Personalized Guidance, Face-to-Face Communication Drive Benefit Usage and Satisfaction

Employers are offering more benefits than ever before, but not all employees perceive that as a good thing, according to Alight Solutions’ “2025 Employee Mindset Study,” released in September.

Nearly half (46%) of all surveyed employees said they found the volume of communication they receive about benefits, pay and well-being to be overwhelming, up five percentage points from the 2024 study. However, non-managerial employees (28%) were much less likely to think there is too much communication than those in middle management/supervisory roles (55%) and in senior management (66%).

According to the study, decisionmakers waffling over whether to “send another e-newsletter” or “post an extra video” should recognize that they, themselves, may not be the target audience. Workers who are women, are older, have lower incomes or have less understanding of their benefits, are more likely to want additional education and information.

But it matters how those benefits are communicated, and that might mean more than just sending out content.

Employers should shift from “broadcasting their benefits” to “creating more curated experiences,” says Rob Austin, head of thought leadership at Alight. Employees want “tailored guidance” to optimize their benefits.

Making an ‘Event of It’

Kelli Send, co-founder and senior vice president of financial wellness services at Francis LLC, has witnessed successful wellness events, such as summer picnics or benefits fairs, that include raffles, booths and giveaways. She says “gamifying” benefits “gets the buzz going.”

Combining benefits fairs and individual counseling is the optimal way to educate employees and drive engagement, says Send. One way to do this is to invite a financial adviser to come to an event and stick around for a few days to meet with employees one-on-one after the event is over.

Employers can “make an event of” promoting benefits, says Megan Yost, senior vice president of thought leadership and insight at Segal. Plan sponsors cannot simply provide access to benefits and assume participants will use them, she says. Events provide “structure” to help employees follow through on using their benefits.

Targeting efforts toward diverse audiences also can help drive usage. Pre-retirees have a separate set of needs than “mid-lifers,” who might be juggling different financial pressures from their student loan debt to  their children’s college expenses, Send says. A class for pre-retirees can be as short as a lunch hour, or as long as a five-hour event with meals and meetings on topics including Social Security and Medicare.

Personalized Electronic Communication

Since 2023, there has been a rise in the percentage of workers interested in sharing personal data with their employers in exchange for more tailored guidance, according to Alight’s research. More than three-quarters (77%) of employees now say they are comfortable sharing health information, up from 69% in 2023, and 73% say they would be fine providing financial information, up from 65%.

At the same time, artificial intelligence is “reshaping how employers and employees find information about their benefits,” says Segal’s Yost. She suggests that incorporating AI into benefits websites can connect employees with resources more quickly and create personalized communications faster.

Alight’s study showed that employees are increasingly comfortable with generative AI tools. The percentage of respondents “concerned” about AI dropped three percentage points from last year, and the share of those “nervous” and “scared” dropped by four percentage points and one percentage point, respectively.

Those who reported being “scared” by AI, however, were more likely to feel overwhelmed by benefits options (25%) than others (8%).

While recordkeepers provide plenty of benefits education, employees “already have to be pretty motivated to consume that education,” says Send. Videos and articles, among other passive content, are best coupled with an active communication.

Apps through which participants can send emails not to chatbots, but to “actual humans that know them,” can be helpful, Send says. The same apps can be used to send videos, articles and personalized nudges, based on how complete a participant’s account profile is. But even customized messaging can only go so far.

Too many nudges are still “generic,” says Send. “They’re not saying, ‘Let’s talk about your situation.’”

Recordkeepers should excel at producing targeted messaging, but the results often disappoint, according to Send. A participant might dismiss a request to designate a beneficiary because there are “25 other more important things to do today.”

“The way to drive change is to actually have somebody to talk to and sit down with,” says Send.

Talking Face-to-Face

Employers can offer employees conflict-free financial planners, who provide a “safe space” to talk about something as personal as money, according to Send.

Segal’s Yost says companies can also equip their managers and other leaders—who are often the ones in direct conversation with employees—with talking points about the employer’s benefits. They can endorse certain benefits and share how they themselves use them.

Stories from managers and leaders “not only provide or promote the benefit or awareness of [it], but also give people the permission to use [it],” says Yost. “That signal is powerful [for] driving behaviors.”

Yost adds that employers can aim to target employees at key decisionmaking times, such as the start of a new year—when many people make resolutions—or before annual open enrollment periods. But employers should be sure to communicate outside of those times, as well.

“The best practice is to communicate on an ongoing, year-round basis and align what you’re communicating about with what might be top-of-mind for employees,” says Yost.

Alight’s study, conducted in May and June, fielded responses from 2,500 employees—both full-time and part-time—working for organizations with at least 1,000 employees.

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