A solid broker advantage for the ‘next normal’ of benefits

The coronavirus pandemic has greatly accelerated the evolution of two recent trends in employee benefits. Combined, they magnify an ever-present challenge for employers and present a clear opportunity for brokers to retain their current clients, increase wallet share, and expand their book of business as we slowly return to the next normal.

•     Trend 1: Employers are offering a wider range of benefits post-COVID-19 as they focus on caring for and supporting the whole employee.
•     Trend 2: More employers are moving toward a modernized, tightly integrated benefits model.
•     The magnified challenge for employers: It’s never been easy for employers to communicate their benefits in ways that promote adoption and expand awareness of their value to employees — a challenge that will be exacerbated with a more thoughtfully constructed, holistic benefits package.

The challenge for employers is more critical now than ever. It also sets the stage for brokers with the right partner to be a hero to more employers than ever before.

In the aftermath of 2020, a growing number of employers are focusing more on total well-being for their employees. They’re offering a broad range of previously unrelated support for the employee’s work-life experience. While this new approach involves an expanded blend of core and voluntary/worksite benefits, the critical element involves how those benefits integrate and complement each other. Other pieces range from support for mental well-being and pet care to new employee engagement and retention concepts. 

None of this is new. But it’s all picked up steam in the past year, and there’s no sign of the trend turning back. The pandemic shined a spotlight on the need for benefits and employee support that had previously been ignored or constantly put aside and that are now nonnegotiable elements of the baseline of the next normal for employers.

Though it’s true that stress and anxiety among employees dropped in December and January from their record highs during the pandemic, employees still struggle with their mental health at much higher levels than before the pandemic. Risk of depression is 71% higher than before the pandemic, and attention span is 27% worse, according to the Mental Health Index, by Total Brain and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions.

National research by Eagle Hill Consulting Group found that 58% of all U.S. employees say they are struggling with burnout during the pandemic and that those employees are four times more likely to leave their organizations than those not feeling burned out. “The cumulative impact of the COVID environment has been unprecedented on employees and their families,” Michael Thompson, CEO of the National Alliance, said in a statement.

Tackling change with modernized well-being benefits

As employers continue to fill gaps in their benefit lineups to provide proper intervention,  employees continue to be at risk of burning out and leaving the workforce entirely. Throughout the pandemic, employers have launched benefits to help battle stress, burnout, and other mental health and total well-being concerns. Hewlett-Packard, Starbucks, and other organizations expanded their benefits to include free therapy, meditation, and wellness apps, and even access to a virtual vegetable garden.

“The trauma of the last year will have long-lasting effects on the mental health of not only employees but their families,” Garen Staglin, chairman of One Mind at Work, said in a statement. “Employers must remain focused on incorporating innovative mental health programs with visible leadership involvement to support the well-being of their workforce.”

But the benefits don’t stop there. Not by a long shot. Enterprise application giant SAP has expanded its pet insurance and bereavement programs to offer comprehensive pet health and wellness benefits to full-time employees in North America.

“Large employers hope employees continue to take advantage of their ongoing well-being strategies and other employer-sponsored support, such as additional job flexibility, healthy living programs, positive work-life balance initiatives, and increased education and employer support around vaccinations,” Colleen McHugh, executive vice president of the American Health Policy Institute and strategic advisor for HR Policy Association, said in a statement.

To support their concerns, an increasing number of employers are moving to a modernized, integrated benefits model for managing benefits, driving employee engagement, and optimizing benefit utilization throughout the year. Of course, employer adoption of this new model doesn’t come without its challenges.

Where things fall apart — and where a broker opportunity lies

The demand for a holistic benefits package has greatly heightened the communication challenge for employers. As employers implement their well-intended expansions of benefits, the whole picture can fall apart if the communications surrounding those benefits, old and new, fail to expand and evolve. 

As McHugh said in her comment, “employers hope employees continue to take advantage” of the new model of personalized benefits their employers are offering. But the days of “send and hope” are long gone.

