Employee benefits are one of your organization’s largest investments, yet they’re also one of the most misunderstood and underutilized resources in the workplace. The truth is, no matter how robust your benefits package may be, if employees don’t understand it—or worse, don’t even know it exists—you won’t see the return you expect.
The bridge between your investment and your employees’ engagement is communication. Clear, consistent, and compelling communication can transform your benefits program from a line item expense into a talent magnet, a burnout shield, and a measurable driver of ROI.
Let’s explore the top five benefits’ pain points and how communication plays a pivotal role in overcoming them.
1. Attract and Retain Talent While Reducing Turnover
The Challenge: In today’s competitive labor market, candidates want more than a salary—they want a comprehensive picture of what working for your company means. Too often, benefits are buried in onboarding documents or explained only after an offer is accepted.
Communication’s Role: Proactive, clear benefits messaging should start in recruitment. Share stories, visuals, and examples of how your benefits improve employees’ lives. Highlight perks in job postings, interviews, and career pages. For current employees, ongoing reminders and updates help reinforce the value of staying, not just joining.
Key Tip: Use simple, human language—avoid jargon like “voluntary benefits” or “plan year” without explanation. People respond to what they can visualize and understand.
2. Wellbeing and Employee Burnout
The Challenge: Burnout is more than just being tired—it’s a state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion that impacts performance and retention. Many organizations already offer tools to combat it, but employees may be unaware or unsure how to access them.
Communication’s Role: Consistent, empathetic communication can normalize the use of mental health resources, encourage preventative care, and promote flexible work or wellness programs. Instead of sending a single benefits email during open enrollment, weave these
messages into the daily employee experience—posters in breakrooms, quick video clips from leadership, or push notifications in your HR platform.
Key Tip: Frame wellbeing benefits as tools for thriving, not just surviving. Highlight success stories from real employees (with permission).
3. Communication Gaps
The Challenge: Different generations, roles, and locations require different approaches to reach effectively. Without a tailored strategy, benefits messages can get lost in email overload, ignored on the intranet, or never seen by field workers.
Communication’s Role: The solution is multi-channel, audience-specific communication. Some employees may engage best with short texts, while others need detailed guides. Repetition across multiple platforms—email, video, print, in-person meetings—ensures everyone receives and retains the message.
Key Tip: Treat benefits communication like marketing. Segment your “audience” and deliver messages in formats that match their preferences and work environments.
4. Benefits Education and Utilization
The Challenge: A benefit is only valuable if employees understand how and when to use it. Many programs suffer from low enrollment or underutilization simply because employees aren’t aware of their options—or they only remember them in moments of crisis.
Communication’s Role: Education should be year-round, not a once-a-year event. Use microlearning—short, digestible pieces of content—to make benefits information easy to absorb. “Benefits in Action” spotlights can showcase one benefit per month, explaining how it works and who it can help.
Key Tip: Provide quick-reference guides and decision-support tools that help employees choose the right benefits for their situation without information overload.
5. Proving HR ROI to Leadership
The Challenge: Leadership wants data to justify benefits costs. Without visible proof of engagement and impact, benefits can look like a cost center rather than a strategic investment.
Communication’s Role: The right communication strategy not only increases benefits utilization—it also creates measurable touchpoints. Tracking click rates, open rates, meeting attendance, and employee feedback provides tangible data. This gives HR leaders a compelling story backed by metrics, showing how communication drives engagement, productivity, and retention.
Key Tip: Pair data with real employee stories. Numbers show the scale of impact; stories make the value personal and undeniable.
Communication Is the Multiplier
The most successful benefits strategies don’t start with bigger budgets or more perks—they start with better communication.
When you focus on clarity, consistency, and connection, you turn your benefits program into a living, breathing part of your company culture—one that attracts top talent, supports wellbeing, closes knowledge gaps, drives utilization, and proves its worth to leadership.
In the end, benefits aren’t just what you offer—they’re what your employees understand, appreciate, and use.