Dr. Seema Parmar holds a PhD in International Public Health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a leader in advisory services at Cleveland Clinic Canada, a medical centre where physicians, wellness experts and management consultants help organizations improve employee health and manage organizational risk.
Over the past few years, Canadian companies have heard the message – better health and wellness benefits can lead to better individual and organization performance. However, executives can spend time and money on exceptional health and wellness programs but their companies do not reap the expected rewards. Health care costs continue to rise, sick days increase and employees don’t value their corporate benefits.
The truth is that employees often don’t know what’s covered or how to use the benefits. Most have forgotten what was shared when they first started with the company. Many will look for information on the company website and get frustrated while clicking through multiple pages searching for an answer. Others struggle when trying to understand which health care providers they should consult, how to connect with them or how to fill out the appropriate forms. In fact, I’ve heard employees say their companies make accessing benefits purposely difficult so they don’t use them. Finally, some employees don’t trust that their use of benefits and corporate supports are truly confidential.
Companies now recognize these issues and are looking for innovative solutions to ensure employees understand, trust, use and value the benefits offered. While there is no one magic bullet when it comes to helping employees navigate and obtain benefits, there are key strategies that can help companies increase the uptake and impact of benefits.
Get personal
Use personas, similar to those created by the marketing team to get inside consumers’ minds to identify what they want in a product or service.
Benefits and HR teams can start by using HR data (for example, incidents, claims, disability or exits) to identify particular employee segments that are challenged. Then, through interviews with leaders, teams and individual employees, they can build out employee archetypes and create representative personas for each archetype. Personas can be grouped by professional characteristics (for example role, tenure or location) along with demographic characteristics including stage of life, gender, affinity with an equity-deserving group and marital and caregiver status.
Information surfaced as important during the interviews may be depicted in the persona. For instance, one persona may be a newly promoted manager who is also a single parent. Another may be a young employee in a high-stress role with a recently diagnosed chronic condition. A third may be a high-potential employee who identifies as 2SLGBTQ+ and is in a relationship and looking into fertility options. Different companies may see different clusters of personas in their organization and can prioritize specific ones based on need, impact at work and available supports.
For each persona, a journey can be created to depict a fictional but realistic story, highlighting existing ‘pain-points’. The journeys help companies identify specific opportunities to offer support so employees can learn about, select and use benefits, leaves, workplace accommodations and specialized services to best suit their needs. The journeys can also help companies identify gaps in their benefits offerings that may have left out certain employee groups.
Help employees help employees
Companies are enlisting key employee groups to help all staff understand and use benefits. They include:
- Managers: Managers are among the first to notice when employees struggle. Educating them about benefits and available accommodations ensures managers can offer relevant information to employees when it is most needed.
- Peers: In some situations, employees may be more comfortable speaking with a peer. Several of our clients have started well-being ambassador or peer support programs, whereby employees connect confidentially with individuals who are trained to listen and help the employee understand and access their benefits and additional workplace supports.
- Employee Resource Groups: ERGs may include employees who are women, of colour or identify as 2SLGBTQ+. They may be employees who are managing a disability, caregivers or parents of children with a chronic condition or special needs. Within these non-judgmental and welcoming groups, employees support and help each other identify and obtain helpful benefits based on their own experiences. These ERGs can also serve as a forum to obtain feedback on benefits or benefits communication for the company to consider.
When we talk about employees helping employees, we are emphasizing the importance of community and social support. This type of support from leaders and colleagues deepens relationships, cements trust and loyalty, and has a range of intangible benefits when it comes to organizational culture.
Solutions can also include more consistency in messaging. Companies are now discussing benefits with employees on Day One and on a continuing basis. The follow-up is often tied to wellness events (such as townhalls) and professional milestones (including promotions to new roles). Several companies are investing in easier-to-use apps and online portals to help employees navigate information on well-being and benefits. However, our experience shows engagement in these apps usually sits at around 30 per cent, and those who engage are usually already interested in their wellness.
Designing and increasing uptake of benefits has challenged organizations for generations, but is becoming increasingly important as our health care system becomes more strained. Fortunately, the situation is evolving as more and more companies implement the novel and innovative supports cited above, to the benefit of employee – and employer – health.
This column is part of Globe Careers’ Leadership Lab series, where executives and experts share their views and advice about the world of work. Find all Leadership Lab stories at tgam.ca/leadershiplab and guidelines for how to contribute to the column here.