money,” which is why they use seasonal events to drive traffic. Think of President's Day sales or back-to-school campaigns. HR departments also need context when sharing health benefits information.

Winter on the horizon? How about reminding employees about the beginning of flu season and showing the nearby clinics with the lowest price, as revealed by your nifty price comparison app. Or you can remind employees of what to do if they get sick while out of town, out of the health care network.

There are opportunities to pick up on the news cycle too. When Zika virus was in the news every day, that was an opportunity to educate people about their health benefits. Similarly, if legislators change the Affordable Care Act, that will be a key time to discuss current benefits and how they might change.

What's working?

As we said, the state of communication in health benefits can't get much worse. If you use a communication platform to run your campaigns, you'll get data back. And like marketers, you can adjust your messaging and campaign strategy if something's not working.

Be persistent. HR teams work creatively to get employees the best benefits they can, but our target audience is a distracted one. Cutting through the noise could turn our teams into intelligent, engaged consumers of their own health.

Keith Kitani is CEO and co-founder of GuideSpark and brings over 20 years of digital communications and eLearning expertise to creating, building and leading GuideSpark as it transforms workplace communications.

Colleen Blake is SVP of People at GuideSpark. Colleen is passionate about helping GuideSpark customers develop outstanding company cultures that enable employees and increase productivity. Colleen has extensive experience in HR, Marketing, Sales, IT, M&A, Operations and Professional Services. 

Read more: 

• 10 tips to improve employee benefits communication and enrollment
• Benefits enrollment: up close and personal
• Understanding social contracts and benefit engagement