Last month, I posed the question: are employees suffering from communications overload?
In the last couple of weeks, the issue of benefits communication has once again risen up the agenda as two separate pieces of research suggested that employees’ understanding of benefits is not as good as employers may like.
First, The Voucher Shop’s survey of NHS staff found that more than half (52%) of respondents felt that communication from their bosses about employee benefits was either poor or very poor. Just 2% of the more than 3,000 employees surveyed said that the benefits communications they were received were excellent.
To me, this seems like a very high proportion of staff who potentially don’t understand what is available to them. So, given that benefits are a significant cost for most employers, this could mean large sums are being wasted because employees don’t understand what is available to them.
But what is the answer?
Is it that employees are receiving too little information? Or too much, meaning key messages are being lost in the deluge?
Or is it that the communications methods employers are using need a review? These days, there’s often a great focus on new technologies and how this can aid communication, but could it be that, sometimes, more traditional methods might work best?
If any of you are wondering how to overcome the issues created by technology and how we can maximise opportunities around this, rather than drowning in the digital deluge of information it creates, you may find the closing keynote session at next week’s Employee Benefits Connect of interest (and please excuse the blatent self promotion!). Here, Dave Coplin, chief envisioning officer at Microsoft will discuss these issues, as well as how we should use technology to reimagine how we live work and do business.
I hope to see some of you there.
Debbie Lovewell-Tuck
Editor
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