Let’s face it: no one really wants to spend precious time reading about their pension and benefit plans. Pensions and benefits are boring, and sometimes downright depressing. To make matters worse, the content is often beyond the literacy skills of the plan members we’re trying to reach.
In the world of pensions and benefits, members face two kinds of surprises. There’s the bad kind, such as when they discover they’ve missed a claim submission deadline, or their retirement income isn’t what they thought it would be. And there’s the good kind—which includes things like realizing they’re covered for a medical expense they thought they’d have to pay for, or their retirement income is better than expected.
Communications must evolve to become more than a pretty poster in a lunch room or piece of ad mail to be sent to and largely ignored by plan members.
Don't wait for a yearly review to let employees know what they're doing wrong—and right, reports Profit.
A study suggests that your staff may hiding their problems and frustrations from you, reports Profit.
Every organization is unique. If you want to understand the best ways to communicate with your employees, you need to ask them. That said, your employees don’t know what they don’t know.
Communicating effectively with DB members and trustees is key for mitigating risk—and this is especially true for communicating critical changes, such as the decision to close a DB plan. The main thing DB plan sponsors need to understand when they communicate the different details of the DB plan is that they have “the curse of […]
Get creative with DC communications by focusing on member behaviour.
The holidays are a magical time. For many of us, they offer a period of reflection, renewal and planning for the coming year. It’s a chance to ask ourselves if there’s anything we did over the past year that we can do better in the year ahead. Or, maybe there are things we didn’t get around to—things we can put on our wish list for the new year.
If you’re having trouble getting your plan members to understand and appreciate their pension benefits, ask yourself this: Do you celebrate your pension plan? Do you make it a BIG deal?