How to integrate employee benefits and company culture

What's the point of offering robust employee benefits if employees don't know how to utilize them? 

Employees think about health benefits most during enrollment or in a moment of need, otherwise operating with minimal awareness of what programs are available to them, or how to participate in those offerings. But as benefits have evolved to consist of so much more than just covered wellness visits and deductible choices, the disconnect is something that employers must work to fix. 

"Hindering participation comes down to a two-headed monster: awareness and education," says Alex Frommeyer, CEO of benefits platform Beam Benefits. "Employers and their brokers have lacked the tools to land a message, which is notoriously difficult for any company. I advise employers to use the method of '10 different times in 10 different ways' — change when you deliver it, change how you deliver it. There's not always fantastic education; people learn in various ways, so you have to hit them everywhere."

Read more: 5 wellness trends that matter to employees in 2023

Now that many employees are operating on a remote or hybrid schedule, the task of chasing them down with healthcare reminders can seem daunting, but Frommeyer says a proactive approach goes a long way — and employees will appreciate when employers are engaged in the benefits conversation. 

"There's irony that exists in a world where employers are doing the right thing by offering the benefit, but not following their internal customer home, which is their employee then participating in that benefit," he says. "It's up to the employer to reach out and try to get to people."

So what are some creative ways to present health benefits throughout the calendar year? One good routine to get into, advises Frommeyer, is always having a "new give" — an addition or stand-alone to the benefits options already available. 

"The net effect of always having something new serves to allow the employer to reposition all of the existing stuff," he says. "We always try to add something new in each benefit cycle, even if it's small. It allows us to reopen the thread with the entire employee base and say, 'But don't forget, you also have this spectacular health insurance coverage,' so we're actually using the new thing to remind people about the existing base of benefits."

Read more: Why senior leaders need preventative care benefits from their employers

Another way to keep the benefits conversation going is to constantly present them as a representation of company culture. Benefits and culture are often very siloed, Frommeyer says, when they actually should be interwoven. Instead of letting the benefits topic fall by the wayside after onboarding, it should be made a part of any discussion that involves a company's culture strategy, and it should be clear that what's offered is centered around the health and wellness of the workforce. 

"We really care about having an engaged workforce and we talk about this all the time," says Frommeyer. "Here you might say, 'How we like to show engagement is through our wellness program benefit that we offer.' We want people to be able to live productive and healthy lives so they can build a successful career, and we want them to do that with us, so we're investing in their health coverage. That way they can focus on growing themselves. Growth is one of our core values, so we tie those two things together. This increases our cultural credit and makes benefits more relevant."

Managers, Frommeyer stresses, need to be equipped with knowledge to speak with employees about their benefits options, and they should not be afraid to direct employees with additional questions to vendor experts. In line with presenting information in multiple ways, this is a great way to utilize the benefit broker relationship and embrace easy-to-use tech tools to boost engagement. 

"We achieve higher rates of enrollment because we are using our secret sauce, which is digital infrastructure, to really beautify the user experience," Frommeyer says of Beam's own platform, which is designed to streamline the customer experience and give employees access to healthcare and supplemental insurance in one digital location. "It's one thing to have a digital tool, of which there are many. It's another to have a user experience that actually integrates decision support in a way that feels human. Digital is absolutely a non-negotiable component, but you still have to look into how the products are being expressed and how that education and awareness is actually happening under the hood."

Read more: 5 tips to help employees maintain healthcare coverage after layoffs

Frommeyer points out that the wide variety of voluntary health benefit choices available is garnering a lot of excitement among employees. What he refers to as "softer edges" of healthcare — such as chiropractic, massage, wellness and sleep — are a great connection to the topics of productivity and wellness. 

"Since the pandemic, we're seeing a new version of wellness emerge," he says. "We see a lot of participation increase with benefits you can engage with. It keeps people thinking about their employer's investment in their benefits overall. Benefits are ultimately about the attraction and retention of talent and then productivity of people. Essentially the follow through is equally important as the implementation."