Decline in Enrollment of Hourly Employees Cited Negative publicity and employee complaints about benefit plans are not unusual. Often, however, they stem from a lack of understanding about the employer-provided program. Plan changes have increased the value of employee communications programs as a way to preserve good employee relations. W hen well-designed and clearly written, personalized benefit statements tend to have high readership, especially when they're sent to the home. Because they reflect the individual employee's benefit situation, the statements are one of the most popular forms of employee communication.
Employees also appreciate their concise descriptions.
Whereas a summary plan description should provide details about the inner workings of a plan, a benefit statement should provide a snapshot of the plan and its purpose. Typically, employees do not give employers enough credit for benefit expenditures. This usually happens because they have no idea of what their benefits cost. In fact, the cost of a benefits program is often a significant percentage of an employee's direct compensation, particularly for the non-highly compensated. Although employees know that their employer pays most or all of the cost of certain benefits, personalized benefit statements attach a dollar amount to medical, pension, disability and death benefits.