In order to attract and retain the most qualified and talented employees, it’s crucial to offer competitive healthcare benefits. No employee wants to take a job at a company where they’re going to experience unnecessary stress over the future of their health expenses. The right healthcare benefits will improve employee engagement and productivity, and grow your workforce.

Cheerful friendly businesswoman working with young couple, shakiAlthough healthcare is widely offered at most companies for full-time employees (and sometimes part-time employees), many don’t understand how to enroll. Or, if they did enroll, they forget to follow up and are unaware of how to use their health insurance benefits or request cards. Here’s how HR teams can help keep employees in the loop when it comes to healthcare benefits:

Provide training on how to sign up for benefits

Providing the right training that walks staff through how to enroll in healthcare benefits is crucial for boosting employee morale and increasing retention. During this training, time will need to be spent explaining the health insurance benefits, what they cover and who can enroll. From there, it’s helpful to do a mock walk-through to show employees how to sign.

If not everyone in your company speaks English, be sure to have an on-site translator available to answer questions.

Invest in the right software

If you don’t have streamlined software that handles payroll and other HR processes yet, now is the time to get one. If this service is set up correctly, employees will be able to easily log onto an online portal where they can view important information like paychecks, pay stubs, tax information and healthcare coverages.

Getting this software set up right away is crucial because it will save both your internal and external team time. If you want to avoid a meeting altogether, use software like Loom to record yourself enrolling in benefits to show your employees.

Check in with your employees often

Be sure to check back with your employees often to see if they have any questions about healthcare coverage, especially if you’ve recently changed providers. It can be confusing to get all the documentation switched over and employees may have questions about different coverages and prescriptions.

In staff meetings, it’s also beneficial to advocate for mental health as well as physical health and encourage employees to take some time away if they need it. Employees feel more empowered to advocate for their own mental health if someone else is advocating for them, too.

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