Brooks Brothers Makes History with a Benefits Newsletter That Introduces—& Helps Employees Embrace—Change
The first ready-to-wear fashion emporium in America, Brooks Brothers has shaped the American style of dress through fashion innovation, fine quality, personal service, and exceptional value in its products. The retail clothing company is the country’s oldest.
Situation
Founded in 1818, the oldest retail clothing company in America may present a traditional exterior. But innovation and diversity lie just beneath the surface.
Peeking into Brooks Brothers’ history, you find an innovative company responsible for introducing several American fashion firsts—including the seersucker suit, the button-down dress shirt collar, the ready-to-wear suit, and the original polo button-down collar shirt. Presidents from Lincoln to Roosevelt to Clinton dressed themselves in Brooks Brothers, as do Stephen Colbert and the actors on Mad Men.
With more than 210 stores across the United States, plus manufacturing plants and a corporate headquarters, Brooks Brothers’ workforce is as diverse as the company’s history is long. This multilingual workforce ranges from retail employees to manufacturing plant workers to knowledge workers.
Challenge
True to tradition, Brooks Brothers had always created its benefits materials in-house.
But as the company grew, its benefits needs grew more complex.
Despite having valuable benefits, Brooks Brothers employees weren’t taking advantage of all their programs. Most simply didn’t know what they were missing.
The company realized it needed new benefits materials. Materials that could capture attention and clearly communicate benefits—all while reflecting the company’s newly articulated corporate values.
Solution
When Brooks Brothers saw that Benz Communications shared its philosophy for putting employees first, the company asked Benz to create a benefits newsletter that would be true to Brooks Brothers’ history and values.
The four-page newsletter needed to help employees understand their options;
In addition, the newsletter would serve as a prelude to what would become a comprehensive wellness strategy.
Implementation was as smooth as a button-down shirt.Within weeks, Benz and Brooks Brothers had created a draft and approved the finished product.
Every employee received the newsletter in the mail before the open enrollment period—giving them plenty of time to digest the information.
Of course, speed of implementation wasn’t nearly as important as the main goal: Helping employees and their families understand the current wellness programs—as well as what was to come.
And doing it all in a way that reflected Brooks Brothers’ values and its philosophy.
Result
What’s the value of all your employees finally understanding their benefits? Although it’s too early to measure hard results, Brooks Brothers’ HR team reported the benefits newsletter was better-produced and of a higher quality than anything they had done in the past.
And, in perhaps the best outcome of all, employees reacted well to the program changes. Now that everyone understood the big picture, no one was surprised.
Thanks to the newsletter, employees were ready to take advantage of their benefits—and to take charge of their health.
The company is now planning a comprehensive, values-infused employee benefits and wellness program.
Because more employees understand and use their benefits, Brooks Brothers is ready to build on this foundation next year.