Benefits are complicated, especially for young employees who don’t fully understand their full benefits packages. Employers often struggle to find meaningful ways to educate and communicate with employees about plans and perks, which is where video can be an asset.
Even if you offer competitive compensation and benefits packages, if your employees don’t understand what’s available and how it compares to other organisations, it’s virtually meaningless.
Video is the perfect way to upgrade your communications efforts and ensure your employees understand what they have.
Benefits of Video
According to research, viewers retain 95% of a message when they see it in a video compared to 10% with written text. That’s an 85% increase in retention.
Over 300 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube each minute and 5 billion videos are watched each day. That’s a lot of video consumption!
Video content performs better, for many, because of its passive and visual means of supplying information. Viewers are riveted, so they absorb the information better and retain it.
For most people, if given a choice between video or written communication, they’d choose video. It’s that effective. If you want your employees to actively engage with the information you’re presenting, it’s important to integrate video into your educational planning.
Innovative Ways to Use Video in Your Benefits Communications
Get creative! There are numerous ways to include videos in your benefits communication strategy, from offering a library of video resources to making announcements.
Announcements
Open enrollment is a critical time for the human resources department. Employees may miss out on critical information with an email, memo, pamphlet, or other means of communication.
Instead, use a video to announce important open enrollment information and eye-catching visuals like animation, Q&A, and bulleted slides. This information can also be repurposed across different channels to ensure employees can reference it as needed.
Benefits Education
Some benefits enrolment platforms offer a built-in video function to create videos that inform the employees’ experience. On-demand education like this ensures that employees have the necessary details when it matters most – while they’re shopping for the benefits that will impact their lives for the next year.
Plus, you can use these videos in an on-demand video reference library throughout the year.
Support
If employees aren’t sure what their benefits provide or how to choose the best options for their needs or budget, decision support is important. Decision support should be included in the educational process to ensure that employees understand the terminology, evidence of insurability (EOI), plan comparisons, pricing, and their out-of-pocket expenses.
Nurturing
Benefits education isn’t just for open enrolment for employees. Your human resources department should have year-round benefits education with reminders, events, and resources that can be accessed at any time. Video should be included in this education to communicate plan features, changes, and updates, helping employees to understand what’s being offered.
Best Practices for Video
Getting started with video can feel overwhelming, but it’s easier than you think. There are plenty of options for different experience levels and budgets. However you choose to create videos, however, it’s important to plan your content accordingly.
Keep It Short and Direct
Videos don’t need to be complex or long to be effective. The most effective video content leverages the appeal of the medium – succinctness. Keep it short and direct, focusing on one topic at a time. This makes the information easier to absorb and suitable for different points in the enrolment process.
Partner with Professional Video Producers
If you don’t feel that you can create a video on your own, partner with a high-quality, professional video producer to design attractive videos that break down complex information into short, digestible bits. Don’t make it complicated – take the approach of breaking the concepts down into the simplest terms and concepts.
Make It Convenient
Investing in educational videos, whether on your own or with the help of a producer, is a waste if no one watches them. Make sure your employees know these video resources exist and how to use them effectively.
Share videos through email and text alerts, announce the addition of a video library and inform employees at the start of the enrolment process. If employees come to human resources with questions, this is an opportunity to share the video library and help them find the resources they need.
Is Video Always the Best Choice?
Video is an excellent choice for many concepts and educational opportunities, but that doesn’t mean they’re perfect for every situation. Videos are more effective when they’re used to explain complex topics that can be aided through narration, illustration, animation, and more.
Before you create an educational video for a topic, consider the following questions:
- Will the content translate well in a video format?
- Is the content suitable for the short and direct approach with video?
- How long will the video have to be to communicate the message?
- If there will be employees in the video, what happens if they leave the organisation in the future?
- Is the video accessible for people with a lack of equipment, a disability, or other limitations?
- Can the video be enhanced with visuals, captions, or other details to improve accessibility?
- How often will the content in the video need to be updated? When will that be?
Benefits videos are focused on helping employees learn and understand their options to make informed decisions about their benefits. You have to deliver a lot of information in a short period of time.
Videos are excellent for this purpose, but they’re just a tool – it’s up to you to make the content approachable and engaging. If your video doesn’t achieve the goal, or it’s boring or poorly organised, it won’t be much better than written communication.
Set Your Employees Up for Success
Helping employees understand their benefits is a key responsibility for an employer and human resources. If you haven’t considered video yet, you’re missing out on an opportunity to present complex benefits information in a way that makes it fun and meaningful for your employees and less time-consuming for you
Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions. Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.