Benefit Communication and Technology Institute

High-performing organizations focus on people, process, and culture. This session will discuss how communications can help you evaluate and transform your own culture, including:

• Understanding your own organizational culture
• How the diverse and multigenerational workforce influences that culture
• Leadership best practices to support and promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging.

In this session, we’ll share insights on how organizations are attracting and retaining employees in the face of “The Great Resignation” and the new “quiet quitting” trend. Main topics include:

• Value of total rewards
• “Stay” interviews and other ways to retain talent
• Role of flexibility/remote work
• Career pathing and development
• Social responsibility considerations.

As the mental health landscape continues to evolve, it’s imperative that we focus on awareness and accessibility to support our plan participants. This session will focus on:

• Knowing what’s available within and outside of employer-sponsored benefits plans
• Facilitating access and ease of use
• Identifying how to navigate those resources for the best outcomes.

You can have the most comprehensive benefits package in the world – but if employees or plan participants aren’t aware of it or don’t understand it, then it’s a missed opportunity. Through real-life campaign examples and case studies, this session will show how branding your benefits communications can drive awareness and engagement and help ensure you get the most from your investment.

The onboarding process is a crucial but often overlooked opportunity to communicate benefits to employees and ensure they understand the financial commitment the employer is making. This session will focus on need-to-know information for employers, including:

• Understanding your obligations as an employer/plan sponsor
• Accessibility considerations (e.g., ADA, AODA, language, culture)
• Point-in-time communications for greater impact
• Evaluating and benchmarking your onboarding communications.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be the latest buzzword, but how is it impacting benefits communications? This session will provide an overview of new tools available to plan sponsors and participants, including:

• Emerging technologies and platforms (ChatGPT, etc.)
• Apps and interactive tools
• Self-service for plan participants.

First impressions are important, and your website is often your first touchpoint with employees/plan participants. How do you design and curate your online presence to inform, engage and interact with these and other stakeholders? This session will delve into the details of building your online presence, including:

• Internal policies and practices
• Navigation, self-service and ease of use
• Participant tools and the user experience.

This session will focus on your health benefit programs and messaging so you can better support your plan participants. Topics include:

• Promoting consumerism and health literacy
• Understanding health benefits and EAP resources
• Getting back to preventative care
• Tools to address various life events.

Prescription drugs are a key driver of benefits plan costs, so it’s important that plan participants know what’s covered, what’s not and why. Learn how to simplify and clarify key drug plan management concepts for your plan participants to help manage and mitigate plan costs.

As a plan sponsor, you want to provide an engaging and accessible online experience for your plan participants. But with cyber-attacks on the rise, you also need to ensure you’re vigilantly safeguarding important information. This session will cover cybersecurity best practices for benefits plans and how to communicate related policies and protocols to your employees/plan participants, including:

• Data management and protection
• Accessibility and usability versus safety
• Training and education for key stakeholders.

How we communicate has drastically changed over the years – due, in large part, to technological advancements. The rapid pace of change means those charged with communicating benefits need to rethink how they listen to stakeholders, gather data, and plan and execute their communication strategies. This session will focus on:

• Developments and trends post-COVID
• The role of technology in driving change
• How to stay ahead of the curve.

In this session, attendees will pick three topics of interest from a list provided and participate in roundtable discussions (20 minutes per topic). Great networking opportunity!