Being able to offer a new benefit to employees is an exciting position to be in. After all, a new benefit can not only bring a whole host of advantages to employees, but it can also help employers attract new talent and businesses achieve wider company strategic goals.
However, as with many things in life, preparation is key. So when it comes to introducing the new benefit to employees, having a clear launch and engagement plan in place will help you reap the rewards of a high uptake of the benefit from the beginning and a highly engaged workforce later down the line.
Here are our five top tips for successfully introducing a new employee benefit:
Communication is key
Communication can play a huge part in how successful the launch of a benefit is. There’s no point offering a new benefit if none of your employees know about it. Therefore in order for a benefit to be truly valuable and triumphant, you need to make sure you communicate early and often so that employees know, understand and engage with the benefit on offer.
During the launch, you’ll need to make sure you have an effective communication strategy in place and that you communicate through multiple channels to reach and notify as many employees as possible. Whether you hold an all-company meeting, post on social media, hand out flyers, put up posters in communal areas or send an all-company email, make sure you spread the word, far and wide.
It’s also important to not just put all your effort into communication at the beginning of the benefit, but to use ongoing communication for weeks/months/years after the launch to keep your new benefit at the forefront of new and existing employees' minds.
Make it an occasion
What better way to rouse up your employees about a new benefit than to organise a fun, informative launch event. Whether it’s a guest speaker, an online cookalong or freebies sent to the office for employees; whatever you decide to go with, make sure it’s relevant to the benefit and will peak interest amongst your workforce.
A good benefits provider will help you organise and host this event to maximise the exposure for your employees. They’ll also be able to provide a walk through of the new benefit to employees to help demonstrate how to access the benefit and the advantages of using it.
Consider enlisting some benefit ambassadors
Often some of the best ‘explainers’ of a new benefit are co-workers. Consider enlisting a group of employees (making sure to include a couple from senior leadership), to not only spread positivity about the new benefit, but to also help others understand the new benefit and answer any questions that they may have.
Use your benefit providers expertise
Rolling out a new benefit may feel a little overwhelming, but with the right benefits provider you’ll be in safe hands. For the launch, leverage external support from your benefits provider to make it really memorable and attractive for employees, which will in turn help them to feel excited about the new benefit. A good provider will be able to provide you with a multitude of marketing materials to use in your own company.
Monitor engagement and ask for feedback
In an ideal world your new benefit will see 100% uptake on the first day it’s launched, however there’s a very high chance that this is unlikely to happen. Work with your benefits provider to set achievable targets and keep track of how many employees are taking advantage of the benefit.
After rolling out the new benefit, you should also be regularly asking employees for feedback. It’s important to find out whether the benefit is meeting their needs and enhancing their lives - collect feedback from those who are taking advantage of the new benefit and those who aren’t too. This feedback can also be extremely useful to a benefits provider, so make sure to pass it onto them. With this feedback, they may be able to make changes to the benefit to ensure uptake and engagement of the new benefit remains high for years to come.