“68% of employers indicate communication of benefits and wellbeing programmes is the most important benefit priority of the next six months”.
Willis Towers Watson – Feb 2021*
We have all seen an increased focus on staff communications during the past 12 months. Combined with greater awareness and emphasis on mental health and employee wellbeing, it makes total sense that more employers want to ensure that their health and wellbeing staff benefits are front of mind and regularly communicated to keyworkers and remote employees
As the post lockdown world continues to virtualise for a lot of organisations, including those with key workers, the channels of communications have also shifted. Ensuring your workforce stays connected is crucial in keeping them engaged and productive
Communication tips that can help your people thrive and create community
1. Communicate Continuously
Communication is not just about information; it is also about establishing a valuable relationship with your workforce. Under-communication can be damaging, especially in times of uncertainty, so be proactive. A handy tool to remember is the 10x10x10 rule: Say something 10 times in 10 different ways for people to retain 10%. You could have a brilliant employee benefits programme but if your people don’t know about it, they are not going to engage with it
2. Create a health and wellbeing comms calendar
Help bring your staff benefits to life by focusing on key benefits each month. For example, now would be an ideal time to turn the spotlight on the Cycle to Work staff benefit and promote the physical and mental wellbeing benefits to your workforce. Plus, with cinemas and entertainment venues re-opening, a Lifestyle Savings employee benefit could be promoted to let your people know they can access much needed discounts. For your wellbeing and recognition programmes, you may want to consider running these weekly and implementing a Wellbeing Wednesday where you communicate the help and support you have available, for example, your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). If you have a recognition and reward staff benefit, consider introducing a Thank you Thursday, it could do wonders for staff engagement by encouraging your workforce to say thank you to each other!
3. Prioritise mental health and wellbeing via multiple channels
Whatever channels you use to communicate; the overall mental health and wellbeing of your staff should be front and centre. Your workforce may have varying levels of skills with technology and devices and may not be comfortable using them so try to send your message multiple times through multiple channels to ensure audience reach according to their preferred routes
4. Identify your list of channels
There are so many ways to deliver benefits communications to employees – emails, newsletters, videos, social media, SMS messaging, MS Teams, Zoom, intranet and dedicated benefits communication portals. One of the key tasks is to create a centralised place for your communications so that employees can be self-sufficient. Having a one stop shop for your employee benefits and communications will transform your strategy and enable you to showcase what makes your organisation a great place to work
Vivup’s employee benefits platform has an internal communications hub built for your staff. Our CommsHub will enable you to centralise all your communications so that your people are kept fully informed on their staff benefits, latest news, resources and much more. All in one easy place they can access from both work and home to support keyworkers shift patterns and remote working . The CommsHub also includes a simple create-your-own tool that enables you to produce your own communications
5. Develop open feedback and analyse the data
Finally, if you do have a benefits communications hub, this will provide you with a dashboard of insightful data so that you can start to target your messaging in ways that will draw more return. Encourage your staff to comment and leave feedback on your communications, be that via confidential surveys or feedback forms. These are all great tools to help you drive more engagement and a better experience for your people
Connecting and engaging a dispersed and diverse workforce is now more important than ever but with the right communications strategy and tools at hand you can become the trusted source of information for all your staff benefits needs. Keeping them focused, happy and productive
If you need help with your communications strategy or want to learn more about the tools we can use to help connect your people, including our CommsHub, please get in touch
Looking to add a strong communications tool to your employee benefits programme? Drop us a line today at enquiries@vivup.co.uk
*https://www.willistowerswatson.com/en-US/Insights/2021/02/2021-emerging-from-the-pandemic-survey
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