As the economy continues to recede, employers are spending more and more money on health care costs, and not just on their employees. Jennifer Benz, founder of Benz Communications, estimates that businesses funnel 60% to 70% of health care costs to cover employee dependents.

"It's not just employees who are using the medical plans and driving costs, and when you can open up those programs so that they are available to spouses as well, that's going to improve satisfaction and appreciation of the investment that the company's making in their benefit programs," explains Benz. "It's also going to return more value to the company because, again, they're targeting the people who are really using their plans and driving the costs."

To curb costs, employers have begun to tailor wellness and benefit engagement strategies to the entire family, particularly spouses. Educating spouses about benefit options ensures that more information is absorbed and misunderstandings are resolved, which is why many employers are welcoming spouses to attend face-to-face meetings, as well as sending benefit information via mail to target employees' other halves.

When Entergy Corporation, an integrated energy company based in New Orleans, La., held a series of office meetings in 2004 to introduce its high-deductible health plan offerings, the firm's benefits pros began by targeting employees to generate buzz, but later opened meetings to dependents, holding many of them in the evenings so working spouses could attend.

For employers that similarly plan to include employee spouses in benefits meetings, experts recommend a setup that is welcoming and efficient, so that if the meeting takes place during a lunch hour, the spouse is not pressed for time and does not become frustrated.

One alternative to in-office meetings is hosting webcasts to inform employees and spouses from the comfort of their own home, where research shows most health benefit decisions are made.

Online engagement

Benefit managers can take advantage of the Internet's convenience and reach by putting benefits information in an electronic format where it's easily accessible to spouses and other dependents.

Benz remarks that "the most effective resource to communicate with spouses and family members is to have a branded, interactive audience-centric Web site [with benefit and enrollment information] out on the Internet — not hidden behind the firewall or protected with 17 layers of passwords, but something that makes it very easy to access info that can be acted upon."

All too often, Benz says, company benefit Web sites are a mess of legal forms when the site should be communicating the value of the program, boiling it down into simple steps that are easy to follow. Benz helped one client produce a series of pdf downloads, one to two pages each, that contained health and financial check lists and details about all company benefit offerings with specific action items, such as signing up for preventive care exams or for health club reimbursement.

One document entitled "The10 Most Often-Missed Benefits" turned out to be the most downloaded item off the Web site, after the plan changes for that year.

"It was something that really resonated with employees as a way to get valuable information in their hands that they can really act on, rather than have to sift through piles and piles of paperwork," she explains.

Information in hand

Nevertheless, managers must keep in mind that not all employees — nor dependents — are tech-savvy.

Regmon Chaney, manager of benefits education at Entergy, stresses the need for diverse modes of education to ensure that you don't "rely on any one medium."

Employers at the company reinforced content they had first presented in face-to-face meetings by sending out The Gazette to employees' homes. The quarterly newsletter provides employees and their families with informational tools and resources on how to make wise decisions about health insurance and care. Another quarterly newsletter, Personal Best, is sent out by the company's wellness team detailing company programs, preventive care screenings and other tips on how to self-manage their family's and their own health.

SMART, a business advisory and consulting firm based in Devon, Pa., sends out similar letters and payroll stuffers to employees' homes with wellness tips, such as directing them to local walk-in clinics to cut down on expensive ER visits.

In the end, the pros say, it's all about reinforcing what you offer by sending out highlights of company benefits and programs, whether by e-mail or snail mail, and directing employees and spouses to information that can be easily accessed.

"Benefit programs are really about how people manage their lives, and they impact very personal things like the health and finances of employees and their families," concludes Benz, "so if you can help the families take better care of themselves, and that might just be simple ways to make the programs easier for them to use, they're going to really appreciate that, and that's going to translate into more trust and loyalty for the organization."