How to Improve Communicating Company Benefits to Employees

Any kind of working relationship depends on good communication. To keep your company successful, it’s essential to look for ways continually improve communication between managers and employees. Why should you look for better ways to communicate your company benefits to employees?

In a survey carried out by Employee Benefits magazine, most HR managers offer employee benefits to help keep their best staff and improve staff engagement. However, the survey found that only around 36% of managers actually communicated those benefits to staff.^[1] The means that there is little chance they will see any sort of return on investment.

How Communicating Company Benefits Impacts your Employees

Obviously, a good package of employee benefits will motivate your staff and boost company morale. There are many ways that companies benefit from offering incentives to staff. For example, employees who work for companies that offer benefits are more likely to:

• feel loyal to their organization
• share the company values
• feel happy working in the company
• take sick leave

If employees aren’t aware of the benefits package offered by the company, this would be as good as not offering these benefits as all.

How to Communicate Company Benefits to Employees

If your company has a package for benefits for employees, it’s important to communicate these well. There are a number of ways that you can improve communication between management and staff. However, you should remember that communication is a two-way process. Employees need an environment in the workplace that they feel safe to speak to team leaders and managers.

Some ways to communicate company benefits to employees are:

• send periodic emails to all staff informing of benefits in the form of a newsletter
• speak about them if you organise a company corporate event
• outline them in a company handbook
• post a list of the benefits on noticeboards

How to Improve Communication

There are various ways that managers and team leaders can improve communication and take it onto a personal level.

Informal communication

One of the best ways to make employees feel valued and part of the company is to spend some time chatting with employees. You should focus speaking about general activities and avoid using these times to assign extra tasks or discuss meeting company targets. This can help you see the needs of your staff and you may have opportunities to mention some company benefits.

Regular meetings

As well as having chats with employees, it’s also important to schedule regular formal meetings. These should be held regularly with those under your supervision. These meetings can help to identify potential problems before they escalate.

Arrange for less-frequent but regular meetings with those employees who are more levels down in your organisation. This gives you the opportunity to improve communication and communicate company benefits to most of your staff.

Effective Communication Motivates Employees

When your employees are fully aware of the benefits your company offers, they will be more motivated at their job.

There are some ways that you can further motivate them with good clear communication. Here are some suggestions:

Avoid overload

Overloading your staff with too many tasks or too much information will weaken morale. It is better to plan their tasks well and prioritise them for your staff. This can help all staff member to feel part of a team and more useful to the company.

Invite questions

Employees should always feel able to approach managers and team leaders with questions or concerns that they have. This could be work-related or something in their personal life. So, avoid the temptation to view questions as an attack on authority.

The Harvard Business Review found that employees need to feel assured that they can contribute their thoughts and initiatives without fear of reprisals. In the long run, businesses benefit from greater employee input into the running and operations of the company.

Reward good work

Good work should always be rewarded. Even though employees receive a salary for their work, a company reward system can motivate staff and foster a great working environment in the office.

Article sources:

1. The Benefits Research 2014 by Employee Benefits.
2. Why employees are afraid to speak by HBR.org