Does your communications strategy around employee benefits include translating employee benefit communications such as Total Rewards statements, pension benefit statements, and health and well-being program options? Maybe you already have a strategic communication plan around employee benefits, or you’ve recently created a Total Rewards program and are seeking guidance for how to get your employees on board. In this post, we’ll cover strategies for employee benefit communications, as well as how translating these assets can help you leverage your communication strategy, and your great benefits, to their full potential.
Employee benefit communications strategy
According to compensation consultant Zachary Weinberger, the 5 main objectives of an employee benefit communications program are:
- Awareness
- Understanding
- Appreciation
- Engagement
- Retention
Workforce planning enterprise CandorIQ argues that “the issue often lies not in what’s offered [through a Total Rewards program], but in how it’s communicated.” Instead of relying on a single method to bring awareness to your total rewards program, sending information and reminders over various channels increases the likelihood that you’ll get your employees’ attention and that they’ll remember what’s available to them. Weinberger recommends using platforms like in-person presentations, direct mail post cards, emails, online portals, and social media to share information about Total Rewards and other employee benefits. Thanks to Language Solutions’ computer assisted translation (CAT) software and standard operating procedures, we are able to seamlessly translate various types of content. Trados Studio works with PowerPoint presentations, SRT subtitle files, design documents, and HTML files, among others.
In addition to diversifying your platforms, it can also be beneficial to release your employee benefit communications throughout the year. Just like employees are regularly reminded of their base salary through their pay stub or direct deposit, a regular Total Rewards statement ensures that they are seeing the value of the additional benefits provided to them. FAQ documents and/or newsletters, whether monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly, can also be a beneficial tool to increase awareness and create more opportunities for engagement. They can make benefit information less overwhelming, too. Providing a comprehensive informational packet is important, but sending out a newsletter highlighting a certain type of benefit may mitigate information overload and help your employees focus on what they can really gain from each offering. And you can even offer an opportunity to provide direct feedback on every communication you deliver, whether that is an invitation to participate in a survey or to simply provide commentary – negative or positive!
Providing language access for employee benefit communications
Translating employee benefit communications can be integral to the understanding piece of your strategy. But in our experience with plain language writing and translation, it is imperative that the source document be at the desired reading level before translation even begins. The same idea can apply to employee benefit information, too. Once you have a clear and informative Total Rewards statement, pension statement, or benefit newsletter written in English, you can rest assured that our translation teams will carry your strategic message over into the translated text.
If you choose to have a live Q&A session with benefits leaders, you may want to consider including an interpreter as well. It is important to note that an interpreter will not be an expert on your employee benefits options – their job is to communicate what is being said, not to answer questions themselves. This can still be an invaluable resource in a Q&A setting, where an employee with limited English proficiency (LEP) might not otherwise be able to engage in a meaningful way, or benefit from the answers being given to other questions asked. We see this happen quite frequently in settings such as town halls and school board meetings, where an interpreter can provide linguistic access to LEP residents.
Measurable positive outcomes
The “can’t read, won’t buy” principle indicates that consumers who can’t get information about a product or service they’re shopping for in their native language won’t purchase said product or service. If we extend this to employee benefit communications, this means that employees who can’t learn about their benefit options in their native language may underutilize or not enroll at all for benefits. That means you miss out on the positive impacts those benefits can have on your employees individually and on your operations as a whole, such as reduced absenteeism and greater productivity. And as we’ve written about before, providing translations of HR documents can help assure LEP employees that you recognize and value their contributions. This can also increase engagement and satisfaction, which impact retention. If your enrollment numbers are low, you may need to rethink your communications strategy. And if enrollment numbers are particularly low among LEP employees, you may need to rethink your translation strategy.
Strategies for translating employee benefit communications
We have extensive experience translating open enrollment materials, pension benefit statements, and health and well-being rewards program information. Pension benefit statements can be particularly tricky because they often contain a significant amount of variable text. For example:
Dear <First Name> <Last Name>,
The text above in brackets will be replaced, and therefore does not need to be translated. Our CAT software enables us to manipulate that text in various ways so that translators can work around it without losing the context it provides to the surrounding text. It also generates the final translated document with all the variable text still in place. Then the computer program that replaces it can function in the same way that it does with the source document.
We also utilize technology such as translation memory and terminology solutions to ensure that we maintain consistent language across all your communications. This maintains your brand message and fosters trust. We also work with regular translation teams for each of our clients. This means that each new asset will have the same voice and tone.
Healthcare translations are another of our areas of expertise, so whether you offer a program to help employees quit smoking, a support program for employees with diabetes, a COVID-19 vaccine initiative, or all three (and more!), you can rely on us to get it right. Translating employee benefit communications may be the next step towards ensuring that your entire workforce is aware of, understands, appreciates, and engages with the great benefits options available to them. Don’t let your efforts and investment in those options go to waste!
