Strong company cultures start with consistency. Whether an employee logs in from headquarters, a satellite office, or wherever home may be, the experience should be as similar as possible—and the same can be said for their benefits. But with so much variance in local laws, regulations, and customs, HR teams often struggle to create a consistent benefits experience, especially for remote and international employees. Here are some tips to provide equal access to benefits in your organization.
1. Evaluate gaps in coverage
Access to care and coverage varies across county, state, and country lines. For example, while the citizens of the UK can receive coverage for fertility treatments under the NHS, access depends entirely on where they live and what their local municipality budgets for. Meanwhile, just across the channel in France, same-sex couples were only granted the right to pursue IVF in 2021. While there isn’t enough time in the world for you to learn the nuances of every place your employees live (that’s what your brokers are for), assessing your current gaps can help highlight where your benefits are falling short—and where each employee population needs support.
Take a look at your healthcare claims
For starters, take a look at your healthcare claims to get an idea of where your money is being spent. Many companies are noticing a spike in costs related to conditions like late-stage cancers, long-term mental illness, and labor and delivery.
Survey your remote and international employees
Consider surveying your employees to understand their most pressing needs, whether it’s help managing a chronic condition, finding childcare, or accessing fertility and family-building support. Combined with your claims data, this should help give you a good idea of where your health plans may be leaving people behind.
Compare employee needs across populations
Through your claims and survey data, you should hopefully see some patterns emerge. It’s likely you’ll find that many of the problems facing your employees will be universal—namely, accessing care in a timely manner for themselves and their families. However, their unique needs can vary dramatically depending on where they live.
2. Adopt a digital-first approach
For global and distributed teams, administering benefits is almost as difficult as providing them. To ensure you’re giving people equal treatment and access to benefits, consider taking a digital-first approach to benefits. This means working with vendors that can provide digital platforms to coordinate and administer benefits, whether it’s for your health and wellness programs, 401k and retirement plans, or your digital family health offerings.
“Our response to everything has been to move our benefits to digital,” said Mark Blackwood, HR Manager at Writing Universe. For example, rather than allocating budget to onsite mindfulness training and online programs, companies can invest in higher-quality, self-directed virtual courses. Blackwood even adopted the same approach to HR focus areas outside of employee benefits, including learning and development—meaning company training sessions are now completely virtual. “This allowed our team to secure any benefits or courses the company offers, and they can be accessed at any time and from any place. This is just a simple way a company can make all team members feel just as valued,” Blackwood said.
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