Putting employees’ needs at the heart of benefit plans: A Q&A with Christopher Paquette
Engagement is always a sticking point for employee benefits, but it doesn't have to be.
Open enrollment is fast approaching, and if there was ever a time to get your communication and engagement plan right, this is it. Getting employees to really review and think about their benefit options has been challenging enough in the past, but this year, employers have to contend with a whole host of distractions.
Thankfully, that list of distractions and stressors also provides a springboard for benefits teams to really connect the value of employee benefits to real-life applications. Benefits tied to employee well-being–including mental, financial and emotional health–should be at the forefront of engagement strategies.
Related: To boost utilization, benefits managers must broaden the engagement funnel
Christopher Paquette, senior vice president and chief digital & strategy officer at Trustmark, recently took some time to share some thoughts with BenefitsPRO on how employers and benefits professionals can put together an engagement strategy to ace this enrollment season.
What do you see as the key barriers to employee engagement in benefit plans and how can they be overcome?
We’ve found there are behavioral and environmental barriers to employee engagement. Behavioral barriers stem from an employee’s feelings and beliefs about benefits – like being doubtful or suspicious of an employer’s underlying motive or feeling like they don’t have enough time to learn what they need to know about the program.
Environmental barriers stem from structural aspects ingrained in an organization – such as leaders who, by words or actions, make it inconvenient to access the program or difficulty accessing programs because of technology challenges or inconvenient customer service/support hours.
As you understand and address barriers, you must move to establish a system that drives not only plan engagement – employees understanding and valuing their benefits plan, but ultimately, action: employees making informed healthcare decisions, and putting those decisions efficiently in motion, supported and enabled by a benefits strategy and plan, all with the employee perspective at its center.
Are there typical mistakes or misguided paths employers make when developing a benefits strategy and plan? How can they be avoided?
In my experience, the big mistake is taking a “if you build it, they will come” stance. Many view benefit plans as a series of plan offerings – items to fill a required set of buckets or what’s viewed as the best collection of services at the price – rather than a coherent strategy.
The strategy – including not just the offerings, but also the path that engages employees and fosters efficient action – should always factor in the whole person at the heart of the plan. That means considering an employee’s physical, social, emotional, financial, and environmental well-being dimensions. This broad set of dimensions in turn needs to be driven by company business goals and employee population needs. This requires an in-depth assessment between employer and broker to help define the specific challenges for both the business and its employees.
In other words, a strategy to use benefit plan design as a way to improve employees’ lives in their individual context. Reflect on that – it’s easy to say, but so many employers instead just treat the process as a “check-the-box” exercise.
When the strategy is clear, it’s time to develop a rock-solid benefits plan structure (i.e., the multiple components that enable employees to take the actions you outlined). It’s helpful at this stage to work against a checklist such as: Do we have stated measurable outcomes? Are our strategies succinctly outlined? Do we have an adaptable timeline and approach in place? Have we defined our operational metrics? Consider how the different aspects of the plan build upon and reinforce each other, especially from the employee’s perspective – how the plan enables them to use their benefits, makes good decision-making easy, and gives employees guidance in a way that motivates them to take action.
How much does the size of the company matter when engaging its employees? Can a smaller employer take the same approach as a mid-sized or larger employer?
COVID has certainly put the emphasis on virtual and digital solutions, given the large numbers of employees working remotely for both small and large employers.
Regardless of size, companies are well-served to develop a strategy that leverages multiple touchpoints and channels for optimal employee engagement, including one-on-one support, enrollment and education, HCM, and digital engagement tools (e.g., next-gen advocacy, secure online portals, telemedicine services) that encourage well-informed utilization. This helps ensure that the employee journey through engagement to action is one of steady and timely interaction, and not marked by ineffective fits and starts. And that employees have access to on-demand information so they can be healthier and make smarter, more cost-effective health care decisions.
That said, smaller employers can struggle with more advanced digital capabilities for benefit engagement. The good news is that as consumers, employees are used to getting help at multiple points in their journey, regardless of whether it’s an in-person or entirely digital experience. We need to help companies think more deeply about the benefits strategy and plan for how to engage leaders in the process – to serve as role models along the benefits journey so their employees can become smarter healthcare consumers and achieve greater well-being.
And this is where small employers have an advantage. Their leaders can have a presence at (virtual) benefits fairs or open houses where employees learn about benefit programs to become the face or champion of the benefits program. Plus, they’re in a much better position to explain the company’s motives and benefits philosophy and seek input directly from employees. These types of “grassroots” interventions can more than make up for some of the flashy digital tools to which smaller employers might not have ready access.
What’s some advice you might give brokers/benefits professionals to make these conversations as productive and effective as possible?
Here’s where you need to position yourself as your client’s strategic partner. Take the time upfront to get aligned on employee well-being objectives and don’t be afraid to ask a ton of questions (e.g., What are the age, education level and average salary of the majority of your employees? What does the company believe is currently driving cost trends? What is unique about your geography/ industry/ strategy/ products/… that might drive benefit needs for your employees?)
Notice that these questions approach the benefits plan from the employee’s perspective – again putting them at the heart of decision-making. Ask yourself what success looks like, from the employee’s perspective, as well as the business perspective. Consider what behavioral and environmental barriers exist.
Then, develop a preliminary list of questions that will determine employee well-being objectives, potential barriers to engagement and how to overcome them. Consider possible vendor partners that can help you formulate a benefits strategy and plan. And lastly, think through how you might want to frame a conversation with your client so it’s clear that what’s good for the company’s employees is also good for the bottom line.
At Trustmark, we developed a roadmap for having these conversations that includes a deeper dive into much of what I’ve shared. It comes down to building a plan from the employee’s perspective – putting them at the heart of the benefits plan to remove barriers, provide timely, credible information, make the right actions easy, spur healthy behaviors, and encourage ongoing participation in a seamless well-being journey.
How can you tell if putting employees at the heart of an employer’s benefit plan delivers desired results? How can employers leverage advanced analytics to drive results and get to better insights on how employees are/can be engaged?
As your client’s strategic partner, you want the metrics to tell a story and demonstrate a benefits program’s value. To accomplish that, I recommend you first use the data as an opportunity to ask more operational questions (e.g., Did we reach the employees we wanted to reach? Has the employee engagement with—and usage of—the benefits plan improved?) as well as impact-oriented questions (e.g., Do the employees feel like they are better cared for? Do they feel an increased affinity for the company? Has this affinity lead to real tangible impact (e.g., lower attrition, reduced absences?) Did the results align with company expectations? Is the strategy supporting business goals?)
Then, take a holistic approach when reviewing data. Remember I mentioned factoring in the whole person as a way to put employees at the heart of the benefits plan. The same holds true with data – look at results through the lens of improving employee well-being in multiple dimensions – physical, social, emotional, and financial. These insights will help companies refine their benefits strategy and make necessary adjustments to the plan.
Another option to consider is benefits modeling, where companies review the possible impact of specific benefits plan changes. This enables companies to compare trends in their own employee population to aggregate data and national benchmarks. With benefits modeling, they can review network utilization rates and determine the best ways to mitigate out-of-network costs.
Combined, these steps can help you demonstrate that the benefits strategy and plan you’ve helped developed are leading to engaged employees making informed health care decisions that, in the long run, are good for their overall well-being as well as the employer bottom line.
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