If a tree falls in the benefits forest and your clients have associates who don’t hear it…it didn’t make a sound,” says Ronald Leopold, M.D., vice president of MetLife U.S. Business. Producers know better than anyone that driving best practices in employee communications is an investment in client relations.

MetLife’s 8th annual Employee Benefits Trends Study offers compelling evidence that suggests effective communications about employee benefits can pay off in multiple ways.

About three-quarters of 1,300 employees polled who thought their employer did an effective job in this area said they were satisfied with their job, loyal to their employer and cited benefits as an important reason they stayed with their company. In stark contrast, a mere 13% of employees who stated their employers were ineffective communicators reported benefits satisfaction and only 30% felt any loyalty or job satisfaction.

“Effective communications are linked to many human-capital metrics that employers are looking to leverage,” says Leopold.

There also was a correlation between effective communication and better penetration of programs involving employee health and wellness, financial advice and work-life balance. For example, 60% of people who work for companies that earned high marks for benefits communication felt very confident in their financial decision making compared with only 22% of those whose employers earned low marks.

For brokers and advisers there is an opportunity to assist employers in this area, he says. Since there are many common-denominator issues at play, “they are in a wonderful position to help clients recognize the value of effective benefit communications and implement successful tactics.”

Opportunities for improvement

The fact that only one-third of employees polled this year thought their benefits coverage was effectively communicated “points to some real low-hanging fruit” in terms of improving employee communications, Leopold says. Although many of the more than 1,500 employers surveyed by MetLife believe their benefits communications have improved over the past two years, their employees thought just the opposite – with just 33% reporting their approval in 2009, which was down from 40% in 2007.

Another area that’s ripe for re-evaluation involves retirement planning seminars, which 42% of employees are interested in attending, but just 35% of employers offer.

Since Generation X and Y may not be able to count on the Social Security and Medicare programs by the time they approach retirement age, Leopold says they may face greater financial risks than Baby Boomers. Still, he reports that “the good news is they’re becoming more engaged at an earlier age in financial security both with money management and savings programs and ultimately planning for retirement.”

In fact, Generation X showed the greatest interest in learning more about financial advice programs in the workplace – suggesting that they may be smarter and more mature about their retirement benefits from a younger age than their older counterparts. Effective communications can help employees take advantage of benefits programs that allay fear and anxiety about their financial security, which he says can be a significant distraction to productivity.

Since younger generations of working Americans in their 20s, 30s and 40s are becoming more engaged in their benefits, he believes “the demand for good communications is exceeding the supply.”

Leopold suggests that brokers and advisers urge their employer clients to use plain English when explaining their benefit packages and tailor the value proposition to each individual so they’re told only what’s applicable to them. Another solution is to feature a benefits blog on the corporate intranet to provide frequent updates in layman’s terms and answer frequently asked questions.

In order to elevate the level of benefits communication, he says it needs to be segmented by age and life-stage (e.g., categories involving employees who are young and single, married with children or nearing retirement), and use multiple channels for key messaging.

Different forms of communication will be more effective for certain segments of the employee population. While all groups value face-to-face contact, he says “older Boomers still appear to be a little more comfortable with printed materials and want their questions answered voice-to-voice. It doesn’t mean they don’t use the Web. They do, but they’re not as willing to rely on it as strongly and deeply as members of Generation X and Y who are comfortable using the Web to learn about different options and choices or compare plans.”

Leopold believes the potential for social media is huge. Uses may include sending text messages on smartphones to a geographically dispersed workforce, creating Twitter-like environments on corporate intranets and posting educational materials online related to personal finance or health care.

Leopold believes employers can get tremendous mileage from total compensation statements, which not only reveal any hidden value in the benefits package, but may help drive employee loyalty and engagement.

“If you’re spending $8,000 to $10,000 on benefits you want to make sure that everybody really understands what they’re getting and what that contribution represents” according to Leopold.

For a copy of MetLife’s 8th annual Employee Benefits Trends Study, which highlights communications and other benefits trends, visit metlife.com/brokers.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company New York, NY 10166 L0610110720[exp0611] [All States]