By Craig Foster, president, Quantum Service Group
In 1999. Human Resources worked hard defining their HMO plans, Bill Clinton fought impeachment proceedings and the economy had buzzed along at an unprecedented growth rate for more than 30 years.
Ten years later, the Gross National Product of the United States was -2 percent.1 This was the first time, since 1949, that the U.S. had lost ground in GNP and health care was at the forefront of the discussion.
From 1999 to 2009, businesses’ health insurance costs rose from 5.4 to 7.3 percent of compensation, while compensation in wages and salaries dropped from 73.0 to 70.8 percent.2
In 2009, were you thinking, “When will this end?” Ooops, it hasn’t!
Today, higher unemployment rates, lackluster budgets and basically “doing more with less” have become the status quo. Open enrollment has become more complex. Employee job stress, financial stress and the retirement outlook are at a point that year-round employer support is necessary.
Companies are forced to manage costs, retain the employees they have and increase productivity in the process.
Employee retention?
I’ll worry about that later!
Employers want to educate employees about making good short-term decisions but also help them see the longer-term implications. Health care reform leaves employees with more questions than answers.
If open enrollment provides the foundation for benefit communications, what other outlets exist that might enable a targeted and customizable message?
Print, email, snail mail, CBT, Jellyvision, Trustnode and social media all play a part; but what part? Everyone preaches effective communications must be simple, straight-forward and direct.
How about interesting?
Social media, blogs, RSS, mobile phone integration, digital signage and kiosks can help to spice up your engagement strategy. Frequency is a key consideration so trends indicate that employee self-service and benefit administrative technologies are here to stay. Most are asking the question: How will we pay for all this? Save that thought… most of you already are.
MetLife’s ninth annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends stated that “Effective communication can make the difference between benefits that are understood and valued, and benefits that are overlooked and underutilized.”
Did we not get that?
“Fifty-five percent of employees reported that they did not find their benefits materials clear or comprehensive and only 23 percent of employees are satisfied with their benefits communications.”
This in a year when half of us are going to change our health care plans significantly… Houston, we have a problem.
For employees to value benefit plans and understand the options available, we need to get their attention.
By the way, employees (regardless of age) still spend on average 30 minutes covering benefits enrollment and this is again unlikely to change. “Employers are going to have to make every minute count.”3 Relax, refocus, there is hope.
Many companies are increasing their efforts for enabling employees to voluntarily elect consumer-driven health plans (CDHP) among existing offerings or discontinuing other HMO/PPO choices.
Whatever your scenario, personal, real-life examples of how the plans work will deliver better understanding and results. Focus on the tangible behaviors that impact your employees' pocket book first and the company’s bigger health care picture second.
From a cost perspective, these tangible behaviors include scheduling preventive care, participating in biometric screenings and other wellness programs, enrolling in more cost-effective plans, switching to generic drugs, using the prescription mail order program or taking advantage of accounts like flexibile spending accounts (FSA)s and health savings accounts (HAS)s. A concept I like to call micro-messaging brings the employee quickly to the bottom line and delivery is efficient and sustainable.
In the last 25 years in business technology, one truth has always remained: people appreciate great service. We’ve all seen the studies showing a link between stronger benefit communications yielding higher shareholder valuations.
Ask yourself and your peers, does self-service equate to great service? IMO directing your employee messaging structures to individual need and with sustainable consistency and frequency equates to great service. Multimedia is the concept of multiple mediums for communication.
Add to this the micro-messaging strategy and you have a valuable combination. Micro - messaging must be simple, hard hitting and personally relevant.
This serves you in a number of very powerful ways.
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A shorter targeted message allows for a timely delivery. If you can’t communicate your message in seven to nine minutes, effectiveness will be lost.
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Your diverse employee population is divided into multiple groups of targeted smaller audiences; keeping the message simple, straightforward and easily understood.
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The segmentation of smaller focus groups tend to have more in common, hence they can be grouped effectively by similar content and programming.
Micro-messaging is vitally important when aligning with social media, as employees begin to view company communication on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. If you haven’t viewed Jellyvision, you’re late to the party. Shorter, interactive promotions induce positive behavior and change.
After 10 years of asking questions and learning about benefit communications, one very compelling fact that is not likely to change is mandatory employee engagement, such as those activities surrounding open enrollment, are best suited to a technology platform.
Otherwise stated, if employees must sign up for their benefits then push them online using ESS or your Benefit Administrative System and be done with it. Don’t shove strategic communications for voluntary employee programs (where you must promote and educate for participation) into the open enrollment envelope.
Programs such as wellness promotions, preventative maintenance and biometric screening are better suited to off-cycle communications enabling you to properly convey value and define need.
Why put 10 pounds of communications, engagement and enrollment into a five-pound. bucket further complicating open enrollment? With a properly organized off-cycle campaign you can offer strategic reinforcement to your existing capabilities. What capabilities you say?
At the SHRM conference in Las Vegas last summer, half of the attendees surveyed plan to increase premiums, copays and deductibles this year. And again, half of the attendees also are planning to add voluntary benefit offerings to compliment their core plans.
Do your homework here; because employers can gain much needed budget for communications and enrollment support through the offering of voluntary benefits off-cycle. Employees can then receive consistent and sustainable information about the changing landscape of employee benefits.
After 10 years of successfully moving voluntary benefit communications and enrollment off-cycle, I have found there to be numerous opportunities that bring value and excite employees and employers alike.
This is not a “one and done” approach, but a three-year plan. Your employees develop a greater understanding of where your company stands on the issues of major importance and can actively engage in the following voluntary campaigns:
- Talent Assessment & Leadership Development
- Consumer-driven Health Adoption (HRA, HSA)
- Health Care Performance Management
- DB, DC 401(k) Retirement Readiness (Individual Financial Wellness)
- DOL 2012 401(k) Fee transparency (Compliance)
- Health Plan Dependent Confirmation
- Customer Service & Branding support
- One hundred percent Paperless Payroll Conversion programs (Stored Value Pay Card)
- Shrink Management (Loss Prevention)
- Safety and Risk Management
Success Story
Stein Mart is a leading national discount retailer that believes in the associate philosophy “It Begins With Me!” One of Stein Mart’s biggest concerns was how to directly facilitate improvements in Health Performance Management (HPM) with more than 11,000 employees in 31 states.
HPM is the measured improvement of employee behaviors as defined by the Stein Mart’s goals towards managing health-related costs and improving productivity. Moving voluntary benefit enrollment off-cycle in 2004 allowed for a larger landscape for which to operate.
This also enabled direct to employee micro-messaging, which brought greater results for participation in the wellness program and supplemental benefit offering.
Stein Mart changed the game by co-developing an enrollment budget with an internal branded message of better health. This approach brought sustainable improvements in Stein Mart’s ability to engage employees resulting in health cost trends under 2 percent.
After the second year of the HPM Wellness campaign, the CFO asked HR, “What are you doing?”
Now that Stein Mart has reduced claims reserves by more than half a million dollars for the last two years running; the questions have changed to “What else can HR do for me?”
References:
2. Kaiser Family Foundation / Health Research and Educational Trust. Employer Health Benefits: 1999; Employer Health Benefits, 2009. Menlo Park: Kaiser Family Foundation.
3. MetLife Ninth Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends
Craig Foster is President of Quantum Services Group a consulting enterprise assisting the Insurance Services and Supplemental Benefits Sector. For 25 years, Craig has provided strategic improvements in technology and employee engagement. His expertise surrounds the improvement of Benefit Communications and Enrollment services. 
