Back in 2015, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) published a story about what strategies were most helpful in preparing for the future of human resources—projected specifically for the year 2025. Guess what the number one strategy was? Answer: “Embrace Technology and Analytics.” And, one of the main reasons why: improved, more accessible, streamlined employee benefits communication.
Still, a handful of years from 2025, the need for more efficient benefits communication strategies is all-too apparent for those in human resources management—now. Tasked with recruiting, ensuring employee retention, and the pressure of helping your company to maintain and increase profitability, it makes the task of fielding a multitude of healthcare benefit questions (and from many, many, employees), makes effective communication challenging. Sometimes, it can even be overwhelming, leaving many HR directors feeling they have let their employees, themselves, and their company down.
But, hope is not only on the horizon for HR personnel tasked with managing benefits offerings, it’s here: There is a way to help convey employee benefits in a clear, continuous, and more meaningful way. And, at HandsFree Health we’re excited to share how.
Why is Communication so Important in the Employee Benefits Area?
Communicating benefits information, as vital as it is, has so many moving parts. On top of all the other responsibilities HR managers have, the question isn’t so much how to communicate, but:
How do you effectively communicate employee benefits?
According to research, a staggering 80% of employees don’t pay attention to the information they receive about their benefits program. In turn, you as the HR manager are left fielding any number of employee benefits questions…
- What providers covered by my insurance are closest to where I live?
- What type of healthcare services are provided through my benefits package?
- When is open enrollment for my healthcare plan?
- How much will prescriptions cost under my benefit plan?
- Do I need additional coverage for dental and vision care?
- Are benefits offered to employees‘ families?
- How do I file a claim or get reimbursed for a medical procedure/service?
And the questions don’t stop here. In addition to the endless questions (asked by several different employees), there are several other things HR managers must juggle. But, regardless of the neverending list of to-dos, communicating health benefits is a right of employees and simply must be done.
As we mentioned earlier, technology-driven solutions to streamline employee communication of benefits is becoming more prevalent and dire as the responsibilities of HR departments become more complex and rigorous. And, there is a way to do it—easily and comprehensively.
One-Stop Hub For Employee Benefits Communication
At HandsFree Health, our founders—all former leaders in healthcare—are acutely aware of the abundance of responsibilities that HR managers face. In addition to being burdened with frequent onslaughts of employee-benefit related questions, HR directors also contend with:
- Rising healthcare costs
- Increase in unhealthy employees
- Repeat communication breakdowns
To help eliminate these obstacles, we created HFH Go, an extension of our WellBe® Smart Healthcare Assistant Platform. Specifically designed for employees, this HIPAA-compliant voice-enabled virtual health assistant can be easily downloaded to any smartphone. Employees are instantly able to:
- Ask any employee-benefit related question (they can simply activate the platform by saying aloud: “Ok, WellBe, what providers are covered under my insurance plan?” as an example)
- Manage medications, medical appointments, and prescriptions
- Set reminders for medications and scheduled healthcare visits
- Track multiple key health metrics (blood pressure, glucose levels, and more)
Having a central hub for which you, as an HR director, can communicate to all employees, saves significant time you can allocate to other tasks. It eliminates the need to repeat yourself and empowers employees to take control of their own healthcare. And, in addition to eliminating wasted hours, it helps give you the satisfaction of knowing your employees are always in the “know” and able to get the health-related information they need quickly and accurately.
HFH Go also helps employers save significantly on healthcare costs. Did you know that medication non-adherence leads to125K preventable deaths each year? This totals approximately $300 billion dollars in avoidable healthcare costs! Medication reminders and on-demand access to imperative health and benefits information eliminate many of the barriers leading to employees’ lack of accountability for their health.
Ultimately, HFH Go results in happier, healthier employees and protects your company’s profitability potential.
To learn more about how to increase your productivity and help cultivate a healthier workplace, Request a Demo.