I took my first health risk assessment recently - mostly from curiosity to see how my health plan would assess the state of my physical and emotional health, and the gift card incentive my employer offered was icing on the cake (perhaps a poor choice of words when talking about an HRA, but I digress).

The online assessment was about 40 or so questions and took me about 15 to 20 minutes to complete. When it was all said and done, I didn't learn much that I didn't already know. I'm way too stressed, I likely could do without my nightly glass of wine, I should get more sleep each night and - following the unexpected death of a close friend and colleague - I've been feeling sad lately.

So, to recap the HRA, I got confirmation of the areas of my health that I can improve upon, a gift card and I think I was entered for the chance to win an iPod.

However, I already have an iPod. What I don't have is information.

In the e-mails I received communicating the HRA, the focus was on the prizes, not the reasons my company was offering me the opportunity to assess and then take steps to improve my health, and the reasons it was in my best interest to take advantage (beyond the gift card and possible mp3 player) of it.

Further and perhaps more importantly - how was the information I received going to help me make the best possible health benefits selection during open enrollment next month?

As enrollment season gets into full swing, I have to say I'm a bit puzzled by recent survey results from Colonial Life, which report that employers overwhelmingly believe it is important for employees to understand and appreciate their benefits - fully 92% of pros surveyed say it's very important to their business.

Further, nearly 90% of employers think having one-to-one meetings between a benefits counselor and each employee would significantly improve their employees' understanding of their benefits.

However, less than 19% of employers think their employees have a very good understanding of their benefits, and about 5% think their employees know nothing at all.So, they've ID'd an issue that's essential to business success and how toproactively address that issue. And yet ... it's still a huge issue?

In addition, poll stats from Watson Wyatt show that the majority of companies have no plans to increase their benefits communications - in the middle of a recession, no less, just when every penny counts and workers need to be more informed than ever.

Over the next 12 months, only 27% of companies plan to increase communication to employees about benefits, a WW survey finds.

The survey also finds that senior leaders are more likely to communicate to ease employee stress (49%); corporate communications execs and line managers are most likely to focus their efforts on improving employee engagement (49%); and even HR pros are primarily focused on communicating to manage change (38%).

Wouldn't more comprehensive benefits communication achieve all of those objectives?

When people don'tfully understand something, they tend to select the option that they are most familiar with or is least complicated, even if that option is not what's best for them. It's why, with all of the scads of ice cream flavors out there, vanilla is still the most popular.

Don't let your employees default to vanilla. If you know that benefits counselors or personalized communications or dancing clowns will help them understand their benefits better, then get to it. It will serve your workers, your business and you much, much better than any iPod ever could.