Lululemon Athletica Inc.’s thorough and innovative approach to benefits communications resulted in a win at Benefits Canada‘s 2023 Workplace Benefits Awards on Oct. 20.
The apparel company won in the Benefits plan communications category for its detailed communications strategy — which includes professionally developed benefits overview videos and detailed guides for workers going on leave — and the use of social media platforms to convey benefits information to employees.
The benefits team also hosts bi-weekly meetings for business partners and talent acquisition specialists to ensure consistency of information and processes relating to the benefits programs, which can then be cascaded through the business units they represent, says Jared Fu, manager of health and wealth operational excellence at Lululemon.
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“We continue to look at technologies and different ways of care coordination and navigation for our employees. There’s so much available out there and it can be really challenging to navigate . . . and understand what’s paid for and what’s not. We want to make sure we have a solution in place to support employees based on what they’re eligible for or what they need in that moment and just have a solution to provide the necessary information to them right away.”
The company also offers QR codes that allow its hourly workers to quickly access links to intranet pages for several different resources and to find support.
Lululemon has seen a roughly 50 per cent decrease in the amount of onboarding-related support tickets to the benefits team since launching onboarding guides, as well as a significant increase in its group registered retirement savings plan enrolment due to its innovative financial literacy videos.
In addition, the company recently implemented TikTok-style videos to help employees understand their benefits and highlight forms of financial support. The decision to use these videos was based on its demographics, says Fu, adding while Lululemon’s workforce is becoming more diverse, a significant percentage of its workers are generation Zers.
“We know [gen-Zers], along with many millennials, tend to be the ones that leverage TikTok to consume information. We partnered with a famous influencer to create informational videos because it was a new way to target our employees and get them more engaged right off the bat. Otherwise, I think some people tend to just glaze over traditional methods and it can be challenging to digest. So this was a really different and fun way to go about delivering financial literacy and benefits information.”
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