At EBN's 23rd Annual Benefits Forum & Expo, held this September in Boca Raton, Fla., some 1,000 benefits professionals were treated to 80+-degree weather and 70+ educational sessions and events to send them home to their offices a little sunnier and a little smarter about how to best deliver their company's benefits.
Communication frustrations were top of mind for BFE attendees, as well as looming compliance with health care reform.
As one attendee said, "It's nice to network with people who feel as crazy as I feel sometimes dealing with health care. We recently removed 170 dependents from our health plan through a dependent eligibility audit, and this year [due to the dependent eligibility extension under health care reform] we're adding all but 22 of them back in."
When attendees' stress reached the breaking point, there were BFE speakers like Jill Kopanis, corporate HR director at Dynamic Dies Inc., who came to rescue.
"In HR, we're always responsible for taking care of everyone else. And with health care reform, we're only likely to get beat up even more. So, I want to help you reward and energize yourself," Kopanis said, just before handing out chocolate bars to attendees.
But where chocolate was the Band-Aid, information was the cure. Thankfully, BFE 2010 offered attendees plenty of both.
Pollster Luntz explains how much words matter
Expert pollster and author Frank Luntz - who's been called the "Nostradamus of pollsters" - was BFE's opening keynote speaker on Sunday, Sept. 26, and spoke to attendees about the importance of the words and graphics they use when communicating with employees.
Luntz knows of what he speaks, having written, supervised and conducted more than 2,000 surveys, focus groups, ad tests and dial sessions.His advice has been captured in his best-selling book, "Words that Work: It's Not What You Say, It's What People Hear," and he no doubt charges top-dollar for everything else. But BFE attendees got to share in his knowledge for free and in person.
Luntz's main message: Words matter.
"Communication matters, language matters," said the Fox News Channel commentator and analyst in Boca Raton, Fla. "You can put all the effort into policies that you do, but if you don't have the right words in the right order, then nobody understands it."
Start by talking about results on a very personal level, he advised. Results, as opposed to metrics - a word more appropriate for a graduate studies program - is relatable.
Ensure that as benefits professionals you embed a personal message in your communication campaign, Luntz further advocated. Speaking to employees about your life and your health emphasizes the total control they have over their benefits decisions.
Luntz also gave specific and easily implementable guidance, such as what a benefits booklet should look like. Open with a mission statement of the company and why the organization provides quality health care for their employees, for example.
This opener, Luntz explained, puts the benefits that follow in context. It sets the tone and connects with the employee, and if done well, the employee will believe the benefits are better than they really are, according to Luntz.
Similarly, include a one-page statement from the CEO on the inside cover of anything that HR releases, as this credits the CEO with the benefits offerings. Luntz cited research that found that often workers in a unionized company think that the union provides benefits, not the corporation.
This is a clear communication failure, rectified by simple and consistent messaging, Luntz.
A man who practices what he preaches, consistency when communicating was one of Luntz's most consistent messages in his remarks.
"Repeat your messages over and over and over again," he stressed to attendees. "Because right when you get sick of repeating it, that's the first time people start listening."
Among Luntz's other communication advice:
* "Put a graphic on every page [of benefits communications.] If you do, employees are 60% more likely to read that page."
* "A Q&A format is the best way to communicate information. And the questions are just as important as the answers."
* On consumer-driven health plans: "The word 'consumer' connotes a dollars-and-cents relationship. Say 'employees' more than consumer [to connote a personal relationship.]"
For more on Luntz's keynote address, including his 10 commandments and 21 buzzwords for communicating, visit EBN's blog, the Daily Diversion, at ebn.benefitnews.com/blog/daily_diversion.
Health care reform panel keeps it real
What do horse surgeons and health benefits have in common? BFE's keynote panel on Monday, Sept. 27, brought it home.
Featuring Ray Fabius, M.D., chief medical officer for Thomson Reuters; Arthur Southam, M.D., executive vice president of health plan operations at Kaiser Permanente; Kay Curling, SVP of human resources at Salient Federal Solutions, Inc.; and Steve Wojcik, vice president of public policy for the National Business Group on Health, the group broke down the best and the worst that have resulted from health care reform in an honest and informative session.
"In many ways, health care reform changed everything, but in many ways the challenges [of health care] remain the same," Southam said.
What's changing? For one, the power bestowed to certain federal agencies, particularly the Department of Health and Human Services.
"The health care reform law contains 1,000 citations of the word 'shall' - as in 'the Secretary shall ...' which confers both ambiguity and power to the secretaries of HHS and [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services]," Southam noted. "Those 'shalls' likely will turn into 'wills,' particularly post-election, and will strongly influence health care delivery going forward."
Another shift will be in the form of how reform, and benefits overall, are communicated. Curling advocated strongly for employers to embrace social media as a way to target workers, younger ones especially, about their benefits. (See a related story on page 35 about how one company used social media to successfully engage employees in its wellness program.)
"Employees are tweeting and Facebooking and gaming and doing things I don't even understand," Curling said. "But we've got to get smart about using social media to reach employees."
And employees aren't the only ones who could use extra communication, Curling said. "[Benefits professionals] also need to mentor up to our C-suite, so they know and understand how health care reform will affect them, too."
But as Southam noted, the more things change, the more they stay the same - among them, companies' responses to cost increases.
Unsurprisingly, "to offset health care reform increases, most employers will raise employee costs and/or reduce benefits," Wojcik said, citing a Towers Watson survey.
It's a good thing employers are taking matters into their own hands, as they may not receive much assistance from the government. Curling, who had the unfortunate timing of having an Oct. 1 plan renewal - thus having to comply with many reform provisions earlier than most - said, "I couldn't get the Department of Labor to answer directly questions we had on some of our plans. It's hard to comply with something when you can't get clear guidance on how to comply."
Also likely to remain the same is consumers' laissez faire attitude about containing runaway health costs, according to Southam.
"Americans are ambivalent about cost containment," he said bluntly. "They want to eliminate waste but don't perceive their health care as waste." To prove his point, he asked attendees to "raise your hand if you've had a procedure that you didn't need and would be happy if your insurance hadn't paid for." Not one hand went up.
But all hope may not be lost. One cost-savvy consumer is Curling's daughter. Curling noted that her daughter, a veterinarian, recently had enrolled in a consumer-driven health plan with an HSA. After suffering a bad cut at work, she called her mother gleefully to announce, "Guess what, Mom? I didn't spend any money!" Curling recalled, "I asked her what she did, and she told me, 'I had one of the horse surgeons sew up my finger.' That's consumerism at its best."
Read more coverage from the 2010 Benefits Forum & Expo throughout this issue in the Employee-Consumer, Health Care, Retirement Planning and Quality of Life sections.
