By Andy Stein, Founder & President, The Worksite Group
Employee benefits communication is the process of educating employees about their benefits options so they can make confident, informed decisions. When it works, employees choose the right plans, use their benefits, and feel genuinely valued. When it fails, employers waste their benefits investment, HR gets buried in post-enrollment questions, and employees feel overlooked.
Right now, it’s mostly failing.
After every open enrollment season, the same complaints surface:
“HR is still getting bombarded with questions about coverage.”
“Employees chose the wrong plans and now they’re frustrated.”
“We spent a fortune on benefits and people don’t even understand what they have.”
For benefits brokers, this gap isn’t just a problem for your clients to fix. It’s an opportunity for you to own.
The State of Employee Benefits Communication in 2026
The data on employee benefits communication is both consistent and concerning across every major industry study.
Aon’s 2024 Global Benefits Trends Study found that 73% of benefits professionals name improving employee communication as a top strategic priority. But only 33% of businesses include benefits communication guidelines in their organizational framework. Aon’s own characterization of the situation: current efforts are underwhelming, uncoordinated, and ineffective.
MetLife’s Employee Benefit Trends Study reinforces the stakes. 59% of workers say benefits were an important reason they chose their current employer. Yet half of all employees say they would feel more cared for if their employer simply improved how it communicated benefits. More than half also want personalized benefits recommendations, something almost no employer currently provides.
The consequences are measurable. Employees satisfied with their benefits are:
1.6x more likely to be productive. 1.5x more likely to be engaged at work.
1.5x more likely to stay with their employer
Benefits communication isn’t a soft issue. It directly affects retention, productivity, and the ROI your clients get from their benefits investment.
Why Employee Benefits Communication Is Getting Harder
Benefits are more complex than they’ve ever been. Employees today are asked to choose between ICHRAs, HDHPs, FSAs, HSAs, and voluntary benefits, often with limited time, limited context, and no personalized guidance.
Research from Employee Benefit News found that 20% of employees find the enrollment process confusing, and more than half would struggle to cover an unexpected $1,000 medical expense. Poor benefits literacy doesn’t just frustrate employees. It leads to underutilization, wrong plan selection, and financial stress that spills back into the workplace.
The Deskless Worker Problem
SHRM and Fidelity’s research on deskless workers identifies the communication barriers HR faces with employees who aren’t at a desk:
- 62% of HR professionals cite limited computer access during the workday as a top barrier
- 56% point to irregular schedules and hours
- 55% identify lack of face-to-face communication
Despite these known challenges, 69% of HR professionals don’t adjust their benefits communication strategies for deskless employees. They keep sending emails that never get opened and posting intranet updates that never get read.
The “Caring” Gap
A survey from Aflac found that nearly half of employees don’t believe their company genuinely cares about them. One of the primary drivers: poor benefits communication and inadequate support when it matters most. Employees aren’t just looking for better benefits. They’re looking for evidence that their employer is paying attention.
What an Effective Employee Benefits Communication Strategy Looks Like
An effective employee benefits communication strategy is a planned, multichannel approach to informing and educating employees about their benefits — before, during, and after open enrollment. It goes well beyond a packet of plan documents and a single company-wide email.
Here are the core elements:
1. Multichannel Outreach That Meets Employees Where They Are
A benefits communication strategy works only if it reaches the employees it’s designed to reach. For desk-based workers, that might mean email campaigns, benefits portals, and webinars. For deskless workers: warehouse employees, drivers, field technicians, retail associates, it means text messages, printed materials, and in-person conversations. One channel is never enough.
2. A Communication Timeline That Starts Well Before Open Enrollment
Waiting until the week before open enrollment to start communicating benefits is too late, especially when employers are making plan changes. Employees need lead time to understand what’s changing, why, and how it affects their families. A communication timeline should begin 4–6 weeks before enrollment opens and include multiple touchpoints.
3. Personalized, One-on-One Benefits Education
This is the component most employers underinvest in, and the one that moves the needle most. SHRM’s research confirms that employees who receive one-on-one benefits counseling feel significantly more confident in their decisions. Confident employees choose better-fit plans, enroll in more voluntary benefits, and generate fewer post-enrollment questions for HR.
4. Year-Round Benefits Support, Not Just Open Enrollment Help
Employees encounter benefits questions throughout the year, when they get married, have a child, face a major health event, or onboard as a new hire. A benefits communication strategy that only activates during open enrollment leaves those moments unaddressed. Year-round support, whether through a call center, benefits counselor, or digital tool, keeps employees informed and confident.
Why Employee Benefits Communication Is a Broker Conversation, Not Just an HR One
Most brokers negotiate hard on rates, build solid plan designs, and then hand off. The communication and employee education piece gets treated as the employer’s problem to figure out.
The result is predictable: clients invest in strong benefits packages, employees don’t understand or use them well, HR gets overwhelmed every January, and no one is particularly satisfied at renewal time.
Brokers who take ownership of the communication piece change that equation. When you bring a full benefits communication and enrollment support solution to the table alongside rate negotiations, you stop being the person who delivers quotes and start being the partner who delivers outcomes.
That’s a harder relationship for a client to walk away from.
Brokers who solve the communication problem don’t just retain clients longer — they differentiate from every other broker competing on price alone.
The Bottom Line on Employee Benefits Comms
Employee benefits communication is not a soft-skills issue. It is the difference between a benefits strategy that produces results — engaged, loyal, productive employees — and one that simply costs money.
If your clients are spending on benefits and still hearing frustration from employees, or if HR teams are still drowning in post-enrollment questions every January, the plan design is probably fine. The communication is not.
That’s a solvable problem. And brokers who solve it become the most indispensable person in the room.
Let’s talk about what that looks like for your clients.
Want to talk through the employee benefits communication plan you want to pitch your client? Reach out, and we’ll make a plan together.
— Andy
