Health Care Reform: Crossing Key Messages

For many employers, the message is clear: health care reform is going to cost money. But, before you go telling your employees just how bad things look, take a step back. The pessimist’s outlook does little to get people engaged in their health or good decision-making. Consider this open enrollment season an opportunity to explain health care benefits – and a whole lot more. More

In case you missed them: my Top 10 Tweets for August

Here are my top 10 tweets for this past month—on social media, finance and HR.

Social Media

Here are some social media stats to give you the big picture, and a personal story that gives the topic a human face.

RT @jessica_lee: NYTimes: Minorities Favor Phones in Using Web http://nyti.ms/bTMHJH

Study: U.S. social-network use increases 43% http://sbne.ws/r/5hEn More

Re-Engage - What Goes into Employee Engagement?

“Re-Engage: How America’s Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times” by Leigh Branham, SPHR and Mark Hirschfeld was published in early 2010. The book surveys over 10,000 employers in 43 states and found that the places people want to work are also the places where the most work is being done. The authors describe the innovative and real techniques being used by employers to keep their employees happy and engaged, and in the process, finding out it was well worth their while. More

Rampant Cynicism + 401(k) Fees = Your Problem

You’re doing more with less, like everyone else. Reduced budgets that translate into decreased benefits, more work as layoffs happen, etc. The last thing you need is cynicism about your perpetually sunny 401(k) plan! More

The truth about benefits communication is somewhere in the middle

A couple of months ago I was, just like many of your employees, trying to make sense of a benefits annual enrollment guide. This one, from my husband’s employer. And, this long, technical and hard-to-read guide was the only resource I had. If I wanted more, I would need to call a central office and wait on hold. How on earth does this still happen, when technology has made information instantaneous and put it at our fingertips? Unfortunately, I was not alone. This happens all the time. And, it doesn’t have to be that way. More

Health care reform: Rewriting the DOL notices

Yesterday we spoke about communicating health care reform at the IFEBP Benefit Communication and Technology Institute in Boston. We talked to a number of highly engaged folks eager to translate the complicated technical language of benefits into normal everyday speech. Like many of us, they wear many hats and juggle multiple responsibilities. Translating legal notices into plain language sometimes falls to the bottom of the to-do list. We’re rewriting three new government notices that need work. More

In case you missed them: my Top 10 Tweets for July

Twitterverse is full of interesting news, insights and funny stories. And while you can’t catch them all, there are some tweets that carry a little extra value. In the spirit of sharing (see first tweet!), here are my favorite tweets for the month of July—ones that are worth a second look. More

Benefits Presentations Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

Announcing our benefits communication and social media toolkits

I’m absolutely delighted to announce our Benefits Communication and Social Media Toolkits—and our new content subscription. These Toolkits wrap up everything we know into easy do-it-yourself packages—perfect for the small and mid-size companies who want to ramp up communications efforts or for a company of any size who is adding social media to benefits communication. More

What health reform demands of employee communication

Health care reform: Recent events from the administration

Health and Human Services, the Department of Labor and our new National Prevention Council have been busy! As you develop your enrollment campaign (for plans effective Jan 1), you’ll want to consider this news in your key messages and possibly the media elements themselves. More

Make Them Count: Invest in Your Company by Investing in Your Benefits Communication

Raising the Bar: Inspiring Action Through Engaging Communication

Benz Communications partners with MetLife to help employers and brokers during annual enrollment

We’re delighted to announce the launch of MetLife’s 2010 Open Enrollment Toolbox, a free online resource for employers and brokers, which includes four of our PDF Tip Sheets along with videos and a podcast—-all about effective benefits communication. More

Success with social media for employee benefits

I spoke yesterday at the Ragan Health Care Communications Summit at Kaiser just across the Bay in Oakland. It was a great conference focusing on how to use social media for all types of internal and external health care communications.

Here are the highlights from the presentation and our social media poster. More

Health care reform: Age 26 Dependents—FAQs

Health care reform: Age 26 Dependents—What’s the Right Message?

Well into college graduation season, the commencement speech may not be the hottest conversation topic. Instead, graduates and their parents may be talking about the new health care bill—and whether or not the children will lose their parents’ health care coverage at commencement or if they can take advantage of new rules that require employers to cover dependents up through age 26. More

Health care reform: Absorbing the new law

We can stop calling it health care reform. Thanks to Congress, we have our newest acronym—PPACA! And most large employers aren’t seeing it as a reason to drop health coverage. More

Health care reform: PPACA Employee Announcement

This is a template for an employee announcement about health care reform. It includes an announcement of the new law, overview of the upcoming changes, and acknowledgement that much is still in flux. To use this template, you should review in detail and edit carefully to be consistent with your benefit plans, the tone of your employee communication and your benefits strategy. You may also want your health care consultants and attorneys to review all employee communication. Also please see our common sense caveat below. More

Get to the decision-maker: Why your benefits should go on the Internet – and on the road