Communication & Retention in the New Normal

Communication in the New Normal

Companies across the board are facing similar questions when it comes to the post-pandemic workplace. Are we going to continue to let employees work from home? Or are we bringing employees back to the office, and for how many days a week? There’s lots of different options available, but one thing is clear: if you’re going to move forward with a hybrid workplace, it’s more important than ever to figure out how you’re going to relay information to your employees (specifically around your benefits and retirement plan). 

Here at Retirement Planology, we had on-site presentations and one-on-ones pre-pandemic, and switched to virtual meetings once Covid hit. It turns out that both kinds of meetings have positive aspects. We had also created on-demand educational videos that proved to be useful. 

We’re currently experimenting with how much we’re still going to do virtually vs. in-person, and we’re also leveraging forms of communication with employees that are convenient. 

Looking forward, however, it seems that many of us may be a little tired of constantly Zooming. With webinars, we’ve found that we’ve had to cover less information and go at a slower pace than we might have in person. People get easily overwhelmed with complicated information conveyed virtually. Here at RPI we’ve readjusted our presentations accordingly and will have to figure out how things will play out when we go back to in-person meetings.

Another issue to consider: How do you want to interact with your vendors (specifically your retirement plan advisor), and how often? Some vendors offer a lot of options (ahem, that’s us!), using both virtual and in-person meetings, or a mix of the two. Many of the committees we worked with during the pandemic like the flexibility and convenience of the virtual meetings, while others want to go back to having (at least some) in-person meetings. Think about what’s best for your committee, especially since the retirement plan committee meeting tends to be the most expensive meeting you’ll have. 

When you have a hybrid environment, it’s difficult to keep everyone on the same page if you’re trying to work on projects at the same time. Shared software platforms or project management tools can help - we happen to use Monday.com, but there’s also Asana, Trello, Slack, etc. You want to put information where the eyeballs already are -- these platforms may be leveraged to share benefits-related information or videos. It’s vital to put benefits information where your employees are going to hang out the most day-to-day instead of locked away, only to be addressed at annual enrollment. Some of our clients have even leveraged their payroll platform as a place to share benefits resources. 

Retention in the New Normal

In order to retain your employees, you need to make sure they understand and are taking advantage of the benefits that your company provides. James Hornick of Hirewell says, “No one cares about your ping pong tables and unlimited PTO.” What are the work perks at your company and how do they feed into the company culture? With a corporate-sponsored retirement plan like a 401k or 403b, you’re incentivizing longevity. These plans can also be a fantastic bonus mechanism for high-value employees. 

Trends that we continue to see are younger workers who understand that their parents did not save well for retirement, and that they need to start saving early. We’re also seeing lots in the news about how student loans are affecting employees, echoed in our wellness meetings with employees. In thinking about employee retention, it’s vital to know whether your benefits offerings are reaching everyone, and to make sure your benefits dollars are being spent wisely on programs that your employees really need.

Now that employees are coming back to the office, it may be time to take a fresh look at your benefits package and make sure it’s in alignment with who you’re trying to attract and keep. Are you offering benefits that your employees really want? Do they understand the value of their total benefits package? Here’s where communication is key - a platform that shows all the benefits employees have can help them understand what’s available to them.

Final words:

In today’s new normal, communicating with employees effectively and efficiently is more important than ever, especially if you have a distributed team. Providing valuable benefits packages to employees - and making sure they know about those benefits and how to use them - can go a long way towards attracting and retaining great workers.