{"id":1526,"date":"2017-01-18T18:50:14","date_gmt":"2017-01-18T18:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthadvocate.dev.thinkbrownstone.com\/?p=1526"},"modified":"2020-01-14T17:32:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-14T22:32:39","slug":"dont-forget-human-touch-in-your-benefits-communication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthadvocate.com\/site\/article\/dont-forget-human-touch-in-your-benefits-communication","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t forget human touch in your benefits communication"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Jared Bilski | <em>HR Morning <\/em><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are plenty of technological innovations in the world of benefits services and communications, but HR pros should never forget the importance of old-fashioned human interaction.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s one of the main takeaways from a recent Health Advocate study that was part of the whitepaper titled \u201cStriking a Healthy Balance: What Employees Really Want Out of Workplace Benefits Communication.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Cost, wellness, personal issues and care<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The study broke down employees\u2019 preferred methods of benefits communications in a number of areas. (Note: Employees could select more than one answer.)<\/p>\n<p>When asked how they preferred to receive <strong>health cost &amp; administrative info,<\/strong> the report found:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>73% of employees said directly with a person by phone<\/li>\n<li>69% said via a website\/online portal, and<\/li>\n<li>56% preferred an in-person conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Regarding their <strong>wellness benefits<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>71% of employees preferred to receive the info through a website\/online portal<\/li>\n<li>62% said directly with a person by phone, and<\/li>\n<li>56% preferred an in-person conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In terms of <strong>personal\/emotional wellness issues<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>71% of employees preferred to receive the info directly with a person by phone<\/li>\n<li>65% preferred an in-person conversation, and<\/li>\n<li>60% would most like to receive the info via a website\/online portal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Finally, when it came to <strong>managing chronic conditions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>66% of employees preferred to receive the info directly with a person by phone<\/li>\n<li>63% would most like to receive the info via a website\/online portal, and<\/li>\n<li>61% preferred an in-person conversation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>HR says this, but staffers say \u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>On top of personal benefits communication, employees want more frequent education. In fact, the top complaint (cited by 41% of employees) about their employers\u2019 benefits was too infrequent communication, the study found.<\/p>\n<p>The report also found a significant disconnect between how often HR and benefits managers say they communicate with employees about benefits and how often workers say they\u2019re actually receiving info.<\/p>\n<p>For example, 28% of HR managers said their health and benefits communication takes place on a weekly basis, but just 4% of employees said they received weekly communications.<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s the rest of the breakdown on benefits communication frequency:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Just 13% of HR managers said they only communicate health and benefits info annually, biannually or once during onboarding (compared to 47% of employees)<\/li>\n<li>Twenty-six percent of HR managers said they communicate on a quarterly basis (and 27% of employees said this as well), and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Nearly a third (31%) of HR managers said they offered monthly communication, compared to just 17% of employees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jared Bilski | HR Morning There are plenty of technological innovations in the world of benefits services and communications, but HR pros should never forget the importance of old-fashioned human interaction. That\u2019s one of the main takeaways from a recent Health Advocate study that was part of the whitepaper titled \u201cStriking a Healthy Balance: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-article"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.9 (Yoast SEO v26.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\r\n<title>Don\u2019t forget human touch in your benefits communication | Health Advocate<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.healthadvocate.com\/site\/article\/dont-forget-human-touch-in-your-benefits-communication\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Don\u2019t forget human touch in your benefits communication\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jared Bilski | HR Morning There are plenty of technological innovations in the world of benefits services and communications, but HR pros should never forget the importance of old-fashioned human interaction. 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