Articles
July 27, 2026
In Nashville, there are plenty of great songs that never make the charts. The songs aren’t the problem, it’s just that nobody has a chance to hear them.
Benefits aren’t that different. If people don’t know what they have, engagement stalls and people teams reach for another point solution, another vendor, another logo on the intranet nobody visits. But all they really needed to do was turn up the volume.
The HR leaders who gathered in Music City for bswift’s Idea Exchange conference (IX) kept circling that core truth, agreeing that a great benefits package means nothing if your people don’t know what they have.
The fix is consistently communicating about the benefits people already have in the moments that matter so the smart choice is the easy one.
Why Employees Don’t Use Their Benefits: The Communication Gap
bswift Chief People Officer Natalie Atwood, host of the HR Trends and Trailblazers panel at IX, moderated a wide-ranging conversation, but the center of gravity in everyone’s comments kept returning to the low benefits engagement so many HR professionals deal with. Panelist Adam Mason, Chief Strategy Officer at Benifex, put the problem in one stark, afternoon-ruining number.
“51% of employees, when we surveyed them, say that—they readily admit—they don’t understand their benefits,” he said.
Half your workforce looks at the benefits package you spent months designing and a budget you fought to protect and shrugs, unsure of why it’s valuable.
The plans are strong. It’s the finding that fails – the second-opinion service, the EAP, the fertility benefit nobody knew to look for. But benefits employees don’t know about still cost you, and they never have a chance to improve the lives of your people.
The plan design was never the problem. The silence after the confirmation email is.
Employee Benefits Communication That Runs Year-Round, Not Just at Enrollment
Mason’s answer is volume.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily about doing more. It’s about finding ways to amplify the things that already exist,” he said.
Seven in 10 employees surveyed by Benifex say that benefits matter more to them now than they did two years ago. “Benefits have moved from a nice-to-have to something that is a must-have, a key driver of employee experience, retention, and performance,” Mason said. The challenge isn’t the plans themselves. It’s helping employees see their value.
One amplifier is year-round total rewards statements instead of a PDF that shows up once and dies. Mason pointed to a client of his that shifted its story from salary alone to the full value of stock and benefits, letting employees see in real time how quarterly announcements changed their total compensation. The benefits didn’t change. The megaphone did.
The other amplifier is the phone in every frontline pocket. Mason’s teams design mobile experiences around the two-minute tasks employees actually need, removing the friction that keeps people from using the benefits already available to them.
Atwood noted that’s the same philosophy behind bswift’s Evive™, which she said she’s now using herself. Rather than relying on employees to remember a PDF from last October, Evive delivers personalized, timely guidance that helps them understand and actually use their benefits when it matters most.
Storytelling Boosts Employee Wellbeing Engagement
If Mason supplied the theory, Michael Cooper, Head of Total Rewards, DTE Energy, proved it. Their “Energize Your Life” program runs like a marketing campaign, powered by employees telling their own stories.
“Like any good movement, you need to have a marketing campaign, not a change management plan, not a communication plan, but a marketing campaign,” he said.
Healthier behaviors don’t happen because of an all-staff email; they happen when people see themselves in the story – the difference between a benefits memo and a communication campaign. That’s why DTE created space for employees to share their own experiences, with leaders going first. Cooper included.
“Co-workers hearing from their peers in an authentic vulnerable voice is just incredibly powerful,” he said.
DTE ties health-plan eligibility to a “healthy living” requirement – annual physical, biometrics, a health assessment – the kind of mandate that usually gets a hard stay out of my business. At DTE, more than 90% of employees and spouses complete it.
The key to unlocking that is what came first. Storytelling made the behavior visible, leaders modeled it, and employees saw people like them doing it. What felt like a mandate became the norm – and people follow norms.
“I didn’t know my A1c was X. I didn’t know my cholesterol was Y,” Cooper said, quoting employees whose screenings caught something early.
Now that their healthcare trend reductions are nearing double digits, there are fewer workers’ comp claims – no small thing when your people climb poles and work in manholes – and there’s lower absenteeism.
