Your intranet can be a powerful tool for your company. It streamlines communication and provides a ton of resources in an easy to access location. It’s typically used for project management, hosting internal documents and sharing information. Some might even contain exclusive content found nowhere else within the company. Yet, human resources can also leverage the intranet to host HR documents like employee benefits information.
A modern intranet solution has improved user experience and search functionality over older systems. It also provides personalized content for a seamless employee experience. Due to the unique and individual level of employee benefits, it offers a perfect use case for being hosted on the intranet software. What are some of the ways benefit plans can be displayed via the intranet?
Health Insurance
The standard health care plan is the most common benefit offered. Yet, it’s often divided into multiple tiers and plans.
Did qualified workers opt into the high deductible plan? Did they include spouses or family members? Or, do they have a spouse and elected to be on a separate plan altogether?
During open enrollment, it’s important to have all the different options provided, so that they may be able to compare. But during the rest of the year, there’s no need to deluge them with every bit of information, so personalized content is a better option.
Family and Medical Leave
FMLA is a complicated subject. While there are federal guidelines, each state also has its own requirements as well. Not to mention, FMLA has been temporarily expanded due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Organize your documents so that employees only see the information relevant to their state. You can also utilize automation to send reminders to both workers and family members that are currently using FMLA to keep them informed.
Disability Insurance
Like FMLA, disability isn’t something that every employee currently uses. It’s also divided into short term and long term. When a worker becomes disabled, they probably aren’t in the capacity to pore over the nuances of disability insurance. Therefore, it's up to HR to help them navigate this difficult phase of their life and share relevant information. Notifications are another great feature to leverage, as reminders can help keep employees up to date.
Performance Bonuses and Merit Increases
A good organization should reward hard work. A company may choose to provide performance based incentives such as bonuses and commissions. Some might also grant stock options. Finally, many companies go through annual raises with their merit increase plan.
Because of the sensitive nature of compensation, pay transparency is very important. Arrange your documents in an easy to find manner, and limit the confusion that people may have. It will drastically improve employee engagement.
Read more: Add Total Compensation Statements to Your Annual Merit Increase Plan
Retirement Packages
While the specifics of a retirement package may vary with different organizations, most companies set aside an amount of a salary and sum it up after retirement. Does your company offer 401k matching? Do employees need help catching up for their Roth IRA? Are they even aware of their tax contributions to social security?
The intranet doesn’t need to merely host documents. It can also provide interactive tools for these situations so that everyone is capable of calculating just how much they need to contribute.
Beyond Benefits
Those are just some of the types of offerings that human resources have put together. In actuality, the types of employee benefits provided may vary from one organization to another. Therefore, it’s also important to examine the goals that these programs seek to accomplish, so that it may be better organized and distributed.
The first goal is stability. It creates a financial cushion for accidents and illnesses. It can also provide a specific message to your workers. The way your employee benefits program is structured will demonstrate what you as an employer prioritize. Finally, in an era where employees are quickly switching jobs, engagement and satisfaction are extremely important.
This shows that it’s not enough to merely inform what plans are out there. Transparency is necessary in showing why certain things are offered. Of course, information overload is also a serious concern. This is why personalization and customization is very important.
A Modern Intranet
The intranet has been a staple of employee communication for decades now. From health care, to retirement benefits to sick leave, HR has no shortage of documents. The company intranet can host all of this and more.
