Three tips to improve your employee benefits website
Remote working has changed how we work for the foreseeable future, and we need to ensure our people are making the most of the benefits available to them.
A recent study from *REBA found over two thirds of employers saw increased usage of their employee assistance programme - so now is the time to invest some time and effort into your employee benefits platforms. In doing so, you will see an improved return on investment and more importantly, your people reaping the rewards from the benefits on offer.
Here are some main areas to consider when future-proofing and maximising engagement with your benefits website:
Create a good FAQ
As a HR professional working in employee benefits, it is likely that you get asked the same questions about your company’s benefits package often. If you are individually answering these questions each time, this will add up to a lot of your time that could be spent doing something else on your never ending ‘to do list’!
Solutions…
Create a comprehensive FAQ page for your benefits website.
Before anyone can submit a question, you can ask them to go through the FAQ's before clicking "still haven't found what you are looking for" and then they can submit a response.
You can put links to the FAQ on your benefits communications and your email signature to raise awareness of it.
Use clear signposts
Your employees will usually come to your benefits portal to find out more about a specific benefit.
Solutions…
Make sure your home page clearly signposts people quickly and easily to where they want to go. The best benefit portals displays all available benefits on the homepage so the user can easily see everything that is on offer. This is sometimes referred to as a ‘chocolate box’ as it is displaying a selection for people to choose from. Once your employees get to the page they want, have all the key information at the top as a summary. You should also include the advantages of the benefit, who the provider is and how the employee can utilise the benefit, plus contact info.
Consider the user experience
Websites have a structure and the ultimate goal is to make the journey easy for the user. When your employees land on your benefits website, they want to find something quickly and easily. We often see benefits portals with too many layers of pages within them. Don’t make the same mistake! Try to keep to three page levels to minimise user frustration. Another tip is to have a search function with well tagged content to enhance user experience
*Reference: REBA COVID-19 research series: report #4