With six generations in the workforce and a mixture of people from different races and backgrounds, diversity defines the employee base.
Many employers already offer benefits to suit the needs of a wide range of people. For example, baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964) are most interested in health care benefits and protecting their retirement savings, while Gen Xers (born between 1965 and 1980) are building their retirement portfolios. Millennials (born from 1981 to 1995) may want assistance with student loans and starting families.
As such, robust benefits plans have become a tool to recruit and retain the most talented people. However, just having these benefits will not mean much if the employer doesn’t help employees understand what is available to them and how to use these benefits effectively.
Take these three steps to develop a well-rounded communications plan to reach all your employees.
1. Know your audience: Answer these questions to gather data on your employees.
- What is the age range of your employees?
- What is their background and/or nationality?
- How many of your employees have dependents they will cover under the organization’s benefits?
2. Understand the needs of each segment of your audience.
Find out what benefits are most important to each part of your audience. For example, younger generations are focused on starting families and buying homes, while older generations are looking forward to retirement.
This information will help you build a well-rounded benefits plan to appeal to the people you are trying to attract and retain. Perhaps older generations will find retirement planning and long-term care options most attractive, while younger generations may want perks like gym memberships and paternity leave.
3. Determine how your audiences want to receive information.
This can be done by polling your employees or simply by researching how different age groups communicate. With a wide range of ages in the workforce, organizations should be prepared to use many different avenues of communication.
For example, a website portal and social media will appeal to younger generations, while baby boomers may prefer to receive paper documents on their benefits.
If using email, make sure most or all employees have a company email and have access to view it at work.
Regardless of the tools you use to communicate with employees, make sure to use language that all can understand easily. Health care can be a difficult topic to navigate. Make is easier by replacing industry jargon with everyday words.
The experienced team at Oswald can help your organization create a benefits package that is right for your employees, without straining the bottom line.
Our team will work with you to provide group and one-on-once educational meetings with employees to ensure they understand their benefits and how to use them effectively.
This article also appeared on bizjournals.com.