By: Sally Pace
Did you know that only 12% of the US adult population is proficiently health literate? According to Milken Institute, this means approximately 88% of the plan members you serve are inadequately equipped to navigate the healthcare system and promote their own well-being. Compound this with the fact that medical bankruptcy is the number one cause of bankruptcy in the US. You have a wonderful opportunity to change this narrative through the high performing health plans you are taking time to bring to life.
Now that you have been armed with options for assembling these innovative, game-changing health plans, let’s explore the key element to driving them across the finish line: Education Marketing. The only way a plan becomes successful is through employee engagement. And the only way you will have appropriate employee engagement is through teaching them how to use the plan correctly. You ultimately have to drive people to engage with, adopt or take action in relation to that plan. This means you now have to address how you influence people's behavior. At the end of the day, if you are convincing people to enroll and engage in a program, you have entered the territory of marketing. What does that mean? Let's look at the very definition of education marketing. It’s about educating potential customers on specific topics that can guide their purchasing decisions and about the value of the results they get from using your product or service. Prime examples of this might be: educating members to pick the right medical plan for their family – high or low deductible; or why they might need hospital indemnity insurance, or how to access the COE program that was just implemented this year. . And your secret weapon lies in the written word. Remember that adage “the pen is mightier than the sword?” It could not be truer than when it comes to driving employee engagement.
The Rule of Seven.
Once you set your plan, you will of course assemble content for open enrollment - but most people have to see something multiple times to get it. In marketing, it is referred to as The Rule of Seven. In other words, a person must be exposed to a new concept somewhere between six and eight times before they start to pay attention. Don’t believe me? Think about your own purchasing habits. These days, social media platforms like Instagram and LinkedIn are loaded with advertisements. You see an ad the first few times, and you skim over it. On the fifth time, you finally start to read it. By the sixth time you see it, you are either annoyed or you are taking an action to follow the link. This common communications principle is one that is often overlooked in the status quo health plan.
So how do you weave The Rule of Seven into an employer sponsored health plan? This is accomplished by the three Rs - reach repetition and relevancy.
Reach.
Let’s first take a look at reach. Think about each group with whom you work. Who within the organization needs to know about the plan design? Do you have truck drivers or frontline manufacturing workers who don't have corporate email, but they are offered company benefits? Are you working with a sales organization where their workforce spends the majority of their time prospecting and in meetings, and little time on the company intranet or checking email? If you want your plan to change their lives and their employer’s bottom line, you must spend time identifying how are you going to reach them.
It is a worthwhile investment of time to map out the job codes within an organization and outline the primary methods of communication the employer already has in place to reach these individuals. Although you may have sold your plan through the CFO, now is the time to engage with the human resources leadership to understand the culture. Whether it’s a group of 50 or 5,000, I can guarantee you there are layers or existing engagement tools designed to communicate with employees on a wide range of other topics, say, inclement weather protocols, new hires and anniversaries, mandatory training or changes in laws that impact the business. Arguably, none of these messages needing to reach an employee are as important as teaching them to be good stewards of what is quite possibly one of their largest corporate expenses.
Repetition.
Now that you have identified the ways you can reach each population, you should next map out the most important points you want them to understand. Did you implement a centers of excellence program, a specialty drug carveout, or a fair market pricing model? Telling employees about this only once a year during open enrollment or when they are overwhelmed with new information during onboarding will be the nail in the proverbial coffin, preventing all your hard work around plan design to be stifled when it reaches the end user that is comprised of employees and their families.
Instead, educate all your members year-round and meet them where they receive information best. Is it a monthly newsletter posted to the breakroom fridge door? Or a mailer that is stuffed in the weekly paycheck? Perhaps a video that is posted on the intranet or a benefits landing page that is continuously updated. Or maybe, it’s a trusted advocate that is the face of the benefits plan, that all employees know by name?
Unfortunately, in traditional marketing, most businesses neglect thinking about who their end user or their audience is when they are creating content. Do not make that mistake as a benefits leader. You have to put yourself in a lot of different shoes. Let’s explore and apply some practical, effective communications tools to give color to the benefits plan you have carefully crafted.
A picture is worth a thousand words. It really is true. You can convey incredibly complex ideas by just a simple picture in one image. You can also transcend educational levels and language barriers within a diverse workforce by incorporating pictures or icons into content. In everyday life we rely on pictures to tell us which restroom to use, which product might be flammable, and when to halt for oncoming traffic. Apply this same element to benefits communication to simplify messaging.
Video killed the radio star. If you have not incorporated video as part of your communication strategy, you are missing one of the biggest trends in information across the US. 96% of all consumers have watched explainer videos to learn about a product or service, and from there, 84% of people have made a purchase after watching a brand’s video, according to research from Wyzowl. Explainer videos are as the name implies, a brief but easy-to-understand snippet that packages compelling ideas into easily digestible vignettes. In today’s YouTube obsessed culture, employees are almost more likely to watch a video than to read a guide.
