Empathetic benefits strategies: How to boost employee engagement and retention 

It’s no secret that benefits are hard to understand and navigate. In fact, 87% of employees self-report feeling confused about their benefits, while health care literacy is similarly low across the board, with only 12% of U.S. adults considered “health literate.”

These challenges, paired with the rising cost of health care year-over-year and the Great Resignation, make benefits engagement all the more imperative for employers and benefits advisors looking to manage costs, drive retention, and empower employees.

Health care is one of the largest line items on the budget. Because employers are grappling with how to best mitigate these cost increases, it’s critical to tailor benefit offerings that increase engagement, support employees and their families in improving their health and wealth, and ultimately improve attraction and retention.

Approaching benefits as a year-round activity is key to building engagement by leveraging tactics that empower employees to better understand what’s available to them, why it matters, and how to access those programs when and where they need them.

A few tried-and-true strategies advisors and their employer clients can use to help take the hassle out of health care navigation while driving engagement and retention include:

• Highlighting benefits and benefit programs
• Talking about the “so what” or “what’s in it for me” 
• Listening to what employees want and need

Put the spotlight on your benefit programs

Employee engagement is top of mind for almost all HR and benefits teams. But many employees end up feeling overwhelmed by the complexity of the health care ecosystem, and don’t bother engaging much past their annual enrollment — often forgetting about the resources available to help them navigate. 

HR and benefits teams can get ahead of this by making it easier for employees to enroll in benefits that best fit their needs, and access resources that often go underutilized. This could include:

• Embedding information directly in the enrollment flow about the benefits of pairing a health savings accounts (HSA) with a high-deductible health plan to help employees offset health care expenses, expected or unexpected.
• Proactively highlighting resources, like that HSA they just enrolled in or a provider lookup tool, after the start of the plan year to remind employees what’s available to manage their health care expenses and build financial stability for their future.
• Drawing a correlation between programs offered and specific times of year or events, such as reminding employees about mental health support programs during Mental Health Awareness Month or after a stressful community event.
• Reminding employees about voluntary benefits like pet insurance or ID theft protection that have year-round enrollment options and can help offset costs or mitigate risk. 

Not only does spotlighting take some of the stress out of exploring benefits, it also encourages employees to be better health care consumers as they continue to learn about what’s available to them and why it matters.

Help team members understand the “so what” behind what you offer

Similar to spotlighting benefit offerings, helping employees connect the dots between the benefit programs and why they are relevant to an employee, helps reduce confusion and build engagement. 

As you spotlight benefits, consider relevant real-life examples like:

• Planning a pregnancy?  Don’t forget how a hospital indemnity plan can lower your costs.
• Looking for a new care provider? Save money and time by booking your care with a high-quality provider.
• Take charge of your health! Feeling tired or not able to keep up with your kids? Consider joining our wellness program to get moving!

Or go one step further to truly personalize the message based upon available data such as:

• Congratulations on enrolling your new child in medical coverage! Don’t forget that we offer back up child care for those emergencies you may encounter.
• We noticed you recently had an injury. Don’t forget to file a claim to your accident plan to offset your medical costs.

The more personalized and relevant the messages, the more employees will understand both the value and the purpose behind the benefits and programs being offered, leading to higher engagement, and gaining those much-needed outcomes you are seeking as the employer.

Building consistency into a year-round engagement strategy is critical to success. The age-old saying “it takes seven times for something to stick” applies to benefits engagement, too. Repetition throughout the year helps employees remember what’s available to them in the moments that matter, right when they need to use those benefits.

Lean on employee feedback to make benefits relevant (and competitive)

Benefit offerings are quickly becoming a hot new tactic for HR teams to recruit and retain talent amid the Great Resignation. But those benefits are only as valuable as their relevance to employees’ needs.

Consider leaning into benefits data and gathering employee feedback to learn more about how useful your clients benefits are for employees.  Recognize that circumstances change – the prevalence of remote work skyrocketed, along with musculoskeletal and mental health concerns – and onsite services became less relevant. Think through the changes happening, or expected, with your workforce strategy to consider the underlying benefit programs that make the most sense. And continuously monitor the utilization and ROI of existing programs.

Relevant, valuable benefit programs can help retain current employees and bring in new talent:

• Are existing programs being utilized?
• What programs best align with current and future workforce demographics?
• What programs would be most valuable to address key cost drivers, either high volume claims or high-cost claims?
• Are employees asking for specific support, or how are you asking for input from employees to determine the support they would most value? 
• Are competitors offering programs more relevant to the talent your clients seek? 

Above all, lead with empathy

Recognize that for employees who are not in the weeds with benefits every day, navigating the complexity of the health care ecosystem is a real challenge. Baking empathy into your benefits strategy is one of the easiest ways to help employees get the most from what your clients offer by engaging with the right benefits at the right time. Empathetic benefit programs express to both current and future employees that you see each individual and seek to help them with their unique needs.

Sherri Bockhorst is Head of Consumer Experience and Strategy at Businesssolver.