How to Market the Value of Your Benefits to Current Employees

Pay transparency laws are sprouting up everywhere — and employers should take note. One in five Americans now lives in a state where employers are legally required to disclose compensation details.

It’s clear that pay transparency is here to stay. And this new normal is shaking up employees’ expectations around pay. Folks across industries are now much more likely to experience salary FOMO (“fear of missing out”).

And it’s no wonder why – an unprecedented amount of salary info is just a Google away. They can now access pay ranges for similar roles at other companies (read: your competitors). In other words, they can quickly see how the grass might be greener elsewhere.

To put it bluntly, this could be a major recipe for employee turnover.

That is, unless you know how to market your total compensation (including benefits.) Your cost of benefits per employee is a large portion of your overall pay package. Showing your employees just how much their benefits are worth can be a factor in keeping your current employees happy while attracting prospective talent.

Why should employers market their benefits?

The cost of employee benefits makes up a significant percentage of your employees’ total compensation – on average, about 20% or more.

Wage transparency laws are now giving employees a full view of what similar organizations offer in terms of compensation. If your organization is looking to win (and retain) talent, providing valuable benefits can be a great motivator.

But first, your employees need to recognize that those benefits are as awesome as you know they are. Most folks aren't benefits experts, so they don't really have the context to recognize effective benefits when they see them. That's where benefits marketing comes in.

Plus, many employees — over 80% to be precise — are confused about their benefits. By marketing your benefits, you can combat any lack of benefits literacy and educate your employees on their coverage.

How to market your employee benefits to your current employees

Highlighting your employee benefits to potential employees is fairly straightforward: you include this information as part of your job descriptions. But it shouldn’t stop there – your benefits marketing should also speak to current employees.

And that marketing can happen anytime year-round. In other words, your benefits marketing should start well before open enrollment or performance review season.

Here are three ways employers can highlight the value of their benefits to current employees.

Give employees a total compensation statement

When it comes time to highlight the value of benefits, the total compensation statement is one of your best tools.

A total compensation statement is a clear, easy-to-understand document that explains how employee benefits fit into their overall compensation.

This statement should include:

• A list of benefits offered with estimated costs (ex: health, dental, vision, retirement, etc.)
• A pie chart breaking down benefits spend as part of total comp (ex: benefits compensate for x% of additional compensation beyond your total salary)
• The grand total spelled out with numbers (ex: an additional $25,000 annually per employee towards benefits package)

You should be able to get the data you need for this doc from your employee benefits broker. (Or better yet, your broker should be the one to put these statements together for you. This is just one way that great brokers save time for their clients' HR teams.)

Offer benchmarking data

Benchmarking data helps put into perspective how employer benefits compare to similar companies. Try to share benchmarking data with your employees, so they understand how their benefits measure up to what’s offered by other employers. Your broker should give you this data and make sure it's up to date.

Your employees may be particularly interested in statistics of your company's benefits compared to those of your competitors. For example, see how much additional compensation you offer employees in the form of benefits, or what percentage of those same benefits your competitors are offering. Also consider the whole benefits package and how it stacks up against other businesses.

Pro tip: Highlighting this information visually with charts and graphs can help your employees get the full picture with a bird’s eye view.

Highlight how your benefits have helped others

When it comes to highlighting your benefits’ effectiveness, it is best to show, not tell. After all, the true value of benefits goes beyond a dollar amount – they’re meant to improve employees’ overall quality of life.

Try to show your benefits’ impact on employees with case studies and client stories, which can be provided to you by your benefits broker.

Because a benefits plan is as unique as each of your employees, the true stories of your benefits at work can help to illuminate the significant value your benefits hold. After all, the true value of benefits goes beyond a dollar amount – they’re meant to improve employees’ overall quality of life.

Your benefits broker should help you market the value of your benefits

As a benefits expert, your broker’s main objective is to help you get the full value out of your benefits. Making sure your employees can understand (and appreciate) their benefits is one big part of that job.

By helping employers understand the full value of their total compensation package, your broker can also help inform wage negotiations and make sure everyone is getting a fair deal.

Interested in exploring how your partnership with the right benefits broker can elevate your employee comp packages? Schedule a demo with our team of experts today.