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Benefit communication strategy use case

Engage employees with personalization

Learn how personalized employee communications can help meet benefit strategy objectives.

October 10, 2024 | 3-minute read

Spark engagement with a benefits communication strategy

Fewer than 50% of employees say they completely understand their benefits.1 At Optum Financial we believe there’s more we can do to help employees make the most of their benefits. We’re always exploring new ways to educate and guide them on their next best steps.

llustration of lightbulb shining on individual employees to represent sparking engagement with personalization llustration of lightbulb shining on individual employees to represent sparking engagement with personalization

With this in mind, we set out to create a test campaign to demonstrate one practical way employees can leverage their HSA — using their HSA card to pay for everyday eligible expenses they already buy. 
 

Employee behaviors are at the heart of our approach 

For this test campaign, we targeted HSA account holders with three goals:

  1. Teach them how and when to use their card.
  2. Increase contributions so they can save more money on current and future eligible expenses.
  3. Connect with them to strengthen their engagement with their benefits.
     

Why personalized employee benefits communications?

We chose to test personalized communications and video for a few key reasons.

First, personalized communications show the account holder that we know them. Second, video is easier for customers to understand compared to long mail messages. Third, personalized benefits messages allow us to be specific and educate employees on a simple behavior to use their HSA card.
 

How personalized is the messaging?

We made the benefits communication more personal by adding details like the employee’s name, start date, number of transactions in the last year and their card balance.

We also listed relevant expenses like reading glasses or sunscreen, which cardholders might not know are eligible HSA expenses.
 

Choosing the audience segments and developing their videos

We used advanced segmentation to understand employees based on their behaviors. We studied how they typically use their HSA and how well they know their benefits. This helped us better meet their educational needs.

Breaking down our audience behaviors by engagement and spend analysis Breaking down our audience behaviors by engagement and spend analysis

Our strategic personalization approach, step-by-step

After identifying goals and audience groups, we sent personalized emails with videos to each group.

The personalization testing begins

In the first week, we sent personalized emails to employees in the 4 target segments. The subject line and greeting addressed the employee by their first name.

Employees who clicked through were taken to a custom page where their personalized video played. That page had a link based on their card usage.

Low contributors were shown a page to increase their contributions with some options. They could increase their contributions via payroll, which would help them save money in their HSA all year or make a one-time contribution in their online account if that better suits their circumstances.

Other audiences saw a page with eligible expenses, from over-the-counter pain relievers to acupuncture and everything in between.

Personalized benefits communication can go a long way

So, how did the personalized communication test perform?

The campaign certainly got employees’ attention. A variety of items, including personalized subject lines, helped drive interaction rates above benchmark goals from start to finish.

The email open rate was nearly 4 percentage points higher than our benchmark goal (41.85% versus 38%).

Video engagement 

Employees were very engaged throughout the video. The average employee watched more than 51 seconds of the 60-second video.

80% of employees watched the video all the way through on their first watch. All employees who watched the video a second time watched almost to the end.

Across all segments, 4% of employees clicked through to view the video, more than 2 percentage points above our 1.8% benchmark goal.
 

Engagement beyond videos 

After watching the video, 16% of those employees clicked through to learn more, 2 percentage points above our 14% benchmark.

In total, the 4-week campaign helped generate a 3.7% increase2 in expenses paid for with an HSA card, as well as an 8.1% increase3 in one-time HSA contributions.

These results show that the campaign helped employees contribute to their HSA and use their HSA cards, saving them more on eligible expenses.

Here’s a breakdown of key results by major campaign components during the 4 week campaign period Here’s a breakdown of key results by major campaign components during the 4 week campaign period

The future of employee benefits communication is happening now

Based on consumer engagement with this test campaign, it’s clear that personalization and videos can be powerful tools in your benefit engagement strategy. These results inform the way we communicate with individuals and families through our customer lifecycle journey — now and into the future.

We invite you to consider how personalization and videos might help your internal benefits communications connect with your employees. And when you partner with Optum Financial, you can work with our team to help you address your challenges.

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Sources

  1. NFP 2024 NFP US Benefits Trend Report
  2. Optum Personalized Video Email Campaign 2023 Performance Results, June 28 2023, pg 23
  3. Optum Personalized Video Email Campaign 2023 Performance Results, June 28 2023, pg 25

Health savings accounts (HSAs) are individual accounts offered through Optum Bank®, Member FDIC, or ConnectYourCare, LLC, an IRS-Designated Non-Bank Custodian of HSAs, each a subsidiary of Optum Financial, Inc. Neither Optum Financial, Inc. nor ConnectYourCare, LLC is a bank or an FDIC insured institution. HSAs are subject to eligibility requirements and restrictions on deposits and withdrawals to avoid IRS penalties. State taxes may apply. Fees may reduce earnings on account.
This communication is not intended as legal or tax advice. Federal and state laws and regulations are subject to change. Please contact a legal or tax professional for advice on eligibility, tax treatment, and restrictions. Please contact your plan administrator with questions about enrollment or plan restrictions.