Only 29% of UK reward and HR decision-makers feel very confident communicating their organisation's benefits to employees, according to CIPD's Reward survey: Focus on employee benefits. That figure rises to 43% among large employers, and drops further among small and medium-sized businesses. That gap costs money. Every benefit an employee doesn't understand is a benefit they won't use, which means your organisation may not see the return on its investment.
The fix isn't a bigger benefits package. It's a clear employee communications strategy: a structured plan for how you tell people what's available, why it matters to them, and how to use it throughout the year. This guide walks through what that strategy looks like, how to build one, and how to communicate benefits in ways that employees understand and act on.
What is an employee communications strategy?
An employee communications strategy is a structured plan for how your organisation shares information with its people, so every message supports a clear goal instead of adding to the noise.
For HR and benefits teams specifically, this usually means a plan that covers: what you tell employees about their pay, benefits and wellbeing support; when you tell them; and through which channels. It sits alongside your wider internal communications strategy but has its own goals. Benefits communication needs repetition and right timing, as a single company announcement is easy to miss or forget.
Communication with employees works best as an ongoing programme, not a one-off event. New starters take in a lot of information in their first weeks, and benefits details are rarely top of mind once the day-to-day job takes over. Without regular reminders throughout the year, employees can easily forget what's available and how to access it.
Why you need an employee benefits communication plan
Low benefits uptake is rarely about the benefits themselves. It's usually about visibility. Employees forget what's on offer, don't know how to access it, or miss communications when a particular benefit isn't relevant to them.
The same CIPD report raises an important question: when a benefit isn't delivering the results an organisation expects, is the benefit itself the problem, or is it how it's being communicated? Confidence in communicating benefits is consistently lower at smaller organisations, which often don't have a dedicated internal comms function to lean on. That's exactly the gap a documented strategy is designed to close.
A consistent plan keeps benefits information current and relevant, while making sure key messages are repeated throughout the year. It also helps you track what's working and what isn't, so you can adjust your approach instead of guessing.
Pensions are the clearest example. Research shows 58% of employees couldn't tell you what their pension is worth, even though nothing about the benefit itself has changed. If pensions are your weak spot, our six pensions communication ideas to increase employee engagement has practical fixes.
How to build an employee benefits communication strategy
Understand your audience
Start by mapping who you're communicating with and how these groups of employees differ. Marketing teams do this by default: they build audience personas, segment their lists and tailor messaging to each group. Your benefits communications should take the same approach.
Segment your workforce by the factors that change what people need to hear: department, seniority, location, working pattern and life stage. A new parent, a shift worker without regular desk access, and a senior manager may all need to receive benefits information in different ways, even if the underlying message is the same.
Set clear, measurable goals
Define your goal before you decide what to say. Here are some useful starting questions:
- Where is benefits engagement now? What does the data show?
- Which specific benefits have low uptake. Why?
- What would success look like in three months? In a year?
Set goals you can measure: for example, to increase uptake of a specific benefit by a set percentage, improve click-through rates on benefits announcements, or reduce the number of repetitive queries HR receives about a scheme. Vague goals like "improve engagement" make it impossible to know if the plan is working.
Choose your channels and content formats
Different information needs different formats. A pension change might need a detailed document; a reminder about a wellbeing benefit might work better as a short video or an in-portal announcement. Ask what your employees prefer, rather than defaulting to whatever channel is easiest for HR to produce.
Consider a mix of:
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Email for time-sensitive updates and reminders
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An intranet or benefits portal page as the permanent, searchable source of truth
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Short videos or infographics for benefits that are easy to misunderstand from text alone
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Manager-led communication for benefits that need a personal conversation, such as parental leave or financial hardship support
Build a communications calendar
A single announcement is easy to miss. Drewberry's research into UK benefits communication found that employees typically need to see a message three to five times before they act on it, which means repetition must be part of your plan, and not left to chance.
Map your benefits communications across the year: open enrolment periods, seasonal benefits, onboarding touchpoints for new starters and periodic reminders for underused schemes. A calendar also means your communications team doesn't have to create every message from scratch.
Measure results and iterate
Track what you can: open rates, click-throughs, survey responses, portal logins and actual uptake of the benefit you're promoting. Compare these results with the goals you set at the start.
If a message isn't working, the problem is usually one of three things:
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The wrong channel
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The wrong audience segment
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A message that doesn't answer the questions employees have
Test and adjust rather than repeating the same approach and hoping for a different result.
Employee benefits communication best practices
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Repeat the message: one announcement is not a strategy. Use different channels to repeat key messages and give employees more than one opportunity to see them
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Simplify the language: complex documentation is a known barrier to benefits engagement. Where you can, replace policy language with plain, direct explanations of what the employees get and how to claim it
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Make it accessible on mobile: not every employee sits at a desk. If your benefits communications only live on a desktop intranet, shift workers and field-based teams may struggle to see them
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Centralise the information: give employees one place to find current, accurate benefits details, so they don't have to dig through old emails or ask HR directly
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Use trusted messengers: employees may be more likely to pay attention to their line manager or team lead than to a company-wide email. Give managers the information they need to reinforce key messages where appropriate
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Invite feedback: a short survey after a benefits launch can show you what employees understood and where they still have questions, which is far more useful than assuming the message worked
Employee benefits communication examples
Benefits open enrolment campaign: start several weeks before the enrolment window with an announcement about what's changing this year. Follow it with a mid-campaign reminder and short explainer video, then a final countdown message before the deadline.
New starter benefits series: instead of a single benefits overview in week one, create a short series of targeted messages spaced across the first three months. Each message can focus on one benefit area, such as health benefits cover in week two and the discounts scheme in month two.
Wellbeing benefit awareness push: a manager-led conversation prompt paired with a portal announcement, timed around a relevant moment such as Stress Awareness Month, aimed at the specific wellbeing benefits.
Portal announcement with a pulse survey: publish a short announcement about a new or underused benefit, then follow up a week later with a one-question survey. Ask employees whether they've looked into the benefit to get an early indication of whether your communication worked.
How FlexGenius supports your benefits communication strategy
A plan is only as good as your ability to deliver it. FlexGenius's employee communication tools let you publish targeted announcements, tailor communications to different employee groups and run pulse surveys. Employees can see your communications in the same platform they use to manage their benefits, so everything is in one place.
Ready to improve how you communicate your benefits? Download the brochure or contact our team to find out how FlexGenius can help.
