How one employer made benefits education more fun
August 8, 2008 by Bill MeltzerPosted in: Employee education, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Open enrollment, Our best management idea, Recognition programs
Have you ever held a benefits education session for employees – for example, a presentation during 401(k) or flex account open enrollment season – and been privately disappointed by the results?
Some workers barely pay attention, ask few (if any) questions and then hurry to leave the room. Others seem overwhelmed by the info presented.
Almost inevitably, in the days following the presentation you find yourself answering the same basic questions from employees on the very issues that had been addressed during the presentation.
One company in Northbrook, IL, found a simple, but effective way to break the cycle and get folks to pay attention: a contest for employees.
Rewarded folks who paid attention
The HR manager put together a 20-question quiz cribbed from handouts from the presentation. There were 10 true or false questions, eight multiple choice and two fill-in-the-blanks. He distributed the quiz at the end of the presentation.
The employee who got the most questions right received a $20 gift card. In case of a tie – usually, several people got all 20 questions right – they drew a random winner.
The contest was a hit, and served two valuable purposes.
First of all, it successfully got employees to be more engaged during the session. Secondly, the quiz results helped point to areas where employee knowledge was particularly weak and helped HR better target its future benefits education efforts.
A pretty good investment for $20, wouldn’t you say?
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I totally agree with engaging employee’s by offering quiz’s and incentives. We started this practice a couple of years ago with our benefit fair. We developed a quiz that had common questions linked to the vendors that attended our fair. We passed out the quiz at the HR table and told employee’s that the answers could all be found by going to each vendors’ table. The vendors love it because they get interaction they wouldn’t normally have had and the employees love it because it is a game. Each completed entry was then dropped in a box and prizes were drawn at the end of the day. Our prizes were things such as logo wear and gift cards.
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 pm
What a great idea! Loved it! and I will use!
April 4th, 2008 at 9:31 am
This is a great idea! Small cost, great incentive to spark a bit more attentiveness.
July 10th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
When I have benefit meetings with our employees, the first person that ask a question will recieve a prize ( a logo cup , shirt or flashlight), the second queston another prize and the third question another logo prize. Then through out the meeting when anyone ask a question, I will throw out a stress ball. The employees love it and it gets them asking questions about thier benefits.
August 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Good idea, now if our management tam will let us have some presentations we cmay put it in practice.
August 14th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
All great ideas. Thank you!
August 18th, 2008 at 11:52 am
Good idea! The company I work with has recently started using an incentive for work comp claims. This incentive was used by a company where I worked before so I thought maybe we could give it a shot here. Work claims were through the roof and unfortunately things were not changing. We started playing “SAFETY BINGO”. On pay day, a bingo card is placed on the employees’ pay stubs, then every Friday, two bingo numbers are drawn. The first employee to get a bingo, receives $25.00. There is a catch though, the first time there is a work comp claim, the game stops. A new game will begin when the claim is resolved. Amazingly, we have been playing the game for three months now and only 1 claim has been turned in! The employees are having fun with it and so am I!
August 18th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
GREAT IDEA!!! I will use this strategy when presenting information pertaining to benefits. Seminars related to this can become boring and overwhelming to listeners but if they knew that there’s an award presented to the employee who gains the most knowledge will become a well deserved presentation.