Even before employers started adopting a more holistic benefits offering, employees were confused and often unaware of the value of their benefits or how to put them to best use. According to a recent survey from Voya Financial:

•     Over one-third of workers (35%) already don’t understand the benefits they selected during enrollment.
•     More than half (54%) of millennials reported they don’t understand their benefit selections.
•     Two in three (66%) workers want their employer to help them better understand their employee benefits throughout the year — not just at open enrollment.
•     78% of millennials reported they would like more communication about their workplace benefits throughout 2021.

Research from dental carrier Ameritas found that about 73% of employees spend less than an hour, and 41% spend less than 30 minutes, reviewing plan information. Employees often choose the same plans and coverage levels year after year. With disjointed and often complex benefit descriptions, employees find it frustrating to explore new or updated benefits that may better fit their needs and those of their dependents. So, how does communication need to change with the new benefits model?

Personalized communication to support a holistic benefits model

Employers are spending increasing amounts of time, money, and resources to meet the demands of a highly customized, highly personalized  holistic benefits model. While these investments are a critical step in the right direction, the same level of planning and diligence must be applied to incorporating communication tools that ultimately help employees ‘connect the dots’ and understand the value of these new benefits.

The holistic and modernized model of personalized benefits requires personalized communication. It’s the way to ensure employees get the information they need in a way that drives them to select the right benefits for their situation and use them effectively. This is a crucial, and arguably the  most important step employers need to take with the new benefits model. Another necessity is to enable employees to provide feedback, so employers can evolve their benefits offerings and communication along the journey.

In fact, SHRM recently reported that the top trend to look for in benefits models this year is that the personalization of benefits packages will become paramount.

Brokers who offer a benefits administration platform that can surface employee dissatisfaction, needs, or confusion among the pieces of the new holistic model — while delivering personalized benefits communication — will have a significant advantage over competing firms.

The right benefits platform should have communication functionality that extends far beyond the typical, static, point-of-sale materials.

Industry thought leaders seem to agree that the new benefits model demands five best practices — five capabilities that require communication to be integrated into a benefits platform:

1. Audience-targeting capabilities: This complex, personalized new model requires  targeting across generations. Employers should be able to tap into any available data point stored in the platform’s system to create targeted communication and talk directly to employees based on demographics like age, location, existing lines of coverage, and more.
2. Communication on employees’ terms: The new benefits model demands reaching the employee where they want to be met. In other words, it needs to allow employee preferences for how they want to receive communication. The ability for HR to deliver texts, emails, and push notifications and have each employee receive messaging based on their personal preference is a non-negotiable element of the new benefits model.
4. Automation of HR’s communication tasks: The new holistic benefits model should include the ability to automate HR communications that are currently handled manually. Instead, they’ll be triggered by events in the employee life cycle — events like onboarding, marriage, a new child, age-related benefits updates, and offboarding.
5. Real-time insights: Today’s integrated benefits communication engine should deliver timely insights for HR and brokers to assess the effectiveness of their communication and engagement efforts. Brokers are empowered to stay involved with their clients far beyond the sales process.
6. For brokers and employers, branded content, easily imported: An integrated communication engine should allow you and your employers to copy and paste content right into messages on the platform, formatted and ready for delivery. Emails, messages, surveys, campaigns, and more can easily be created without reinventing the wheel and without needing to create content from scratch for each employer client.

In short, the new benefits model demands a communication engine that’s focused on personalized, authentic employee connection. Brokers and employers hoping to capitalize on a company’s significant investment in this new benefits model must also invest in an equal level of personalization and communication. With the right vendor and platform, the right integrated communication engine can be a powerful sales tool and a broker’s new best bet for being a trusted advisor that keeps existing clients, expands wallet share, and accommodates the next normal for employers. 

Steve Olivas is Vice President of Marketing for Selerix, an industry-leading provider of benefits administration and employee engagement software. He is responsible for brand strategy, marketing campaigns, and is heavily involved in employee engagement and cultural initiatives.