December 03, 2024
As the year comes to a close, HR/benefit leaders convened to reflect and share their companies’ most impactful health, well-being and workforce strategy initiatives of 2024. This call provided a platform to celebrate achievements, highlight lessons learned and exchange actionable insights. The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including rolling out a new employee assistance program (EAP), deploying communication campaigns to increase engagement and exploring opportunities to address the needs of late-career workers, frontline employees and those located outside the U.S.
The following recap provides an overview of some of the successful efforts and initiatives discussed during the call.
Multiple employers had success rolling out enhanced EAPs for their workforce in 2024.
- One employer launched a new EAP with a multipronged communication and engagement strategy. The company highlighted mental health stories from senior leaders in their internal newsletter and integrated mental well-being into multiple aspects of the employee life cycle, including meditation and breathing exercises during new hire orientations. To encourage engagement from those working on-site, the company displayed a QR code next to the main entrance/exit that enabled employees to download a meditation and breathing app, encouraging them to engage with the app on their commute home. This employer has received positive feedback on the new program, with 40% initial enrollment and 70% ongoing engagement. Additionally, about half of employees reported a reduction in their depression, anxiety symptoms and stress levels. Ninety-two percent of participating employees felt cared for through the organizational culture and comfortable taking time off for well-being purposes.
- One employer attributed the success of its new EAP launch to the company’s ability to offer it globally. This capability means that the company can communicate one program across all newsletters, town halls, employee resource groups (ERGs) and other touchpoints. The company had turnkey well-being presentations professionally recorded, packaging them with other collateral that managers could leverage in their own communications. As a result of these communication efforts, the company has significantly increased employee engagement with the new EAP. In one instance, the company increased international engagement from 1% with the former vendor partner to 20% in Spain alone with the new EAP.
- Another employer found success with its modern EAP model in part because the EAP provider network is overlaid into the medical plan and treated as in-network, enabling seamless transition of care in the U.S.
Streamlined communications created in collaboration with internal stakeholders and vendor partners are a recipe for success.
- One employer created a one-pager that consolidated all benefits information, including ancillary information from other relevant stakeholders like Rewards and Inclusion Networks. The company is also leveraging generative artificial intelligence (AI) for content creation and user testing purposes (i.e., loading the benefit plan document into an AI model and then asking benefits-related questions in order to validate the relevance and accuracy of AI-generated benefits information). The company’s efforts have resulted in a triple-digit increase in the number of views and engagement with benefits content within a 6-month period.
- One standout communications initiative focused on educating frontline workers and improving access to global resources. This employer’s communication campaign utilized a one-stop shop communications approach that included a toolkit with physical assets (e.g., large banner, toolkit/guide for managers, tips for engaging employees during lunch break, cards with EAP information) that was sent to more than 230 different worksite locations. Leading up to the campaign, this employer demonstrated how to leverage these resources for HR, site managers and external vendors. The employer also created group codes that employees could use to access well-being information, in place of implementing single-sign on (SSO). These efforts seem to have paid off, with a reported 60% increase in utilization in the well-being platform.
- One employer partnered with several vendors to create collaborative content. For example, the employer’s 401(k) vendor presented a webinar in tandem with its EAP, focused on “money on the mind.” Another webinar included a tandem presentation with the employer’s digestive/gut health and EAP vendors, focusing on the mind-gut connection.
- Another employer identified health literacy and accessibility as two significant issues at one manufacturing site. To combat this problem, the company created access to a private, on-site safe space designated for employees to use for telehealth appointments, which are free to employees under the medical plan. Furthermore, the company sent out home mailers, hosted on-site education programs and featured employee testimonials. The company even hosted an interactive on-site scavenger hunt followed by a quiz with prizes available. The efforts resulted in a significant increase in telemedicine utilization in the second half of 2024.
- One employer conducted a pilot targeting its 55+ age group as well as late-career employees, offering a program through Grail/Galleri, a vendor focused on early cancer detection, to provide blood tests to detect up to 50 cancers. The pilot also coordinated with the vendor, who provides cancer guidance and treatment support to enable referrals for employees with a cancer diagnosis. To promote this pilot program, the company held webinars for managers and employees, giving them an opportunity to ask questions. Forty-seven percent of the 800 employees eligible for the pilot participated, and 94% returned the test for processing.
- Another employer shared that it offers a program with HUB|Horan that provides Medicare and Social Security expert support. This program has been helpful to employees who are Medicare eligible, as well as those who are caregivers of older parents in navigating Medicare plan selection and enrollment.
Employers are exploring opportunities to address the needs of late-career workers.
Looking Ahead
Reflecting on their 2024 accomplishments, employers remain committed to designing and deploying high-value health and well-being programs for employees around the globe. In 2025, employers will continue to assess their benefit plan designs in order to meet changing workforce dynamics while holding vendor partners to increasingly higher standards.
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