Employee education on benefits: How to drive engagement

The benefits package you offer to employees is one of the most important ways to show how much you value them. When employees understand and utilize their benefits effectively, they tend to feel more supported and have higher morale.

Unfortunately, some employees remain unaware of the full scope of their benefits or have trouble selecting which features are right for them, leaving valuable resources untapped. By enhancing employee education around workplace benefits, you can boost retention, improve well-being, and create a more motivated workforce.

Here are some of the strategies you can use to take engagement to the next level.

Consider active enrollment

Many businesses use a passive enrollment approach, in which the benefit options default to last year's choice. Though this strategy may seem convenient, employees don't always realize if better benefit options are available. Switching to an active enrollment process can be an effective solution.

When you adopt an active enrollment process, employees are required to affirmatively select which benefits they want for the coming year, even if they want to keep the same coverage as before. Because there are no default selections, they're more likely to analyze their choice and learn about new offerings that may better meet their needs.

Use AI to deliver personalized guidance

An experienced team of specialists is the backbone of a high-level benefits program. However, carefully integrating AI into your program can make it easier for your employees to understand their options and make more informed decisions. For example, AI tools can help steer employees through the healthcare enrollment process and analyze personal information to recommend a plan that meets their situation.

Adopting a people-driven solution that's enhanced by technology delivers a win-win: The ability to deliver more personalized benefit solutions while helping your organization combat cost pressures. It's no surprise, then, that as many as 57% of brokers are advising clients on how to integrate AI to provide tailored benefits communication, according to our 2025 Benefits Broker Survey.

Educate employees on healthcare costs

Nearly half of brokers said that managing high-cost claims and specialty drugs was a key challenge for their employer clients. Many employees simply don't know they can shop for their healthcare services and prescription drugs, which means both the employee and the employer often end up paying more than they should. For example, our research shows that roughly two-thirds of employees don't realize that they can compare drug costs before filling a prescription.

One way to drive down medical expenditures is by explaining to employees how to shop for care. That may include pointing them to programs that can help them save on prescriptions or sharing online resources, like the FAIR Health Consumer tool, that enables them to research medical costs.

Increase awareness of targeted point solutions

Employees tend to focus on their primary health insurance options, but they may be in the dark when it comes to more specific services, like mental health, fertility treatments, and financial wellness. The better you and your team understand the solutions available, the healthier and more productive they can be.

Improving employee education around these targeted benefits, or point solutions, starts with HR managers. As you become more familiar with these offerings, you can more actively promote and answer employee questions about them. Diving into a summary of specialized programs can be a good starting point.

Making an effort to reach your broader employee base can also help increase awareness. Consider sending out emails or providing messages on your benefits portal, for example. You might even highlight success stories of employees who have benefited from those solutions.

Reach out to remote and hybrid workers

There may have been a shift back to in-office work over the past few years, but the COVID-19 pandemic made a lasting mark on labor trends. According to a 2024 Owl Labs survey, as many as 38% of employees continue to work in either hybrid or fully remote jobs. While that can help these individuals create a better work-life balance, it can create new challenges when it comes to educating them about benefits.

Because they have fewer trips to the office and fewer chances to interface with HR professionals in person, it can be difficult for these employees to understand their health insurance and other benefit offerings. To better engage remote workers, consider offering classes and online training opportunities, particularly during the annual enrollment period.

Learn from employee feedback

An effective benefits program shouldn't be built on guesswork. Encourage employees to tell you where you're doing well and where you're falling short. That may involve tracking data about how specific benefits are being utilized, but you may also want to perform surveys or even focus groups that can give you deeper insights into why your workers are making certain decisions.

Use that information to adapt your engagement strategy. The more you understand your benefits program from a user perspective, the more effective you can make it moving forward.

Optavise is your benefits partner

Optavise is a trusted partner, guiding employers and their employees through healthcare choices including voluntary benefits, benefits administration, and year-round advocacy services that reduce costs and increase benefits engagement.