If you’ve been following this blog, you’ll know that we’ve touched on which benefits videos to start with to get the most interest and involvement from your viewers. Will it be your Consumer Directed Health Plan or your 401(k)? You will also have learned what to include in an Open Enrollment video, which is a powerful place to start engaging employees.

Once you’ve decided on which topic to cover, here’s a plan for pulling together everything you COULD talk about and, from that, how to work out what to actually include in your video and what to provide through supporting documents.

1. Start with plan docs – Pull together and review all of your plan documents. View them through your employees’ eyes and be an advocate for their experience.
2. Decide on scope – Do you want a teaser to get employees interested, a full support solution that replaces your benefits guide or something in-between? Your choice will affect the watchability and usefulness of your video.
3. Beginnings and endings are critical – You have 30 seconds to buy attention span. Be creative. Wrap up with next steps.
4. Keep it Simple – Speak in plain English, as you would if you were having coffee with a good friend.
5. Find your voice – Are you corporate, anti-corporate or somewhere in-between? Make sure your video reflects your organization’s unique culture and voice.
6. Look and Feel – Consider incorporating these five elements:

• “Talking head” introduction – from a key executive is great for Open Enrollment or New Hire Training videos
• Company images – good for branding but be careful using faces as those employees may eventually leave
• Stock photography – select a powerful image to reinforce a key message
• Text – again, used sparingly, it can reinforce your key messages effectively
• Tables/charts/graphs – with video, you can walk your viewers through difficult concepts using tables, charts, graphs and other illustrations

Want more detail? Click here to watch the video course.

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GuideSpark has created a new video course to assist HR departments making the exciting leap into video communication. In this course, our director of Content Development and Video expert extraordinaire, Joseph Larocque, explains that topics which are more complex or require careful explanation are natural places to start. Good candidates are core benefits, Open Enrollment changes and tough messages such as a premium increase.

“Video can really help people understand how these plans work, how they compare, and why they are compelling,” says Larocque. “If you are introducing one of these in the upcoming year, starting your video communications here will drive adoption.”

GuideSpark’s system tracks the usage of our customers’ video libraries in great detail and provides this information the the HR department in an easy-to-read dashboard. Based on our customer statistics, the Top 5 Most Viewed Employee Benefits Videos are:

• Consumer Directed Health Plan
• Medical Plan Options
• 401(k) Retirement Savings Plan
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Roth vs. Traditional 401(k)

To learn more about how to create benefits communication videos, click here to watch the video course: Transform Benefits Education with Video.

In his new video course–Transform Benefits Education with Video–Joseph Larocque, GuideSpark’s Director of Content Development and video expert extraordinaire, recommends including these five pieces of basic information:

1. Open Enrollment process and deadlines
2. Open Enrollment events
3. Changes to your plan
4. How to enroll in benefits
5. Where to get help

It may sound simple but HR departments are frequently tempted to include large amounts of detail in an Open Enrollment video. The key message here is NOT to give viewers everything they could possibly want to know. Just touch on the main points and tell the viewer where to go for more information.

“An Open Enrollment video can provide a lot of value,” says Larocque. “If you hit these points effectively, you can avoid a lot of support calls.”

For more information on creating benefits communication videos, watch the video course Transform Benefits Education with Video.

Findings from the 2011 Aflac WorkForces Report highlighted the discrepancy between how companies and their workers view benefits communications:

• 85% of employers believe their HR departments are effective at benefits communication
• 27% of employees say their HR communications are not very/not at all effective
• 39% say the efforts are somewhat effective

And yet everyone agrees there is much needed improvement:

• 8% of employees say they are fully engaged in making benefits decisions
• 63% of companies say their workers need to be more engaged

What’s at stake? Not surprisingly, workers who are unprepared and under-protected against an accident or illness are highly vulnerable to the financial implications of an unexpected health event.

As more and more organizations realize, the health and financial wellness of an employee has a direct effect on the company’s productivity and retention levels.

