Boosting benefits literacy: How to better communicate employee benefits
You've built a competitive benefits package — complete with a 401(k), an employee assistance program (EAP), and robust mental health support. The problem? Your employees aren't using them. In fact, many might not even know they exist.
When benefits aren't communicated clearly, it's a lose-lose situation. Your company's investment goes underutilized, and you risk losing top talent. At the same time, your employees feel undervalued and miss out on valuable support that could improve their well-being.
This, among other reasons, is why benefits communication is so important, despite its hurdles. In this article, we've put together a few strategies you can use to help employees make the most of what you offer.
Key Takeaways
- Clear, consistent benefits communication is crucial for driving employee satisfaction, improving retention, and maximizing the return on your benefits investment.
- Common benefits communication challenges include information overload, lack of personalized messaging, and infrequent updates.
- Employers can overcome such challenges by adopting a year-round, multimedia communications plan, complete with a central information hub, expert guidance, and decision-making tools.
What is employee benefits communication?
Employee benefits communication is the process of sharing clear, accurate, and easy-to-understand information about your company's benefits. This includes everything from health insurance and retirement plans to paid time off (PTO) and wellness programs.
In short, it’s all about bridging the gap between offering great benefits and ensuring your employees can use them with confidence.
Effective employee benefits communication turns a list of perks into a tangible toolkit for your employees' financial, physical, and mental health.
Why is it important to communicate benefits information?
Taking the time to inform employees about their benefits and how to best use them delivers significant returns for your organization:
- Greater benefits usage: When employees understand what’s available and how to access it, they're more likely to use their benefits. This leads to better health outcomes, improved financial wellness, and a workforce that feels supported when they need it most.
- Employee satisfaction and retention: Pay and benefits are the most common reasons employees left their jobs in 2024. When employees understand the full value of their compensation (not just their salary), they feel more appreciated and are more likely to stay with your company. It shows you care about their overall well-being.
- Benefits return on investment: Employee benefits are a major expense. Ensuring your team takes full advantage of what's offered means those dollars are having a real impact. Increased use validates your investment and contributes to a healthier, more productive workforce, which ultimately benefits the bottom line.
Common employee benefits communication challenges
Despite how important it is to educate and communicate with employees about benefits, many organizations struggle to do it successfully, as benefits information is often:
- Overwhelming: Benefits packages are complicated and come with fine print or confusing technical jargon. Handing employees all this information at once makes it far more likely they'll skim over documents and delay decision-making.
- One-size-fits-all: Many organizations don’t have the tools or infrastructure to meet employees where they are, meaning messages fail to connect with what individuals truly care about and need.
- One and done: Too often, benefits education is treated as a single event during open enrollment. But life happens all year long. Employees get married, have children, or face unexpected health issues. Without ongoing communication, they may forget their options or miss opportunities to adjust their coverage when their needs change.
Five strategies for effective benefits communication
Fortunately, overcoming these obstacles doesn't have to be complicated. There are several tried-and-true methods for informing employees about their benefits eligibility.
1. Identify communication and education gaps
Before you can create a better benefits communication strategy, you need to assess your current approach to learn what isn't working.
“You need to get a sense of what communication is going out, who's getting it, and what mediums they're getting it in,” said Cammie Bricker, Paylocity's director of change management and communications, in a PCTY Talks podcast.
To identify these gaps and build the most effective employee benefits communication plan possible, try:
- Sending employee surveys: Create custom surveys for employees to complete that uncover where they lack support or need benefits education.
- Meeting with managers: Connect one-on-one with leadership to ask where confusion tends to pop up (e.g., during onboarding, after life events, or during open enrollment).
- Reviewing benefit usage reports: Using your benefits administration software, drill down into your company’s benefit data to view enrollment rates. Low participation may signal a communication problem.
- Finding trends: Use tools like dashboards and heatmaps to understand what bubbled up in feedback. Filter by demographics (e.g., tenure) for even deeper insights into employee engagement or lack thereof.
2. Create a year-round plan
Benefits education shouldn’t be a once-a-year event. Life changes year-round, and your employee benefits communication strategy should reflect that. Consistent communication ensures your team always feels supported.
