A STRATEGIC LOOK AT EMPLOYEE HEALTHCARE BENEFIT COMMUNICATIONS

In today’s climate, educating your employees about their healthcare benefits must be the cornerstone of your communications strategy. The grasp that your employees (and their families) have on the relationship between lifestyle choices and healthcare premiums is a foreign concept to many of them. This is why having a comprehensive communications strategy that educates and engages your employees is a necessary component to help protect your company’s bottom line. Learn to look at your healthcare communications differently.

Part One: Understanding the importance of branding your healthcare benefits and services ?

• What is your healthcare brand? ?
• Brand = Promise ?
• Treat your employees like consumers ?
• Get involved...understanding how to engage your employees ?
• Hit them at home...how to effectively involve spouses ?
• It’s got to be EASY! ?
• The key to success...a long-term strategic solution

Part Two: How to implement a successful communications strategy ?

• You’ve got to have an objective…where do you want to be 12 months from now ?
• It’s not just “one and done”: Helping your employees “hear” the message ?
• Understanding your company’s needs and demographics ?
• Carrots and sticks ?
• Measuring your results

  Communication remains and will continue to be the most important aspect of any employee benefits plan. As the benefits realm becomes more complex, employers and employees are often unable to make sense of the changes affecting their programs. Seemingly insignificant contractual changes result in dramatic point-of-purchase changes for the consumer. Benefit language glossed over during open enrollment meetings engenders scores of disgruntled employees, animosity and employee relations difficulties for the Human Resources staff and negative word-of-mouth jeopardizing recruiting and retention. Silence, misinterpretation or improperly illustrated programs result in the most frequently cited reason for employee dissatisfaction with benefits.Yet given the speed of change within the employee benefits field, many companies have simply determined this to be a necessary outcome of progress.

As the permutations of benefit configurations escalate, these employee-centric materials gain an increasing importance in an overall HR program -- helping transition the benefit methodology from its historically tactical orientation to a strategic initiative. The goal of this program will be to discuss the strategy of implementing a successful communication program. It will cover multiple types of communication alternatives and how HR and organizations as a whole can more successfully engage their employee population with custom communication initiatives

Alphonse Falco

Vice President, Key Accounts

Alphonse is Vice President of Key Accounts at Corporate Synergies Group with over twelve years of experience in strategic planning, premium management and plan design management of health and welfare programs. He brings a vast range of expertise from Marsh & McLennan (now Mercer Consulting) in New York City where he was responsible for a multi million dollar book of business and client on-boarding. Alphonse began his career at Aetna, Inc. as a Middle Market Account Executive. At Corporate Synergies, Alphonse is responsible for new business development, and account retention in the New York Metro marketplace. Alphonse is a strong results-oriented leader with a clear vision, high integrity, and ability to achieve ambitious goals. He is dedicated to ensuring the highest level of service for your account while managing quality control standards, technical issues, and productivity guidelines. Alphonse received his Bachelor’s degree from Elon University in North Carolina and resides in Succasunna, NJ with his wife and two children.