A critical part of our work in benefits communications is helping our clients—and by extension, their participants—navigate change. Whether you’re introducing a new benefit, revising your retirement plan design, or updating health plan offerings, helping people understand what’s changing and why is key to driving acceptance and to changing behaviors.
How should you move forward in conducting this year’s annual enrollment? For starters, create a plan that is thoughtful, thorough, and agile; communicate frequently; and show empathy. This can go a long way toward making annual enrollment a good experience for both employees and your team.
Ten years later and the ACA is still being debated. With all this uncertainty during an election cycle, what topics matter for communications?
Choosing the right benefits to meet individual needs is one of the biggest decisions your people can make. For many, enrolling in their benefits can be a confusing and complicated experience that can lead to making decisions based on gut feelings or past choices instead of rational thought. So how can you help? Offer decision support tools to help your employees make the right choices.
Amid a worldwide health crisis, taking vacation could be seen as pointless. With travel limited and attractions closed, time away from the office looks like a promising getaway for…couch potatoes only. But the truth is that even in a lockdown, personal time off (PTO) offers enormous benefits, both for employees and employers.
It’s that time of year again: open enrollment season. Whether you’re making big changes or none at all, it helps to start planning early—especially when there’s so much uncertainty and change impacting our lives. So, if you’re looking to kick-start your planning process, we can help.
Change is always difficult. So, when communicating bad news about employee benefits, or any HR programs, it’s important to look at the big picture and frame your messages appropriately—providing context can mean the difference between your people accepting or resisting change.
Even before the coronavirus outbreak, the majority of Americans had little to no savings and were living paycheck to paycheck. And when you have almost no savings, you’re most likely living in debt, living beyond your means, and not thinking about—or knowing how to achieve—goals such as building emergency savings and socking away money for retirement. This is why financial wellness matters now more than ever.
COVID-19 has challenged the status quo and upended the way we’ve always done things. So, with this new normal, should you conduct an in-person benefits fair, or reimagine it online?
The SECURE Act seeks to provide more Americans with access to retirement savings plans in order to strengthen retirement readiness. So what’s included in the SECURE Act, and what should you tell people now?