Information overload on health and wellbeing benefits?

Over the past year, many employers have really focused on communicating the health and wellbeing benefits and support they offer to their employees. But, asks Colin Fitzgerald, with so much information now out there, and things only likely to accelerate post pandemic, is there a risk of employees becoming so overwhelmed they tune out?

Two-thirds (66%) of employers say more regular communication will be their top focus to engage their employees around benefits in the next 12 months. That’s good news, surely?

Well, maybe. Somewhat counter-intuitively, a recent study from Legal & General has found that too much corporate ‘noise’ – excessive corporate information communicated in a ‘one broadcast to all’ manner – risks creating a barrier when it comes to usage and take-up of group income protection and critical illness.

One in five (19%) of those surveyed who felt they did not find their critical illness policy relevant to their health, wealth and happiness said it was because there was simply too much company and policy information to take in. A total of 17% said the same for income protection and 14% also cited this as a reason for not feeling their organisation’s employee assistance programme (EAP) product was relevant to their wellbeing.

However, when employees were asked what they thought would help them recognise or understand the value of benefits such as income protection, critical illness and EAPs, the top responses were:

• If I were struggling with anxiety or stress (33%)
• If I saw the impact of a sudden loss of earnings on friends, family, colleagues (29%)
• If I needed help with a general health question (28%)
• If I needed help with a general legal question (27%)
• If it was communicated in a ‘real life’ way – using human stories (26%)
• More regular communication to remind me it’s there (26%)

What this shows is that in the last 12 months, as more people have been working remotely, most organisations have, very laudably, put employee communications front and centre, especially in terms of supporting health and wellbeing.

However – and this is important – it is clear from our research that there is a fine balance between maintaining engagement and tipping the balance to the point where you are overloading employees with too much information so that simply feel overwhelmed, tune out and switch off.

Communicating ‘lived experience’

So, what’s the answer? The key is customised and human-centric communication, not just ‘more’ communication. Employee responses to our survey say it is all about communicating ‘lived experience’. In other words, we need to be communicating in a way that taps into using human stories packaged in short, snappy and engaging ways to better connect. We need to use employee insights to better target communication in line with the interests and needs of different audiences in a company.

Yet this is still a message that has to get through to many employers. Studies show that more than half (57%) of employers do not segment their audience when it comes to communicating to employees (in other words, grouping people according to some similarity – perhaps a demographic factor, job function or simply whether home or office based). Even more worrying, more than a quarter of organisations (27%) conduct no form of research or listening to employees to understand their needs.

That is why Legal & General Protect, our recently launched mobile-first group protection solution, comes with HR communication support as standard.

This includes a jargon-free step-by-step guide to how to customise benefit and wellbeing communication in a way that also positions benefits as part of a wider wellbeing strategy.

It includes free example templates, toolkits and checklists, as well as a wide range of online and offline communication material that can be tailored to the audience. There are short ‘vlogs’ designed to give HR the tools, know-how and encouragement to be self-sufficient when it comes to employee communication.

Effectiveness of a partnership approach

There is a final message here, too. While HR, naturally, will sit at the heart of this conversation, our research highlights the importance of HR working in partnership with colleagues across the business – marketing and IT especially but also others, such as occupational health, who are likely to picking up day-to-day feedback from employees.

A truly collaborative approach will allow organisations to put in place genuinely effective employee listening programmes, audit existing communication channels and messages, and, ultimately, design communication programme that connect with messages that people can see themselves in and which, as a result, resonate and ‘stick’ rather than overwhelm.

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Ultimately, a health and wellbeing benefit is only makes a difference, is only effective, if its relevance and benefit is clear and its value realised and understood.

Reference
‘Benefits and Trends Survey 2021’, Aon UK, https://www.aon.com/unitedkingdom/employee-benefits/resources/benefits-and-trends/default.jsp