• Companies are paying three times as much as last year in health premiums
• Most employers think their benefits communication is effective but few employees feel well informed
• Under-educated employees are making expensive decisions

Surely there are more options for proactive organizations than just waiting for the US Congress to work together to uncover ways to reduce both the country’s budget deficit and soaring health care costs. At the recent 24th Annual Benefits Forum and Expo in Dallas, two industry experts highlighted some key ways to reverse these trends.

Repeat after me: Improve Benefits Communication
Benefits Communication expert, Jennifer Benz, spoke about the need to simplify benefits for employees. According to her, benefits managers have an opportunity to solve one of the country’s biggest problems just by improving benefits communication.

Put benefits information online, outside the firewall. Establish a year-round dialog with employees through social media. Use public health services and other existing resources to promote benefits.

Balance Health and Financial Wellness
Ron Leopold, Vice President and National Medical Director of MetLife U.S. Business and industry thought leader, advises organizations to focus on helping employees find physical and fiscal success.

“There is a yin-yang relationship between health and financial,” Leopold said. “People who are financially secure are in a better position to maintain better health and people who are not financially secure face greater obstacles in terms of getting healthy and getting health care coverage.”

So there you have it. Improve benefits communications and invest in all-around wellness. Problem solved! If only getting Congress to work together was so easy…

GuideSpark, delivering the latest web solutions for HR communications and training, introduces a video white paper to aid HR organizations in the development and launch of their own, customized benefits communication videos.

GuideSpark’s instructional video white paper provides HR organizations with a simple step-by-step process to create and launch customized employee benefits videos. By incorporating video into benefits education, HR organizations can engage employees and increase benefits adoption during open enrollment while saving time and resources. According to GuideSpark’s customer surveys, using rich video content typically garners an overall 98 percent satisfaction rate among employees who praise the “easy to follow,” “convenient” and cost-effective benefits communication videos.

“Across the board, we find HR organizations are juggling the dual goals of enabling employee self-service while driving toward a culture of well-informed benefits consumers,” said Joe Larocque, Director, Content Development, GuideSpark. “Without exception, they’ve seen great success using video to achieve both objectives through a deeper level of employee engagement.”

The video white paper provides information on:

• how to use video for quick wins during open enrollment
• which benefit programs gain the most from video education
• how to decide what to cover
• how to keep the video content simple and engaging

FORTUNE 100 Best Places to Work companies—Adobe Systems and Meridian Health—and other top organizations, currently use videos to improve engagement in benefits education.

Watch the complimentary video white paper “Transform Benefits Education with On-Demand Video”.

Engage employees with video and social media

Video and social media are the way to engage employees these days, says Brian Baker, Vice President at Aon Hewitt Consultants, in a recent interview with Benefits TV.

Baker discusses balancing the “tell” with the “show” by crafting benefits messages using video.

Aon Hewitt presents their four Cs to an effective strategy for employee benefits communications and change management-through-engagement. They recommend utilizing video and social mediums to disseminate communications that are:

• Creative: all communications must have a relevant, creative component.
• Customized: representative of your particular employee demographic and segment.
• Cultural: going beyond corporate culture to take into account race, ethnicity, regional and business unit culture.
• Combined: all pieces must be delivered in combination to be successful.

Better education leads to higher FSA enrollment, which saves employers money on taxes.

Good benefits communication can raise employee Flexible Spending Account enrollment by 20% or more, a recent study found. The benefits of an FSA may be obvious to the seasoned HR Director, but not all employees – or employers – know how valuable these accounts can be.

Both employee and employer enjoy significant tax savings when FSAs are used. Employees save on federal and FICA taxes, plus any additional state and local taxes on medical items paid for through their FSA.

Employers, meanwhile, avoid the 7.65% FICA tax on employee wages. Based on the average annual contribution of $1,340, employers can save $100 per employee. 100 new participants means an average $10,000 in savings per year.

