Good Communication Has Ripple-Effect Rewards for Employers

In the management of workforce expectations and satisfaction, one contributing factor is often overlooked - a good communication program. Two recent studies showed that employers who do a good job of communicating their benefit plans, even if those plans are not particularly rich, have half the rate of turnover compared with companies that do not communicate well. Employees who feel they know and understand how the benefits work and how much the company contributes toward those plans, generally feel more satisfied with their jobs overall.

It's really no surprise. As grandma used to say, "Honesty is the best policy." Companies who are up-front and open about their operation in general, and their benefits in particular, enjoy more respect from their workforce. A study by Towers Perrin found that the majority of employees in the U.S. do not trust or even believe what their employers tell them about the business. While that sounds like a negative, cynical finding, the good news is that of all internal communication, pay and benefits communication is the most widely trusted, according to the survey.

This gives employers a perfect opportunity to build on a good thing. Each year most companies face the challenge of an open benefits enrollment. This should be a time to pull out all the stops and give employees all the information they could want and/or need about their benefits package. Employers will be doubly rewarded when the H.R. department is freed up to work on other issues instead of answering questions resulting from a confusing, hard-to-understand enrollment process.

Once a level of trust has been established in communicating benefits to employees, it's easier for employers to expand that trust to other areas of the business. Credibility in one area can grow to credibility throughout the organization if the same well-planned, regular, and honest communication practices are applied.