Why Millennials and Gen Z Tune Out and How Personalized Employee Benefits Communication Changes Everything

Getting employees to engage with their benefits—particularly Millennial and Gen Z employees—isn’t about figuring out what shiny new perk or benefit you need to add this year. It’s about how their benefits show up. It’s about making them as personal and effortless as every other digital experience in their lives. 

Millennials (born 1981 – 1996) and Gen Z (born 1997 – 2012) are used to digital experiences built around them. Combined, these two generations are already more than half the workforce in the U.S. They were raised with algorithms that already know their shoe size, go-to pizza toppings, and what music they like to listen to on Monday morning.  

And this isn’t to discount Boomers and Gen X. HR needs to cater to the communications needs of multiple generations. And each has unique expectations, communication styles, and benefit needs.  

But if your benefits experience isn’t delivered the way younger employees already consume everything else (and not even that young—the oldest Millennials are 44!), it risks losing relevance with them before it even gets noticed. 

Why personalized employee benefits communication is the baseline  

Personalized communication isn’t a perk to these digital natives—it’s just the default setting. They expect their benefits to work the same way: seamless, intuitive, and a step ahead of their needs. If TikTok can predict what video they’ll love next, why shouldn’t a benefits platform anticipate what support they’ll need—and deliver it with the same consumer-grade ease?  

Today, if your benefits experience doesn’t meet that standard, you’ll likely get a collective eye roll—or worse, the Gen Z stare.  

So, the low engagement from Millennials and Gen Z is not about a lack of care. It’s about friction. They know what smooth feels like, and they’re quick to dismiss what doesn’t measure up—especially when it comes to something as personal as picking a health plan, managing wellness resources, or making smart financial moves. 

As Karen Gordyan of WTW put it to World At Work: “This is why personalization of benefits is key, either in program design, communications, or both… Employers need to understand and reflect high awareness of these needs in their total rewards.” 

The data backs her up. Gen Z employees are three times less likely than other workers to participate in a 401(k). More than half admit they don’t even fully understand the benefits offered to them.  

Half of Gen Z says the benefits communications they receive aren’t relevant. For them, the generic “benefits newsletter” blast emailed to every employee isn’t communication—it’s noise. And noise begets disengagement.  

At the same time, almost 70% of Gen Z also say they want their employer to communicate more with them. And not just during open enrollment, but after they enroll, too. 

Why traditional benefits communications often fall short for younger employees 

The challenge isn’t that tools like emails, print packets, or portals have no value—many employees still rely on them. The challenge is that no single channel can meet the expectations of a workforce that spans four generations.  

To be effective, these channels have to work together, guided by a thoughtful communication strategy and powered by personalization that ensures the right message reaches the right employee at the right time. 

To close the gap, employers need: 

• Contextual, relevant touchpoints delivered with intelligence, not guesswork 

• Mobile-first, self-service tools that work in seconds, not hours 

• Multi-channel communication that lands where employees actually spend time 

• Messaging that evolves with employees’ lives—not just once a year 

Relying on any single channel—whether that’s email, print materials, or portals—creates frustration and disengagement. The key is to use them together strategically, with AI-driven personalization layered in, so employees clearly see the value of the benefits package you’ve built. And worse, when misused, the emails apparently stress Gen Z out. 

How employers can boost employee benefits engagement  

Here’s a blueprint for updating your benefits communication strategy (and maybe even impress your marketing department).  

1. Partner with internal communications experts 

Work with employee engagement pros to shape your strategy and ensure complex benefits information is delivered in clear, engaging ways. 

2. Adopt AI-powered benefits platforms for personalization 

Bring your benefits ecosystem up to speed by integrating AI. Employees expect their benefits portals to be responsive, intuitive, and personalized to them.  

3. Segment and personalize benefits messaging 

Not every employee needs every message about every benefit. Engage your employees with benefits communications tailored to their individual needs and life stages.  

4. Keep educating employees post-enrollment 

Enrollment is like the starting pistol. Keep employees engaged with their benefits through timely updates and resources that make them easier to use year-round.  

5. Use a multi-channel, mobile-first benefits communication strategy  

Diversifying your channels ensures you’re meeting your employees where they’re already at, be it scrolling their phone, checking email, or grabbing the snail mail.  

Closing the benefits engagement gap with bswift  

All of that is a lot to ask of HR, so here’s where bswift steps in. With our Engagement Agency stacked with benefits comms pros,  bswift’s digital assistant, Emma™, and Evive™, bswift’s Personalization Engine, your benefits program can finally get that algorithmic glow-up.  

Emma, powered by bswift’s Mindful AI, acts as an intelligent guide, offering employees empathetic, real-time support and personalized recommendations to simplify their benefits journey. 

Evive can pull in real data—claims, life events, behaviors—to create dynamic profiles, precise segments, and journeys that respond to what employees are actually going through. And even without that information,it adapts with every interaction to personalize the benefits experience. It learns and fine-tunes.  

Each touchpoint is designed to cut through the noise and meet your people where they are. Put simply, with Emma and Evive in your corner, benefits guidance isn’t just personalized. It feels personal. 

And it’s not just about tech. Benefits communication strategies need to cut across the generations in your workforce. That’s where the bswift Engagement Agency steps in. They bring decades of deep expertise in tailoring employee communication plans for every segment, from Gen Z to Baby Boomers. 

The bottom line: Personalized employee benefits communication is essential for Millennials and Gen Z  

Millennials and Gen Z aren’t the “future” of work. They’re more than half the workforce already. They’re your now. And personalized, AI-driven experiences aren’t just effective, they’ve become essential.  

Millennials and Gen Z expect their benefits experience to be: 

• On-demand: No waiting for office hours.  

• Mobile-first: Seamless WhatsApp-like chat experiences.  

• Intuitive: Guided support that clarifies instead of complicates.  

bswift checks all these boxes with ease and makes that old static benefits portal look like your decked-out MySpace account full of sparkly GIFs from 20 years ago.  

So, the question is simple: Are your benefits ready to meet employees where they are? Or will they remain the one digital experience your workforce scrolls right past? 

See how personalized, AI-powered benefits engagement works in practice. Download our Personalization & Engagement Engine overview. 

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