Can it Be "Good News" if No One Knows?
Is your company a typical Canadian employer, making a group benefit program available to employees? If you are, do you regularly remind employees about the program and its value to them?
How you present benefit plan information will depend on a number of things, including your corporate culture and your employee population. Whether you pay the whole premium. Or share the bill with employees, individuals who understand the coverage are more likely to appreciate such a plan, and to work with you to keep it affordable for the long run.
For many workers with young families, prescription medication coverage might be of greatest interest, but it's also very worthwhile talking about the importance of other benefits like life, accidental death & dismemberment, short and long term disability, or critical illness. After all, it's one thing to help a family pay for medications they need. It's another to help pay all the family's bills through income replacement if a breadwinner can't work because of an illness or accident.
Taking the time to explain benefits not only ensures your people what is covered, but it also avoids disappointments down the road, where people assume incorrectly that a product or service is covered. This way your employees will appreciate the benefits you provide, and the expenses that are paid on their behalf.
If your plan sends you newsletters, consider passing them on to your
employees. Some programs, like the Chambers Plan, welcome calls directly from insured's, which keep your own administration work to a minimum. Put the plan's website and toll free numbers in your company news, or post them in our lunchroom where people see them on a regular basis. Then, when they have questions about coverage or claims, they can get answers promptly.
Group benefits are valuable but they are not 'free'. Employees who use program judiciously, when there is a real need, help keep the program affordable for years to come.
