Open enrollment has a way of making everyone in HR feel briefly heroic. The emails are scheduled, the benefits guide is polished, the webinar deck has survived 12 rounds of edits and has been blessed by Legal, and at least one person on the HR team (you know who) has probably consumed enough coffee to hear colors.
Then, a few months after the dust has settled, the questions come in.
An employee can’t remember how the hospital indemnity plan works, or maybe it was someone who missed the wellbeing program announcement—it could be anything. But, inevitably, a manager forwards them an old PDF from two years ago, and cc’s you with a subject line like, “Is this still right?”
The real test of great benefits communications is not if employees opened an email or received a packet during enrollment; it’s if they have the information they need in those moments when life gets complicated.
Here are seven statistics that show exactly why year-round benefits communication matters more than ever.
1. Employees rate benefits communication 20 percentage points lower than employers do
This is the gap that explains the repeat questions, the missed resources, and the quiet HR stare into the middle distance, as you wish things were simpler.
Employers usually see the full campaign: the planning calendar, the guide, the reminders, the webinar, the landing page, the careful sequencing. Employees experience something much messier. They catch an email between meetings, skim a message on their phone, promise themselves they’ll come back to the guide later, then get pulled into whatever small workplace tornado arrives next.
Communication has to survive real life. That takes more than publishing the right assets. It takes timing, repetition, and messages built for humans with full calendars and limited patience.
2. Only 47% of employees say their employer communicates available benefits well
A strong benefits package can still feel oddly invisible when the story around it comes in bursts of enrollment-season overload.
Employees aren’t thinking about their benefits in categories like “voluntary benefits,” “point solutions,” or “wellbeing resources.” They think in moments—what’s happening in their lives right then, whether that’s a prescription that suddenly costs more, a partner changing jobs, a sick kid, mounting stress, or retirement that felt so far off until it suddenly wasn’t.
Benefits communication works better when it connects programs to those moments. Awareness grows when employees see how a benefit fits a real situation, not just where the benefit sits in a menu.
3. Just 44% of employees say their employer explains how to use benefits well
Knowing a benefit exists isn’t the same as knowing what to do with it.
When someone is dealing with a medical bill, a new diagnosis, a family change, or a confusing claim, a description of the benefit rarely does enough on its own. People need plain steps, clear paths, and a little reassurance that they’re able to get the help they need.
The best benefits education feels practical, and it often connects people to a benefit when they need it. It tells employees how it helps, where to begin, and what to do next.
4. Only 44% of employees say their employer clearly communicates what it contributes toward benefits
One of the quickest ways to devalue your benefits package is to show employees only the deductions taken from their paycheck, but never your investment behind it.
If employer contributions are out of sight, they’re out of mind. That creates a disconnect. You might be investing heavily in your people, but if nobody connected the dots for them, they may not have a clear picture of what they receive.
This is where numbers need a story. Good total rewards communications make benefits stop feeling like a collection of deductions and start feeling like part of a larger investment in their health, financial security, and future.
5. About 1 in 3 employees, 31%, rate wellbeing communication as poor
That stat probably stings, especially for benefits teams investing in a robust package that includes anything from mental health support, financial wellbeing, and burnout prevention to caregiver resources and lifestyle programs.
Wellbeing resources often matter most when employees already feel stretched thin, which means communication needs to cut through the noise gently but quickly, and it needs to be simple to act on. A dense, jargon-filled message about stress support doesn’t help when someone already feels like stress in human form.
The message should be easy to notice, easy to understand, and easy to act on.
6. Only 28% of employees fully use supplemental benefits, and 13% forget they have them
Supplemental benefits may be one of the clearest examples of communication with a shelf life. Only 28% of employees say they fully use these benefits, and 13% say they forget they have them at all. Those two numbers are evidence that if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind.
Nobody is sitting around at lunch in June fondly recalling some additional coverage they elected back in November. People remember benefits when a situation makes them relevant, which is why supplemental benefits need more than just a little bit of education around enrollment time. People need reminders, claim prompts, life-event messaging, and simple explanations that show up close to those moments of need.
7. It’s no surprise that 97% of employers want additional benefits literacy resources
Employers see the problem, too. An overwhelming 97% say they are interested in adding at least one benefits literacy resource. Many showed interest in solutions like one-on-one benefits counseling, stronger print and digital communications, a benefits call center or care navigation service, licensed benefit professionals, and AI benefits decision support tools.
That level of interest across that breadth of potential solutions points to a larger shift. HR teams know that benefits communication cannot be treated as a final deliverable stapled onto the end of plan design. And they’re ready to do something about it.
Benefits communication must be a year-round effort
No single communication can carry the weight of an entire year, but organizations can see real value from their benefits investment when they treat communication as a year-round part of the employee experience.
That may mean personalized and timely AI-driven nudges about benefits, a searchable public benefits website, and targeted benefits emails and SMS campaigns. Or it could be a benefits education series, total compensation statements, virtual benefits fairs, or benefits video production that helps. The goal is the same: Helping people understand, use, and appreciate their benefits throughout the year without needing a decoder ring.
Ready to make benefits communication stick?
bswift® Engagement Solutions helps organizations create communications employees notice, understand, and act on all year long.
Want to find out how we can create meaningful moments and measurable results for your team?
All stats from: 2026 NFP® U.S. Benefit Trends Report.