Beating Benefit Bewilderment: Why Your Employees Are Confused & What You Can Do About It

Beating Benet
Bewilderment
Why Your Employees
Are Confused
& What You
Can Do About It
by Harry Nathan GottliebFounder & CEO, The Jellyvision Lab, Inc. rehensible Choices!Incomp
aterial that doesn't apply to you!
M
Legalese to cover our ass!Do your employees report feeling light-headed and dizzy when reviewing your employee handbook? Do they review it at all? And during open enrollment? Any increase in headaches? Nausea? Apathy? Procrastination?
I see. Well, those symptoms often point to a general condition known as:
There are a number of possible causes for this condition. Let's see which apply to you and discuss possible treatments.
www.jellyvisionbenetscounselor.com 1Possible Cause #1iiiiiiiiiYour employees speak English but you "The company is going to buy some life insurance iimay be speaking in Compliance or Legal for you. If you want, you can buy extra. Whatever iiiior, perhaps, Technical-you may even be extra life insurance you buy for yourself, you can ialso buy up to half that amount for your spouse. iispeaking in Large Comparison iNow, depending on how much additional iCharts-and have no idea insurance you'd like, one or both of you may need you're doing it. to answer some questions about your health to see if you qualify for it."This is a common problem. As a child you learn to speak in ways that will allow you to be understood by "other humans. Then, as an adult, you enter the tcorporate world and in a few short years you start n
ewriting things like: Treatmentm
re"Beyond the basic benefit, both individual and Communicate in English. dlspouse buy-up options are available. Please The same English you use when you speak inote: an election of voluntary life coverage for a to your mother. I mean without all the w
spouse can equal up to half your individual life psychological baggage you haven't e
buy-up, although depending on the desired level finished working through. B tof coverages, EOI may be required." You get my point. 
e
n
"You mean no harm, of course, but reading this, e
Bemployees with no prior history of migraines, start carrying EpiPens. Thing is, what you really meant to write g
nwas: itae
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www.jellyvisionbenetscounselor.com 23.Prescription Reclaim your disclaimers. Lawyers are trained to write for other lawyers, not your employees. But even disclaimers can be clear and easy to understand (and are certainly a smarter approach for C.Y.A.). Get your legal folks bought in to collaborating with 1.Hire a Real Writer. your Real Writer to redraft language to make it
Somebody who knows how to captivate an clear for mere mortals.
audience. Somebody who would rather be writing her novel than working for you. Yes, 4.she needs to be good at explaining things in a Don't define technical terms, simple way. Real Writers know how to do that. define natural terms. And how to eliminate jargon. And how to inject For example: take the term "Eligible Employee." a little appropriate humor to keep people Some companies will define the term Eligible tsmiling while they are reading. Employee at the beginning of a document and n
ethen use it all over the place. But think about mit: If somebody catches you in the lunchroom r2. and asks a question about benefits, you'll eProtect your Real Writer's efforts. probably just say "employees" or "associates" dlThe world is awash in once-inspired writing or whatever. You wouldn't say "eligible ithat's been watered down by layers of review. employee" four times in six sentences. Instead w
(You know what a camel is? It's a horse, eof defining a jargony term upfront, define the designed by committee). Ideally, you Bnatural term instead. Like the example below. determine WHAT needs to be communicated t
and let your writer make the final calls on 
eHOW it gets communicated. A Real Writer Insurance and other benefits are available to most, but not nintuits how the selection of each word hits the eall, employees. To be eligible for benefits, you need to be brain of his audience. Get all the stake-holders Breceiving from BigCo either a full-time salary, or an to buy into the critical need for that role. gongoing part-time salary based on 25 hours of work per Especially your lawyers and compliance nweek. ... [download for more]