Taking Benefits Educationto the Next LevelHow virtual benefits centers can help companiesimprove employee loyalty and engagement

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The Need for Employee Communication

To stay competitive, companies must retain their greatest asset: talented employees. Benefits programs play a key role in these efforts. Many employees, however, do not understand their benefits or how to make the most of them.

While employers spend upwards of 40 percent of payroll costs on employee benefits, many companies are not meeting their benefits plan objectives effectively. That is largely because employees lack awareness around how to particate.

Effective benefits communication can improve employee loyalty, satisfaction and productivity. To achieve that, it’s important that companies have ongoing programs for benefits education which are tailored to thedifferent types, generations, and views of their employees.

Taking Benefits Education tothe Next Level

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TAKING BENEFITS EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Challenges Facing HR Managers

Human resources managers are under increasing pressure to hold down costs while maintaining adequate benefits for employees. This imperative presents a number of communication and education challenges:

• Lack of employee engagement: Higher levels of employee engagement correlate directly with greater productivity. Getting employees to be engaged in the benefits selection process, however, is a significant challenge. Most employees spend less than two hours reviewing their benefits options.

• Benefits program complexity: The complexity of health care delivery and benefits options continues to increase. Benefits selection can be extremely confusing, and employees are often left to make these decisions on their own—without the benefit of detailed information from employers and benefits program managers.

• Fixed or limited budgets: Communication programs and events are effective ways to provide employees with the information they need to make informed benefits decisions. However, these programs have been slashed as firms attempt to do more with less in the current economic environment.

• Ineffective communication strategies: Many employers do not have strategies in place to help employees understand their benefits. Effective communication strategies – and the opportunity to ask questions – are necessary to ensure that employees have the information they need to choose the appropriate benefits.

• Different audiences: The majority of benefits communication programs do not take into account differences among audiences. Baby Boomers, Gen X-ers and Millennials have widely differing views and attitudes. Hence, benefits communication programs need to be tailored to their messaging and communication style. For example, very different messages are needed in communicating the importance of 401(k) plans to Baby Boomers as opposed to Generation Y workers

• Distributed workforces: Employees of large and mid-sized corporations are increasingly more geographically distributed across branch offices. Moreover, many more employers are incorporating cube-share and work-from-home models. To properly education remote employees, companies must complement their in-person benefits programs with virtual equivalents.

Opportunities Offered by Virtual Benefits Centers

Recognizing the need to increase employee engagement and improve loyalty, employers are looking for ways to improve their benefits communication programs in a cost effective manner. In the next year, 43 percent of employers plan to offer new benefits, learning, and development programs. Twenty percent have already begun including social media in their benefits communication programs.

One of the most promising communication methods employers are exploring is “virtual benefits centers”—that is, an online information resource that employees can access at their convenience—which typically include live webcast presentations, on-

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TAKING BENEFITS EDUCATION TO THE NEXT LEVEL

demand resources, social networking, and other interactive features. Virtual benefits centers can help employers:

• Engage employees more effectively: Virtual benefits centers allow employers and providers to review and update benefits information anytime, and employee’s can access information at their convenience. Live webcasts can be used to broadly communicate benefits overviews, while scheduled chat sessions can cover more specific benefits topics. And with social networking, employee’s can consult their peers on their benefits choices and rationale.

• Message to different audieces: Virtual benefits environments can be tailored to the needs of any (or all) demographic groups. Unique messaging for each workplace generation can be provided, and several communication alternatives can be offered, including live webinars, social media, brochures, videos, and more. In addition, separate breakout sessions can be scheduled for different generational groups or expected attitudes.

• Disseminate information more cost-effectively: Employers can provide a wide variety of information online in any number of formats. Virtual benefits centers commonly include individual plan details and side-by-side comparisons. In addition, scenario analyses can be tailored to individual employee’s circumstances and needs.

• Eliminate costly benefits reviews: The information resources available in virtual benefits centers allow employees to compare benefits on their own, replacing the need for in-person benefits reviews. For example, employees can make informed

decisions during open enrollment by comparing the costs and coverage of their current benefit elections with new plan offerings.

• Drive awareness of specific benefit programs: Virtual benefits centers can create awareness of specific benefits programs, e.g., health and life insurance, retirement programs, and college savings programs. Virtual benefits environments can also be used to support specific topic-based benefits communications.

Virtual benefits centers offer employers greater flexibility. They can be used to enhance or even replace in-person health, wellness, and benefits fairs. This is a significant advantage for large organizations with employees in remote locations who are unable to attend in-person corporate events. Some companies are even using virtual benefits centers to replace their existing HR websites. Advantages include the ability to update content quickly, create live presentations, add social media and track user activity.

The cost of an employer’s virtual benefits center can be offset by sponsorship opportunities offered to benefits providers. Virtual benefits centers enable benefits providers to differentiate themselves to employees, drive membership, and reduce support costs. For example, a large association was able to offset the cost of its ON24 virtual benefits center with sponsorships from its major health insurers.

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Why ON24?

Increasingly, the ON24 virtual platform is becoming the foundation for a number of wide-ranging benefits education programs. The ON24 platform delivers powerful benefits to both large and mid-sized companies, including:

• Industry-leading webcasting and virtual environment platform that fosters attendee participation, collaboration and social networking.

• Extremely secure, reliable, and scalable enterprise class platform, including rolebased access, single sign on, and SAML authentication.

• Flexible social media features, including social networking, group discussions, scheduled chats, peer-to-peer collaboration, blogs, RSS feeds and more.

• Geographic flexibility, including real-time toggling among 15 languages. Easy to measure employee engagement, with comprehensive analytics and reporting features.

• Mobile-deployment ready, including optimized tablet and phone views.

Effective benefits communication can improve employee satisfaction, and loyalty. Achieving these goals, however, requires that employers develop ongoing programs for benefits education which need to be tailored to the different types, generations, and views of their employees. This can be a daunting task, particularly considering the pressure for HR managers to reduce costs.

One of the most promising education and communication tools is the ON24 virtual benefits center, which provides benefits information in the form of live webcast presentations, on-demand resources, social networking, and other interactive features. Increasingly, the ON24 virtual platform is becoming the foundation for a number of wide-ranging benefits education programs, helping companies improve employee engagement while significantly lowering cost.

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Taking Benefits Education tothe Next Level

About ON24, Inc.ON24 is on a mission to redefine how organizations engage with their audiences, powering interactive, data-rich webinars and content experiences that help people connect on a more human level and make smarter business decisions. Through the ON24 Engagement Platform, marketers can create live, on-demand and personalized webinars and digital content experiences that deliver actionable intelligence and integrate it across their operations. Informed by more than a billion engagement minutes -- including 12 million polls, 1.3 million surveys, 1.5 million conversations, and conversion of over 17 million resources -- marketers drive more revenue from ON24 Engagement than any other marketing channel. Headquartered in San Francisco, ON24 has a wide global footprint with eight offices in key regions, including London, Munich, Singapore, Stockholm and Sydney.

For more information, visit ON24.com.

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