Brian Lacher has seen plenty of well-intentioned benefit plans go underutilized — and underappreciated — by employees. And it often comes down to one thing: communication.
"When employees get upset, it's often because they have a perception in their head that their employer doesn't care about them, and that's a toxic way to feel," says Lacher, who's VP of employee benefits at consultancy Nielsen Benefits. "That can bring down employee productivity, and the employer also doesn't get the value of the benefits they're investing in."
Lacher looks back on two new employer clients he started working with in 2022 — only to realize that the organizations' past advisers and communications plans had failed them. At one organization, an employee had participated in a high-deductible health plan for the last three years, but had no idea what an HSA was or how to use it. This employee was so upset to learn how he misutilized available benefits, he ended up choosing an independent plant. Another employee had contributed $5,000 to a dependent-care FSA — and forfeited that money at the end of the year, not realizing it was a use-it-or-lose-it program.
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"This was an executive, someone who works in the healthcare industry," Lacher says. "It just goes to show that there are a lot of misconceptions among employees, and it doesn't matter if they're minimum-wage workers or if they're in the C-suite."
To avoid employee frustration and get the most value out of benefits investments, Lacher shared a few tips for boosting communication — and utilization — through the embrace of easy-to-implement tech tools, incentives, and ideas.