HR Professionals Say Companies Don't Communicate Enough About Employee Benefits, LifeCare^® Poll Shows

WESTPORT, Conn., September 28, 2005 – When it comes to communicating effectively with employees about company-sponsored benefits, 41 percent of HR professionals think their companies communicate too infrequently, while 32% feel that their companies do communicate effectively—the top two responses to a recent online poll conducted by LifeCare^®, Inc., the exclusive provider of Life Event Management^® Services. The poll was open to the HR staff members of LifeCare's 1,500 client companies nationwide via the company's web site during the month of August.

The poll asked, “Do you believe your company communicates effectively to employees about their benefits and compensation?” Other responses were as follows:

		We don't have the communications infrastructure in place to communicate effectively — 14%
		We use the wrong channels/methods — 5%
		We are not creative enough — 4%
		Not sure — 4%

“I think a lot of employers have become reluctant to communicate about their benefits offerings with real frequency,” says Peter G. Burki, LifeCare CEO and co-founder. “And it's understandable, given the current business climate. Many employers have had to share a series of hard messages with their employees—cost sharing increases, for example, medical plan reductions or initiatives to scale back other types of benefits, so they'd rather not bring up the subject of benefits at all. Other employers are worried about 'spamming' their workers with e-mails or letters that might overwhelm employees in an information-overload business environment. But it's a mistake to avoid communicating about the positive aspects of your employee programs, especially when you spend valuable time and money providing them. And it's not spamming people when you're telling them how to use their benefits more effectively.”

Ideas for Better Communications

One suggestion that Burki offers HR professionals who want to promote their benefits programs more frequently: launch an employee survey. “By asking employees to identify their awareness levels of various benefits, you'll often get the information you need to convince senior management to ramp up communications,” he says. For instance, ask employees about the various ways your work/life programs benefits their families; or ask at what level your company matches their 401(k) contributions; or ask if they know how much the company's medical costs have increased over the past few years. “Most of the time, you'll find that employees' answers give you plenty of reasons to communicate more.”

Burki also suggests creating a multi-functional benefits communication task force to eliminate messages being sent to employees from various departments or functional areas. “Establish processes and guidelines that don't limit communications but rather ensure that they have a consistent look and tone, a sound release source and a steady schedule. Also, it's important to provide the proper people with notice and approval rights,” he adds. Above all, Burki advises setting clear guiding principles for the task force to enable communications—not set up barriers or become another bottleneck.

Other suggestions for more effective benefits communications:

		Develop a benefits “brand” for all communications, one that helps employees immediately identify these messages from other notices and communications.
		Set an over-arching benefits promotion calendar and group promotions around key themes.

LifeCare regularly helps its clients design effective communications strategies and campaigns that help to maximize awareness of its programs and increase clients' return on investment. Among the materials that LifeCare provides are post cards and wallet cards; creative e-cards and payroll stuffers; eye-catching monthly posters; and a yearly work/life calendar highlighting monthly themes (e.g., Healthy Aging Month), to name a few. In fact, LifeCare has won a variety of awards for its creative promotional materials including The League of American Communications Professionals' Platinum Award, the highest honor the organization bestows for employee and customer communications materials, and MerComm's Honors Galaxy Award for excellence in product and service marketing internationally.

Each month, LifeCare posts a poll on its private members' web site asking HR professionals to share their thoughts and opinions on the latest issues and work/life trends. Past polls have addressed topics such as employee stress levels, workplace safety, retiree benefits, and flexible work arrangements.

Notes to Editors

Peter G. Burki is available for interview.

About LifeCare^®, Inc.
LifeCare is the exclusive provider of Life Event Management^® Services. With more than 21 years of experience in delivering highly personalized counseling, education and referral services, LifeCare helps employees manage the day-to-day challenges of their lives. In turn, LifeCare helps employers improve employee commitment, recruitment, retention and workplace productivity. LifeCare currently serves 1,500 client companies with 4.5 million individuals within health plans, governmental agencies, unions and corporations. For more information, visit www.lifecare.com.

Media contact: Michael Civiello
LifeCare, Inc.
pr1@lifecare.com
203-291-4170