To that end, create a benefits calendar with monthly reminders, messages, and key deadlines. You could, for example, focus on mental health resources during May for Mental Health Awareness Month, or highlight retirement planning tips during March.
This intentional schedule keeps benefits top of mind and provides timely information when employees need it most. Other ideas include:
|
Month |
Key Reminder | Communication ideas |
|
January
|
W-2 availability |
Email or video reminder about plan usage and benefits resetting |
| February | HSA / FSA contributions | Share tips on account use and annual contribution limits |
| March | 401(k) contributions and tax prep resources | Host a Q&A or share tools for retirement laws and planning |
| April | Tax deadline | Post a notice reminding employees of the deadline to file tax returns with FAQs |
| May | Mid-year plan use check-in | Promote EAPs, mental health resources, or leave policies |
| June | Prep for open enrollment | Remind employees of time-off policies and flex benefits |
| July | HSA / FSA mid-year balance | Communicate urgent care/telehealth options while traveling |
| August | Back-to-school benefits (childcare, dependent care FSA) | Highlight dependent care, EAP for parents, and flexible schedules |
| September | Prep and preview open enrollment materials | Launch pre-enrollment webinars or benefit explainer videos |
| October | Open enrollment begins (for many organizations) | Share comparison tools, FAQs, reminder of decision support resources |
| November | Open enrollment closes (check for your organization's exact dates) | Highlight employee perks, charitable match programs |
| December | End-of-year reminders (FSA balances, PTO use, plan rollovers) | Checklist for unused benefits, sneak peek at next year |
3. Use a multimedia approach
Your workforce is diverse, so your communication methods and channels should be too. A single format won't reach everyone effectively, so use a mix of methods to get your message across.
- A centralized communication hub: Create a single source (e.g., a company feed) where employees can find all the information. This guarantees everyone, from desk workers to those in the field, have access to what they'll need.
- Videos or webinars: Create short videos with experts to explain commonly used jargon, answer FAQs, and more. Use topics like “How to choose a health plan” or “What’s an FSA?”
- Targeted emails: Send automated reminders that align with your content calendar. Use out-of-the-box templates or create your own for even faster and more efficient messaging.
4. Give employees all the support and expertise they need
When employees feel unsure about their options, they may delay decisions or make the wrong ones. Giving them easy access to answers and guidance builds trust and empowers them to make confident choices:
- Connect them with real experts: To really nail your employee benefits marketing strategy, give employees the chance to speak directly with benefits experts. Live Q&A sessions, one-on-one consultations, or a dedicated support line can make a huge difference.
- Train peers and managers: Train people managers to answer basic benefits questions and point employees to resources. Create a network of “benefits champions” across departments to help spread awareness and build trust.
- Use built-in support tools: Partner with a platform that offers benefits decision support so employees get individualized guidance as they're making selections, not just beforehand.
5. Create a one-stop benefits shop
If you really want to encourage employees to use their benefits, make it as simple as possible for them to find what they need. Information scattered across PDFs, old emails, and external websites creates confusion and frustration.
Therefore, Cammie suggests thinking about the apps on your phone and how the best ones bring everything you need together in one place.
“Your communication strategy should be like that, too. Employees shouldn’t have to go to different resources all the time to find all the information they need," she said. "We need to think: Is there a way that we can create a communications plan that truly matches the consumer experience?”
A centralized platform gives employees a single place to access:
- Important links and plan documents
- Benefits FAQs
- Enrollment videos, webinars, and more
- Their own enrollment information
Make benefits communication more effective than ever
Educating employees about their benefits is essential to your organization’s success, so how do you make it both robust and accessible for all? With Paylocity, organizations can:
- Survey: Gain real insight into employee needs with custom pulse surveys that quickly identify emerging feedback and prioritize what matters most.
- Support: Empower your workforce with easy access to tools and resources, from expert Q&As to a centralized hub for essential information.
- Succeed: Keep employees informed and engaged year-round through email, broadcast messages, and more, ensuring every team member (whether remote, hybrid, or on-site) fully understands and uses their benefits.
Request a Paylocity demo to learn more about how you can streamline your employee benefits communication today.
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