Goooooo team. Within every company culture there are influencers that can sway people’s thoughts, and it does not necessarily relate to titles. It could be the cheerful receptionist that brightens everyone’s day, or the grumpy shift worker that balks louder than anyone else when internal changes are made. Yes, these colorful characters can be found inside any organization, and they can serve your purpose well if you seek them out. Ask the human resources leaders to identify them (they most certainly already know who they are) and meet with them to educate them on your concept. In turn, you’ll create an internal cheerleader that can be the mouthpiece of your mission.
iPhone or Android? Both. Even if a company has high turnover and doesn’t establish corporate emails for their people, there is one proven communication tool you can be certain they have. An estimated 85% of Americans have a cell phone, and rest assured, they know how to use it. Find communication tools that can be transferred digitally via text or a site and don't require a lot of extra time and attention - then take it a step further. During the pandemic, many of us were forced to adopt new ways of consuming information. (My son can’t be the only person who had to explain the concept of the QR code in lieu of a menu to his grandparents, right?) Guess what. Employees across all generations now know how to navigate to useful pieces of information using things like a QR code too. Use it for forms, tutorials, landing Pages, anything that can help guide your plan members to make informed decisions.
Don’t toss out the paper just yet, though. Paper still plays an important role in communicating benefits changes, and many employers have made the mistake of simply emailing the annual enrollment content, sometimes as part of a perceived cost savings play. However, one would argue that wasteful or unnecessary healthcare spend outweighs the price of said printing. Does your client have a break room or use messaging boards? Provide content that can be posted where employees can see it. Also, consider brochures for employees to take home. Employees aren’t the only ones that are tasked with being a good stewards of their employer’s health plan. Spouses and dependents are too, so by having something printed for them to take home you have the opportunity to educate more members on the benefits available and employees can also consult a partner or spouse about the selections they want to make that are best for their family.
Relevancy.
Unless your client is a whopping group of 1, it is a safe bet that they have some degree of a diverse workforce - and their differences matters when it comes to genuinely reaching that workforce. If the past few years have shown us anything, it is that the expectations of employer-offered benefits have changed for today’s workforce. You have got to consider geography, gender and generational status when it comes to relevancy. What does that look like?
Geography, gender, and generational status. Let’s take a look at a couple of examples. First, let's take a look at your Carefree Carla. She is young, ambitious, she doesn’t really spend time thinking about getting sick, but she absolutely cares about her employer offering solutions that support DEIB or diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. She also splits her time in a hybrid workplace arrangement. Next up, we have Sensible Sam. He not only is recently married, but he's also supporting aging parents and he works remotely. He's looking for something that focuses on family forming benefits and he's also looking for caregiving resources. Last, we have Wise Walt. He is the weekend warrior who spends countless hours at the office, but he is nearing retirement. He needs financial tools and a little bit of help when looking at age-appropriate preventive care. They are all a part of the workforce you have been tasked with protecting educating and it’s your job to communicate value to them.
Steering employees to solutions that matter….to them. Steerage of care has become a burgeoning business within the benefits arena. It is viewed as many as the hub that connects all of the various components brought into a high performing health plan. We see that to be the case within our own organization for our care coordination and navigation team led by clinicians. Why am I introducing it in a chapter centered around marketing and communication? Because when it comes to communicating relevant benefits resources on an individual level to the plan members that need it most, there is no better tool in your tool belt than a partner who offers steerage of care.
This form of advocacy is a powerful tactic when it comes to communications, albeit not in the traditional sense. This is best served to employees in a way that leads to long-term relationships with their advocates. This is when the greatest level of communication can be achieved. Trust = Influence. This is a phrase we use and live out on a weekly basis, and the same can be said for you. What tools can you deploy or what partner can you bring to the table to help gain the trust of plan members? Once you gain their trust, you can certainly influence their decisions. And remember, that’s the very definition of marketing.
Starting Thoughts.
Certainly, the role of a benefits consultant is to be a guide through the creation of a benefits plan. For those reading this book you are working tirelessly to move beyond the traditional “plan in a box” to address the escalation of rate increases within this country coupled with the issue of health literacy. For most, this means you are exceptional at sales and strategy - it’s how you got to where you are. However, there is often a realization that more is needed because the most crucial component of driving change is through employee engagement. That can only be accomplished with repetitive and relevant communication that reaches your intended audience.
Ready to get started with your own marketing and communications plan? The first step is to create your own communications calendar for each plan design. Get started by reviewing our free marketing tools. You can download them here: www.chc-now.com/commscalendar
And take the famous author George Bernard Shaw wise words to heart, “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
Want to take a deeper dive on driving employee engagement? Reach out today at info@chc-now.com or call us 901-409-2048.