HCW Benefits Blog

Contributor:
Chris Tutino, Communications Specialist
Hill, Chesson & Woody

In a recent survey on employee communications put out by Prudential, helping employees make better decisions and addressing the diverse benefits needs of a company’s employee population has moved to the bottom of the priority list.

According to the survey, one reason why there’s been a shift is because so much effort has been placed on what’s happening with reform and the resulting focus on cost containment and reduction. When it comes to helping employees make better benefits decisions, only 35 percent of plan sponsors said that it was highly important. This ranked 7th out of ten measures, with controlling healthcare-related costs coming in first with 70 percent of plan sponsors saying that was highly important.

Similarly, communications surrounding benefits strategies have fallen dramatically in importance over the past three years. From 2007 to 2010, plan sponsors have increasingly neglected employee communications, including a six percent reduction (from 34 to 28) of those ranking employee benefits education and/or financial advice as highly important. Also, the tailoring of communications and enrollment for various employee segments being highly important fell from 26 percent to 21 percent.

In these times of heightened awareness surrounding healthcare reform, is it still important to communicate employer and employee issues? If so, what platforms do you have in place to ensure timely and relevant employee communications?