Make Sure Your Employees Understand The Benefits Offering Clearly!
Big market players often have a wide range of choices when it comes to choosing winning employee benefits packages, while small and mid-sized companies strive to deal with limited plan options. Still, now with increasing pressures, many small to mid-sized employers are also coming up with multiple plan options for their employees.
But even after offering some appealing plans, changes in employee plan selection patterns seem negligible, since many employees don’t understand them at all and navigating through benefits complexities is still a challenge! They continue to choose the same plans for years until they get under some health and financial crunch. Well, there is no universal solution for all needs, but yes there are many solutions for different needs. Some are:
Benefits Packages Have Changed, So Should Your Offerings!
It would be an old school trick to offer the same traditional plans every year as they do not fulfill your employees’ aim. Now the concerns have shifted to wellness & prevention plans that may include medical & dental, smoking cessation programs, tuition reimbursement or auxiliary benefit plans. So make sure to include these benefits plans in your offering and also motivate your employees to choose the plans best suited to their “current” needs, not the ones they have got habitual to.
How To Help Employees In Choosing The Best Among Many?
Help Employees In Changing Their Conventional Thinking
If you have employees working for you for a long time, you might have witnessed the changes in their work (they have improved a lot) but haven’t seen any change in their benefits choices. Maybe, the reason being- the plan has worked for them for most of their career and they don’t want changes or take a risk.
So, in order to upgrade their benefits choices, conduct an annual meeting or email a list of benefits that will help you analyze your employees’ plans, and what they need to change as per their current family needs.
Your employee might have got married recently or had a baby. Their needs have changed so should their benefit selections. Make them aware of new benefit offerings and if possible, explain the plans as well.
Read Also — How Can You Choose The RIGHT Benefit Plans For Your Employees?
Take Your Employees Out Of Dilemma
Sometimes, employees feel very diffident regarding the change in their benefit offerings due to lack of understanding about the new benefits packages. Even if their demands and needs change, they are afraid of taking a risk and continue to choose the ones they were previously enrolled in.
The best way of encouraging these employees make them evaluate their requirements and current needs, and then educating them on the plans best suited to them. For example: If somebody is undergoing a dental treatment and spends a lot of money on the same. Then you can help him/her out by putting forward the plans that give the maximum dental coverage. So that he/she can save a lot on the future dental procedure.
Related — 6 Questions To Simplify Your Benefits Solution Buying Decision
It’s Never Too Late For The Good Change
Some of your employees who are close to retirement age may not be interested in embracing the change. Since with few years remaining, there is no sense taking a risk! But, it can’t be completely accepted since there might be few plans on your list that they can leverage the benefits of even for months. Find out the plans they can take advantage of, which they might never take once they leave the company. Provide them complete printed summary of all the benefits they can consider to opt.
Arriving at the Conclusion:
Never assume that your employees will understand and choose the plan on their own. Overwhelming employees with plenty of decorative plans will do no good to them until or unless, they are not fully aware of them. By analyzing their current health problems and needs, you can help them choose not only the safest but also the right plan.
