What We Do

Benefits and Compensation

Compensation, health and welfare, and savings and retirement plans aren’t just about plan coverage. They’re about a certain quality of life, about making conscious decisions and about changing behaviors. The actions employees take — whether it’s practicing health care consumerism, taking advantage of a flexible spending account or choosing a 401(k) investment portfolio — have a direct effect on the value they receive from their company plans as well as on their physical and financial health. Hill, Barolet & Associates can help your employees understand their plans and use them to their best advantage.

Creating Informed Health Care Consumers

Know What Employees ValueBecoming an informed health care consumer means significantly changing long-standing behaviors, which doesn’t come easy for most people. So before designing your communications campaign, take time to do some research about employee preferences (for example, what health care issues they care about most, what factors they consider when choosing a plan or a provider, and what methods of communication they prefer for accessing health care information).

Target Your AudienceEmployees don’t value “one-size-fits-all” communication. Our health care priorities change over time, based on our age and where we are in life. So think about how to segment and customize your communications to support different age groups and health care needs.

Be CreativeWhile health care itself is a serious business, health care communications can be eye-catching, imaginative and even playful (depending on the topic, of course). Employees receive so much information on a daily basis, via email, meetings and other company-driven communications, that it’s important for your messages to stand out.

Make a CommitmentIt’s smart to take advantage of existing communication efforts (for example, annual benefits enrollment, new hire orientation, health and safety training) to provide health care consumer information. At the same time, you’ll want to identify opportunities year-round for getting the word out, so that health care consumerism becomes an integral part of your employee culture.

Ask for Great IdeasBuild on information gathered during your initial research by encouraging a workplace dialogue about health care consumerism. Ask employees for their ideas on how to promote consumer behavior. Contests, blogs, open forums and suggestion boxes (physical or electronic) are all useful ways to gather this input. And don’t forget to act on the information you receive. Try implementing one or more of your employee's ideas, and be sure to give those individuals credit and public recognition for their contribution.

Measure Your EffortsAs you would with any major communications initiative, include a step for measurement. In addition to working with your company’s health care providers to analyze your own plans’ usage trends, make employees part of your measurement effort. Ask them how well your health care consumer communications are meeting their needs. Find out to what extent people have changed their day-to-day behaviors to better support their health and well-being. Then see what you need to modify in order to improve your efforts.