Employers can often have a comprehensive and varied suite of health and wellbeing benefits, but fail to engage employees or achieve the level of usage they expected to see. This is where the right communications strategy is necessary, writes Debra Clark.
Employers can offer the best wellbeing support possible but it is worthless if their employees do not know about it.
It is essential to communicate support regularly and well, but this is not easy as working environments continue to change.
Recent research released by Towergate Health & Protection revealed that a huge 70% of large companies now find it difficult to ensure communication of health and wellbeing support is always relevant to employees. For SMEs, this figure was 50%, meaning that on average well over half (55%) of employers have difficulty in making communications relevant, and struggle to target messages at specific groups of the workforce.
In the past 12 months, 42% of companies have changed their health and wellbeing communication programme, and nearly two-thirds, 62%, now communicate about the support they offer more regularly.
Employee wellbeing
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Carefully targeted comms
While this increased frequency of communication is positive, it is important not to use a broad-brush approach. Health and wellbeing communications must be carefully targeted, otherwise employees will soon turn off to it.
Different generations are looking for different things in their employment. Whilst Baby Boomers want job stability, recognition and protection, Gen-Zs are looking for businesses that have the same values as them with robust CSR, ESG and DEI agendas. They also want recognition, a good work-life balance, and a supportive, open and inclusive culture where they can bring their whole self to work.
The difficulty is in providing wellbeing support that will address all of these differing needs and communicating it in a way that is appealing to all.
What employees want
Where employers are finding it hard to ensure that communications are relevant, the answer is often as simple as asking employees what they want, and not just making assumptions. This applies to the health and wellbeing support being offered, but also to the type of communications being used.
The answer is often as simple as asking employees what they want, and not just making assumptions.”
Seeking the employee voice is so simple, yet so effective. It could be done via employee forums, focus groups, pulse surveys, engagement surveys or through team meetings. There could easily be a disconnect between the people making decisions around support and communications, and those they are trying to connect with. Hearing from employees first-hand will ensure action is relevant and appropriate, as opposed to being based on assumptions.
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Some ideas of what Towergate Health & Protection found successful include:
- Consistent branding. If the wellbeing strategy has a brand, then use it in all comms. This means that every time an employee sees the name, the logo, or the design, they will appreciate it is about their health and wellbeing, targeted at them, and something to engage with. It will show the business cares about their wellbeing, even if the person does not actually read the content.
- Offering bite-sized chunks of information. It is better to be short and concise, but more frequent. If employees want more information they can always reach out for this.
- Using different media. Recognise that some people prefer visual communications, while others are detail orientated, and some prefer auditory messaging. By using different types of communication, under the same brand, it will appeal to a wider audience.
- Sharing case studies and real-life examples. This brings the benefits and support to life. Previously this would have been achieved when there was a core working location, for example in an office, where you would learn about someone’s experience first-hand. With hybrid working becoming more commonplace this does not happen as often, so using the communications plan to achieve this instead could be very powerful.
- Repeating messages. This will ensure it is more likely to land when it is of interest to a person and will be of maximum benefit.
- Using a digital platform. This can really assist with communications around health and wellbeing. These can be personalised, timed, and stored centrally, so they can be re-visited by employees, when appropriate to them. Regardless of working location, a digital platform enables easy access to support and signposting and this applies to those without a work email address as employees can often use personal log-ins, not just work.
Using different types of communication will engage all personality types and learning styles, thus creating greater impact in showing employees what support is provided for them.
