Summary
- Learn why it’s important to be strategic when introducing your new benefit offering.
- Discover 8 steps to help launch your new benefit offering smoothly and successfully.
- Find out how to measure your success and gather valuable feedback intended to make future planning easier and smarter.
We know that as HR leaders, you want to learn how to best support your employees in moments that matter. The search involves reviewing healthcare trends, consulting with advisors, listening to your workforce’s needs, and evaluating vendors, meaning you’ve invested months of work before you’re finally ready to implement a new benefit program.
Sometimes, it can feel hit or miss. Why do some new benefit offerings quickly gain momentum while others remain unnoticed? Choosing a benefit that is relevant for your employees is the first step. But how do we successfully roll out a new benefit to ensure high engagement and participation?
In this article, we’ll explore the targeted strategies we suggest that support a simple and seamless implementation.
Why a Strategic Rollout Matters for Your People
A new benefit offering is more than just a line item. You’ve carefully selected a new offering to show care and empathy for your workforce and their families. How you introduce the new program is just as important as the support it offers. When we proactively guide employees through their options, we can remove barriers and help them make optimal choices for their families.
8 Steps to Launch Your New Benefit Offering
Position the Benefit as an Extension of Care
The purpose of any new benefit you offer is to add more value and support for employees and their families. When announcing a new benefit offering, position it as a natural extension of their existing coverages. Based on the product for example, explain how it provides compassionate support if they face a new health condition or life event. It can be even more impactful to highlight improved health outcomes and dedicated support.
Use Data to Personalize Your Outreach
The most effective communications are personalized and transparent. By working with a strategic partner like Benefitfocus, you can glean insights from claims data, which proactively identify exactly who would likely benefit the most from a new offering Once you know who is likely going to find value in the new offering, you can foster direct, personalized engagement. Ensuring privacy is respected and asking for permission first helps employees understand and appreciate tailored guidance.
Build a Proactive Communication Plan
The classic route—a single email newsletter mention and an intranet link—leaves employees to figure it out alone. Instead, we suggest a proactive path that guides employees step-by-step:
● Send a personalized email inviting them to engage.
● Follow up with reminders through a variety of communication channels.
● Allow them to securely opt-in.
● Provide a clear and concise plan of suggested coverages they qualify for.
● Offer designated support through relevant licensed professionals and/or your HR team via chat, phone, or email.
Once you have outlined your communication strategy, review the best practices for helping ensure your messages resonate with your employees.
Communicate Early and Often
Timelines are often tight, but we have found that sending notices 30 to 45 days prior to enrollment can help generate anticipation and interest. Focus on the positive outcomes first. Use simple language, bullet points, and clear graphics to communicate key information without overwhelming your people with walls of text.
Empower Health & Wellness Ambassadors
If your offerings are not entirely new, look for ‘ambassadors’ who have successfully used the benefits and ask for testimonials*—in video format, if they’re comfortable with that. Hearing personal stories is powerful. Employees may be more likely to explore a benefit offering if a peer shares their personal success story. *Testimonials may need to be reviewed and approved specific to the coverage/carrier being presented.
Connect Outside of Open Enrollment
Employees receive a lot of information during open enrollment and a new benefit offering can easily get lost in the noise. We suggest finding alternative times throughout the year to highlight your benefit offerings and related topics:
● May (Mental Health Awareness Month*): Remind employees of EAP programs and telemedicine.
● June (Men’s Health Month*): Alert staff about free preventive screenings.
● October (Breast Cancer Awareness Month*): Sponsor a "wear pink" day to highlight cancer care providers.
● November (Diabetes Awareness Month*): Highlight your new diabetes management program.
Reward and Recognize Engagement
Some employees will jump right in, while others might need a little encouragement or support. Providing a small incentive—like a spot bonus, gift card or a raffle entry—is a fun and friendly way to draw more attention to your offerings. Note that this approach must be available to all similarly situated employees and cannot be used to directly induce a purchase but rather to encourage engagement.
Inspire a Grassroots Campaign
Sometimes the best engagement comes from grassroots momentum. Target your message to a specific group of employees to create a buzz that spreads naturally. Make the campaign interactive, inspiring humor or compassion. For example, host a team wellness challenge that tracks collective progress and celebrates shared success—but take care that such challenges are inclusive, focusing on things everyone can do, like hydration, digital detox days and meditation rather than steps, miles or weight loss.
Measuring Success and Gathering Feedback
You’ll know right away whether your new benefit offering was a hit or a miss, based on enrollment data. But you won’t really know if your new benefit meets your workforce's needs until they’ve had a chance to use it. That’s why it is crucial to establish feedback loops. We recommend sending out short, simple surveys to gather insights on the employee experience: first with their impression of the benefit and the enrollment process, later with the utilization and outcomes. Continuously analyzing this feedback reveals insights that can help refine and improve future benefit rollouts—and a willing strategic partner can help you choose the most meaningful options for your employees.
Ready to Successfully Launch a New Benefit Offering?
If you have experienced low engagement with past rollouts, it might be time for a personalized, client-centric approach. Benefitfocus operates like a part of your team, providing skilled guidance to make the experience intuitive and as easy as possible. Let us help you navigate a simple and seamless implementation. By leveraging our expertise and technology, we can help you work toward your enrollment goals while supporting your employees by improving the benefits experience.
