Tasked with managing hybrid teams, a
Employee benefit brokers, advisers and consultants face a huge opportunity to support that mission.
Get familiar with what matters most right now.
HR's responsibility in the employee experience is at an inflection point. More employees are depending on the private sector to deliver on benefits that support their well-being and families, especially when they are often left disappointed by the public sector. Moreover, while this will continue to evolve, employees are clearer on which benefits and offerings make the most impact in their lives in and outside of work. HR and benefit leaders are not only responsible for getting that right, but ensuring that those choices reflect both the balance sheet and
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When pitching your product and services it's paramount to understand what's at stake from both a macro and micro perspective. Be sure to diagnose the problem. While your offering may seem clear and is addressing a specific need, consider the evolution of employee sentiment and the fact that the HR departments you serve may not always be getting the full picture — which means that you won't be either. Get curious and ask questions to better understand how employees of the organization you're working with are thinking about the problem.
What is exacerbating the problem? What would make the problem 10% better? How can the impact be measured? Get to the root. For example, the strategists at a'parently, a company focused on creating a family-forward workplace, address a company's "leaky leadership pipeline," and typically find the leaks can be traced to a series of vulnerable moments of transition in the life of an employee. Ultimately, a thorough diagnosis allows for more sustainable and impactful solutions, along with greater trust from your client.
The more tailored your offering, the more necessary it feels. Wherever possible, consider ways to make your offering feel unique to both the HR and benefits stakeholder and their team. This doesn't mean pulling offerings out of thin air, but instead being mindful to connect the dots around impact so that your client understands that the value isn't general, but instead specifically linked to the needs they have identified.
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Additionally, this might look like helping them think outside of the box around how they'll customize internally. As an example, Dropbox has Perks Allowance, which the company describes as "a single allowance that allows Dropboxers to focus their perks on what really matters to them, whether that's wellness, caregiver support, productivity, ergonomics, learning, food services or something else." Employees are able to submit receipts for reimbursement for eligible items without any hassles. While this was something created internally at Dropbox, it demonstrates how external vendors and experts should be thinking about the bigger picture.
Prioritize the employee lifecycle.
HR products, services and offerings shouldn't live in boxes or be treated as one-and-done. Lifecycle feedback can help optimize key performance indicators. According to Qualtrics, a cloud-native software provider, "the various KPIs at every stage in the life cycle are how you demonstrate value to leadership and make the link between your HR initiatives and the core financial or operational metrics of the organization."
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Partner with HR and benefit leaders to strategize how your offering will support that employee lifecycle at large. You might help them determine what the offering looks like at scale, when it will be introduced, how it will be reinforced, who has access to it and how that will be communicated. Other areas to examine include what KPIs need to be observed, how the offering will create space and time for HR departments to focus on other priorities and what they can do when things don't go as planned.
Empower HR leaders with high-impact data.
It's likely that you've already gathered data to substantiate your offering. Just be sure that the information is clear and can be easily communicated beyond you. This means considering the typical audience that might be on the receiving end, along with what matters most to them. Beyond that, ensure that you have set up your HR and benefits stakeholders for success when it comes to communicating early wins and return on investment. Being proactive with a long-term strategy to support executive and org buy-in will not only make your client successful, but you, too.
