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© Copyright 2000 Rogers Media. The following article first appeared in the July 2000 edition of
BENEFITS CANADA magazine.
E-Poll
What medium is most important to your pension and benefits communication strategy?
Communicating the nuts and bolts of pension and benefits plans to members is probably one of the biggest
challenges for plan sponsors. With so many media to choose from--printed materials, telephone information
lines, video, e-mail, Internet--plan sponsors can easily become overwhelmed at the thought of getting their
message across.
This month's E-poll asked readers to discuss the most important tool in their communications strategy.
Printed materials were cited most often, with 45% of respondents saying the printed word is most important.
Online communications came second, with 34% of respondents citing this medium as the preferred method of
communication. Telephone lines, seminars and "other" each garnered 7% of the vote.
"In my past experience, what is still the preferred method is face-to-face," says Barbara Backland, a
communications consultant with William M. Mercer Limited in Ottawa. "Our strategies take into consideration
all the appropriate means of communicating based on the audience."
Understanding your audience is key. For courier company FedEx, the most important communication tool is
video. The Mississauga, Ont.-based company uses internal television to communicate with its 4,500
employees, most of whom are out on the road all day. It's a method employees are comfortable with.
"Video in our company is a big communicator," says Donna Brazelton, vice-president, human resources with
FedEx. "They [employees] don't have a lot of time to read anything and also I think it's that [our
employees] are younger. I think the new generation of employees likes to see things on video."
The company also uses posters and weekly meetings with managers to communicate key messages about pension
and benefits.
For ongoing projects, human resources representatives are dispatched to key locations across the country
once or twice a year to address employees. But video remains the most important component of FedEx's
communications strategy.
Mercer's Backland, who is involved in communicating recent changes to members of the Public Service
Superannuation Account (the pension plan of the federal public service), notes that while using multiple
media may turn out to be more expensive for plan sponsors, the cost is well worth it in the end.
"Everyone learns differently and everyone has different preferences for receiving information," she says.
"[Using multiple media] shows the employee the plan sponsor is willing to answer the questions in one
medium or another, no matter what the question is. Even though it's more expensive, you get a much higher
satisfaction rate from the employees if you use a broad mix of media."
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