The study set four keys to a successful FSA enrollment campaign:

Know your audience. The study found these statistics about FSA participants:

• Average age: 43
• Marital status: 67% married (59% with children)
• Median income: $55,000-$65,000
• Key benefits decision-maker: Female

The study also found that employees use FSAs to reduce their taxable income, cover gaps in health plans, and finance dependent care.

Craft Key Messages. Clear up common misunderstandings, while highlighting key points clearly and concisely.  For example:

• An FSA is not another deduction, but money already being spent.
• The depth and breadth of eligible expenses, i.e. vision care to day care.

With FSAs, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details so be sure that you really focus on what most employees need to know to make a decision.

Select Methods of Communication. You probably don’t need to be convinced that these days employees across most demographics are accessing this type of information on the web.  Try and stay away from lengthy, static PDFs and brochures and avoid locking your materials behind the firewall, where family decision makers can’t get to it easily.  Putting together a short video on the benefit can be a really effective way to provide something engaging while allowing you to explain the benefit in more conversational terms.

Schedule Enrollment Communications. Reach out to employees up to 6 months in advance with education, as well as re-enrollment and qualified change in status communications.

Providers face rising health care costs but still must supply the legally required amount of care.  To do so, 63% of employers who are changing plan details have decided to raise the percentage that employees contribute to the premium, while 46% aim to raise out-of-pocket maximums.  Another 61% will be offering consumer-directed health plans, or CDHPs, which are a proven method of increasing consumer flexibility while cutting costs.

With so many benefits changing, it is important that employees thoroughly understand the developments and the reasons behind them.  The efforts that must be undertaken to get an employee to fully understand a CDHP are substantial and probably well telegraphed at this point.  If your strategy is to introduce this complex new benefit with a few vendor-provided brochures, you’ll likely end up with the status quo – single digit adoption rates.

When changing health plans, benefits communication can help focus on the positive.

Shifting a larger share of the cost to employees will likely be seen as a negative no matter what you do.   But, it’s never a good idea to let employees come to their own conclusions about those changes.  With effective benefits communication, you can provide context and position plan changes with your employees. Further, you can show them how to better utilize their plans and capture the cost-savings opportunities that are available to them.  Investing in benefits communication is perhaps the easiest and most cost-effective way to improve the perception that employees have about their benefits and about you as an employer, even in the wake of negative changes.

Benefits communication used to engage and retain employees as economy improves

Mercer recently announced the results of their Attraction and Retention Survey, covering over 320 employers this year. These are their most valuable findings:

Better economy means higher employee turnover. As the economy and job market continue to improve, 62% of companies think employee turnover will increase as well. When employees have more options, they are less likely to be loyal unless their company puts effort into keeping them.

Companies are expanding again. The economy is picking up and so is hiring. Nearly all companies surveyed are hiring. In fact, only 3% are reducing their workforce. Nearly one-third (27%) of companies are expanding, up from 12% shown in the 2009 Unprecedented Times Survey. This is a clear sign of companies’ confidence in the economy.

Companies are concentrating on engagement to retain employees. Employee engagement has increased in 47% of companies in the last 12-18 months, likely thanks to companies’ specific efforts. Engaged employees are less likely to stray and have higher performance levels, according to a Mercer principal. Retention is as important as expansion, when other employers can lure good talent away.

Benefits communication is the highest contributor to increasing employee engagement. Organizations have increased non-cash rewards as a means of retaining and engaging employees in the past 18 months. The reward most often used was benefits communication, which companies have used 27% more. Even as the economy improves, non-cash rewards serve as an important means of curbing turnover. Non-cash rewards are a good way of communicating confidence and appreciation for employees. It is also much cheaper to implement rewards programs than to hire new replacement employees. If employees don’t understand, value, or even know about these rewards then they won’t merit much. That’s why benefits communication has become such a vital resource for companies to keep employees engaged and loyal.