Unlocking Open Enrollment: What Your Employees Truly Want to Know

Capturing and maintaining employees’ attention can be quite a challenge (if you’re surprised by this statement, please let us know your secret!). As an HR or internal communications leader, you possess valuable knowledge about…


Unlocking the Power of Total Rewards: Why Effective Communication is Key to Employee Motivation and Retention

As an employer, you work hard to attract, retain and motivate talented employees. You offer competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits and a range of perks and incentives. However, many employees don’t fully understand or…


Closing the Gap: How to Bridge Communication and Support for Employee Mental Health Needs

It’s no secret that employees are facing unprecedented levels of stress and anxiety.  Our recent pulse survey on LinkedIn revealed that 76% of respondents believe that employees in their organization are experiencing increased levels of…


Breaking the Stigma: Six Ways to Promote Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace

Join us in shining a spotlight on the importance of mental wellness—at home and at work—during Mental Health Awareness Month this May. Together, we can raise awareness and provide education that creates more supportive home and workplace…


How to Improve the ROI on Your Employee & Benefit Communications

Post-COVID-19, the battle to attract and keep good employees has intensified significantly. In many professions, employees can work from anywhere, so their job options—and opportunities for growth—have greatly expanded. And in other…


5 Benefit Communication Trends to Watch in 2023

It’s easy to make a business case for strategic benefit communications — just consider these statistics: Employees were 25% more likely in 2022 than they were in 2012 to say that benefits are an important reason they came to their…


How to Use Employee Communications to Help Prioritize Mental Health in Your Workplace 

Mental health in the workplace is an important issue. This is not a new revelation—for some time, many companies have offered free counseling sessions for employees and their families through Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs).   What’s…


Resource: Open Enrollment Debrief

Open enrollment is complete—almost. There’s one final step: debriefing what worked and what could have gone better. It may sound overwhelming, but this process is essential to ensuring ongoing success for the next year. Debrief #1:…


What Employees Need to Know About New Lifetime Income Illustration

When your employees review their 401(k) statements, they’ll see a new feature: a lifetime income illustration. Companies are required to share this illustration at least once per year as part of the SECURE Act, but more importantly, it’s…


Resource: Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Communications Plan

Before you launch your HR/benefit communications plan, it’s important to begin with the end in mind.  What do you want to accomplish? What behaviors are you trying to influence? What are the desired outcomes?  12 Ways to Gauge Your Benefit…


Webinar: New Insights Into What Works

With shifts in the workforce over the past few years, one thing is clear: employee benefits are increasingly important to both recruitment and retention efforts. Join Westcomm President Guy Westermeyer and Susan Baier from Audience Audit…


Resource: New Benefit Program Communication Checklist

Introducing a new benefit or employee program? If you have a change coming, you should begin planning for it well before it’s time for employees to choose their benefits. When employees don’t understand why a change is happening, it can often lead…


6 Things Employees Want to Know During Open Enrollment

HR and benefit communicators routinely face the challenge of getting and keeping their employees’ attention. You know what employees need to know;, and you want to make sure they read, watch and listen to the materials you distribute. One…


Resource: Open Enrollment Communications Timeline

Although employees enroll in benefits within a span of days, planning for your annual open enrollment period begins weeks (months, really!) in advance.  12 weeks prior to Open Enrollment Develop a communications plan with key messages…


9 Ways to Ensure Your Employees Pay Attention To Your Communications

Getting—and keeping—people’s attention is becoming more and more challenging as we’re swarmed every day with instant communications and immediate, on-demand news. For those in HR and internal communications, this can be even more of a…


5 Support Tools to Help Your Employees Make Better Benefit Decisions

Which medical plan should I choose?  Do I need voluntary benefits?  What about life and disability insurance?  If you are a benefits professional, it’s likely you’ve been asked these questions multiple times. When employees are going through new…


How to Build a Brand for Your Employee and Benefit Communications

Most organizations spend a lot of time and money marketing themselves externally. We believe that the same effort should be applied internally as well! Just consider The Great Resignation, labor shortages, and the new era of remote…


The Advantages of Elevating Your Employee & Benefit Communications

One third of U.S. adults report not fully understanding their health benefits— a fact that’s costing employees and employers alike. Additionally, 66% of employees wish they were more informed about their benefits throughout the year so…


5 Insights from the 2022 Westcomm Benefit Communication Survey

The 2022 Benefit Communications Report: New Insights into What Works! report highlights the key findings from a comprehensive study of the attitudes and values of HR and internal communications professionals–straight from them!…


2022 Benefit Communications Report: New Insights into What Works

We’re excited to bring you the 2022 Benefit Communications Report: New Insights into What Works! This report highlights the key findings from Westcomm’s Benefit Communications Survey, a comprehensive study of the attitudes and values of…


How Behavioral Science Theory Can Improve Your Employee Benefit Communications

Benefit communicators can take a page from the marketers’ handbook. For decades, marketers have been studying consumer attitudes and behaviors that influence buying decisions. After all, marketing is about defining a problem or unmet need and then…


Four Employee Benefit Communications Trends to Make Traction in Your Organization

What’s the best way to communicate with employees about benefits? We commonly get that question, and the answer is—there’s not just one way. Benefit communications don’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. And there are a lot of reasons for that:…


Three Simple Ways to Help Your Employees Understand the No Surprise Act

The No Surprises Act, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2022, means healthcare providers and insurance companies can no longer charge you for out-of-network care for most emergency services and non-emergency services (e.g., radiology,…


Promoting HR Benefits to Employees Year-round

Companies spend big bucks on employee benefits—millions of dollars in many cases. Naturally, they want employees to understand the value of those benefits as part of their overall compensation. Yet many companies only communicate about…


Recruit and Retain Employees with Effective Benefit Communications

It’s no surprise to any HR professional what a critical role benefits play in recruitment and retention. Yet many companies fail to leverage their benefits package in their communications. Too many recruitment materials don’t effectively explain the…