Earlier this week I wrote about the importance of effectively communicating employee benefits. Today, I want to continue that theme by talking about a critical component of effectively communicating employee benefits: Knowing your audience. Unfortunately, I learned this one the hard way.
A number of years ago I was tasked with rolling out the company’s 401(k) plan to a number of employees who were transitioning over to our company and were critical to satisfy and retain. So, in thinking about the important task at hand, I took the following steps to communicate the 401(k) plan:
1. Created clear and comprehensive materials about the plan and distributed them to the employees.
2. Requested that the top speaker from the 401(k) provider present the benefits of participating in the company’s 401(k) plan (including all of the financial perks).
3. Scheduled the presentations around all of the employees work schedules’ so they wouldn’t be inconvenienced.
Great communications plan, right? Just sit back and just watch the participation numbers rise! Wrong and wrong. Participation peaked at 22% (participation rate in their previous company was 52%). What went wrong? Quite simply, I didn’t take the time to know my audience.
I started researching what I could have done better and quickly realized that the demographic of this new employee group was one that required an additional step: Although they wanted to participate in the 401(k) plan, the enrollment process was overwhelming to them. Upon realizing this, my staff set up times to meet with each employee to help them enroll. By the end of this two-day process, we had moved the participation needle up to 54%.
Now I always make it a point to ask one simple question any time I’m looking at rolling out a new benefits initiative: How can I reach the company’s target audience in a way that will allow them to understand and actively engage in it?
In today’s day and age, effectively reaching one’s audience is a very daunting task. You must consider everything from multi-generational workforces, cultural differences, geographic makeup and technology competencies. That said, as you spend significant time developing your next new benefits initiative it will be just as important to take the same amount of time to research your audience’s wants and needs.
Contributing Editor Ed Bray, J.D., is director of employee benefits for a major transportation company in Hawaii.
What steps do you take to know your audience? Share your thoughts in the comments.
