How to make benefits more accessible and meaningful | Webinar

The importance of delivering personalized benefits

The benefits landscape has changed drastically since 2020 (the pandemic). The expectation is to look at benefits holistically - covering widespread needs - in order to provide employees personalized benefits at scale. It can be challenging - especially with multiple generations with varied needs all part of today's workforce.

What are companies doing to meet people's needs? How can organizations deliver meaningful benefits relevant on the individual level? Is there a better path to offer multi-purpose programs easily and equitably?

At From Day One's Virtual Conference on Benefits that fit individual needs without busting the budget, Megan Burns (Benefits Strategy and Solutions lead at Forma) sat down for a panel discussion moderated by Lydia Dishman (Senor Editor Growth & Engagement at Fast Company) with Nicole Cody (VP, Total Rewards, International Paper), Sarah Schutzberger (Benefits and Wellness Manager at Samsung Semiconductors), Alecia Williams-Pierre (VP, Total Rewards, Atrium Hospitality), Will Peng (CEO and Co-Founder at Northstar). The group shed light on how to make benefits more accessible and meaningful.

Top 3 takeaways on making benefits more accessible and meaningful

1. Use data to make informed decisions.

Whether employee surveys or 1:1 touch points, a critical step is to hear from employees about what they want. Adding onto that - use tools with rich data for what employees are or aren't using. This way, your organization is primed to anchor decisions to data based on preference and use.

I took a database approach - looking at every benefit offering we had across our portfolio and really just doing the math on what were we spending on it, what was the utilization, what sort of performance guarantees were promised or ROI, and just there was some low hanging fruit. There were a couple of programs that were well intentioned, but not well used or well understood. And in those cases, if, for example, I'm spending five hundred thousand dollars on the program and it's generating a million in savings, to my simple mind, that's spending five hundred to save five hundred, and that doesn't make sense. So we we exit some of those programs.

- Nicole Cody
VP, Total Rewards at International Paper

2. Lifestyle Spending Accounts (LSAs) are trending.

LSAs are ultra-customizable employer-sponsored spending accounts that employees can use to pay for various lifestyle-related expenses. Variables such as workforce construct, specific business objectives, employee feedback, or company values can influence prioritization and strategy. The LSA offers much-needed efficiency in terms of capital allocation and administration efforts while also providing personalized benefits at scale. There are endless use cases for the program design from a Fitness and Wellness Spending Account to support people's health and well-being to a Work From Home Spending Account to support the various ways in which people work today.
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Employees do want to continue with their health and welfare benefits. But what about this other arm of physical, social, emotional, and financial well-being? We recently implemented the lifestyle spending account and have seen it really successful with our employee population so that they can customize what's valuable to them and be reimbursed for those types of benefits.

- Sarah Schutzberger
Benefits and Wellness Manager at Samsung Semiconductors

3. Communication is key.

Benefit are only beneficial when people use them. And if employees don't know about their benefits or how to use them - they won't. It's important to develop and implement a multi-channel approach with continued outreach to drive awareness. Use emails, slack message reminders, flyers, portals, and 1:1s to ensure people know what they have and make use of their benefits.

We've adopted a strategy called Benefits365. So we're talking about benefits all year long. We use them on multiple of channels. You know, we have to meet them where they are. We do email. We do mailers. We do webinars. Every month, we're focused on a different benefit offering, and we educate our HR leaders around it. And then their job is to also educate the population within their organization.

- Alecia Williams-Pierre
VP, Total Rewards at Atrium Hospitality

Get help making benefits more accessible and meaningful

The Forma team can offer guidance - backed by data - as you explore your options. For more information or support, <span class="text-style-link text-color-blue" fs-mirrorclick-element="trigger" role="button">schedule a consultation</span> with one of our experts. We’d be happy to help!