HSA Adoption and AI: Two Moves That Pay for Themselves
Steve Neeleman, a former surgeon and founder and Vice Chairman of HealthEquity, sees the same diagnosis across thousands of employers. The average family’s premiums are nearly $27,000 a year, and one in three adults are cutting back, borrowing, or delaying major life decisions just to afford care.
“Is it possible to both have an affordable plan and take care of your people?” Neeleman asked, naming the question every benefits leader is trying to answer.
His fix is one most employers already offer and quietly undersell. Neeleman says employers with HSA adoption below 30% spend more per employee than those with above 60%.
“After 24 years of health savings accounts, we’re still struggling with adoption rates in the 30% range on large employers,” he said. “It just makes no sense.”
The second move is already happening without employers. Employees are feeding their plans into ChatGPT, showing up better informed about what to ask for – and how to pay less.
And it’s already changing behaviors. Neeleman was struck by how many buy GLP-1s out of pocket through their HSAs, getting a better deal than their employers.
What Should HR Leaders Prioritize for the Future of Benefits?
Atwood closed the panel by asking each guest for one track every HR leader should add for the year ahead. The answers rhymed.
- Amplify what you already offer. With 51% of employees admitting they don’t understand their benefits, telling people clearly and repeatedly about existing value often beats adding new programs. — Adam Mason, Chief Strategy Officer, Benifex
- Make the affordable choice the easy one. Fund HSAs, educate year-round, and pair clear information with the right incentives so people can act on it. — Steve Neeleman, Founder & Vice Chairman, HealthEquity
- Build benefits engagement through storytelling and proof. Authentic peer stories, backed by rigorous measurement, move behavior where directives cannot. — Michael Cooper, Head of Total Rewards, DTE Energy
Three benefits veterans, one chorus. The big win for HR is buried in the benefits they already offer. It’s just about amplifying the message.
We’ve made recordings of select sessions from Idea Exchange 2026 available to watch for free. Check them out now.
Watch Idea Exchange Featured Sessions
Steal what works and bring one new track to your next enrollment. And when you’re ready to amplify your communication across your most important employee moments, the bswift Engagement Solutions team is ready with the strategies, creativity, personalization capabilities, and delivery know-how to keep the signal strong and clear—let’s talk.
Frequently Asked Questions About Benefits Communication
Why don’t employees use their benefits?
Usually it’s not the plan design – it’s awareness. In a Benifex survey, 51% of employees admitted they don’t understand their benefits, so valuable options like a second-opinion service or an EAP go unused because people don’t know they exist or when to turn to them.
How can employers improve employee benefits communication?
Treat it as an ongoing campaign, not a once-a-year enrollment task. Tactics shared at bswift’s Idea Exchange 2026 included year-round total rewards statements, mobile-first messaging built around the quick things employees actually do, and peer storytelling. Michael Cooper of DTE Energy ran his wellbeing program like a marketing campaign rather than a communication plan, while Adam Mason of Benifex argued the goal is to amplify what you already offer, not add more. The challenge of getting it right is why many employers partner with benefits communication pros like bswift Engagement Solutions to develop year-round engagement strategies that increase awareness, understanding, and utilization.
What is benefits activation, and how is it different from access?
Access means a benefit is available. Benefits activation is getting employees to actually use it. An employer can offer strong plans and still see low usage when people don’t know the benefits exist or don’t understand them – which makes activation largely a communication challenge.
How can employers measure the success of benefits communication?
Benefits communication success goes beyond email opens or clicks. Employers should look at whether employees take action: increased benefits utilization, higher HSA adoption, participation in wellbeing programs, fewer barriers to care, and improved understanding of available resources. The goal is to connect communication efforts to measurable behavior change — helping employees make better decisions while helping organizations get more value from the benefits they already provide. That requires more than creating messages; it requires a strategy built around employee needs, the right channels, and ongoing measurement. That’s where partners like bswift Engagement Solutions help employers assess what’s working, identify opportunities, and create communication programs designed to drive measurable engagement and utilization.
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