How to Educate Employees on the Types of Insurance They Should Have

Understanding insurance can be difficult for many people, but knowing what types of coverage are crucial can be incredibly important for many employees. As an HR professional, it is part of your job to ensure they have the information they need to be sufficiently covered.

However, educating employees on insurance isn’t easy.

Unfortunately, three out of five employees don’t fully understand their benefits. This number jumps to three in four when talking about Millennials. The confusion in your workplace will depend on their level of experience and the education already provided to them.

You need to find ways to ensure they’re retaining the appropriate information and taking the right action to get the coverage they need.

To help you properly educate your employees, here are a few tips you should apply.

Kinds of Insurance Your Employees Need

Your employees may need different kinds of insurance depending on where they are in life or if they have any dependents. While some individuals may not need to get each insurance policy, there are a few that most employees will want to have.

Health insurance tops the list of kinds of coverage your employees will need to have. Whether you offer health insurance through your organization or not, employees will want to understand how they can acquire health care, what kinds of coverage they need and what the costs will mean.

Employees may also want to purchase a life insurance policy. This is especially true of employees who have families, children or spouses that rely on their income. Having a life insurance policy can ensure the employee’s family members are financially protected if something should happen. According to a study made in 2020, a tremendous 54% of Americans were covered by some type of life insurance. But what is life insurance and what type each individual to choose. The type of the insurance depends on gender, age, smoking status, health, medical history and other factors.

Although it isn’t a kind of insurance your employees will need to get for themselves, be sure they understand how workers’ compensation insurance works and when they may qualify for it. With almost one in ten American employees failing to report a workplace injury because of fear of retaliation, too many workers aren’t getting the help they need from an insurance policy they should be able to benefit from.

Finally, the last kind of insurance your employees may want to consider is disability insurance. Disability insurance allows employees to be protected in case of an injury, elective surgery or even pregnancy and childbirth.

Because insurance is an expense that our employees hope to never actually need, it can be difficult to persuade them to purchase a plan. In order to ensure your employees are sufficiently protected, you need to educate them on the importance of insurance.

Tips for Educating Your Employees on Insurance

Before you can create a plan to further educate your employees, figure out exactly where they’re confused and what questions they may have. Conducting a survey with your employees can help you develop a specialized approach to your education program, ensuring you’re covering the right topics and answering the right questions.

Educating your employees can be difficult. When they’re busy with their work or they don’t fully understand the importance of the training, they’re likely to zone out or not give the presentation their full attention. In order to educate them on insurance types and policies, you will want to switch it up a bit.

Bringing in a professional from your insurance provider is one way to make sure your employees get all the information they need. Because they can hear basics about insurance policies and have their questions answered straight from the source, employees will know they’re getting the best information possible. Having speakers regularly come in to discuss insurance policies can ensure new hires are getting the information they need.

Cover the company policies with your new employees to make sure they understand what to do if they are ever injured on the job. Have regular seminars, meetings or refreshers to discuss workplace injuries, what is covered under workers’ compensation and what is not. Make sure they know who to report to if they ever sustain an injury while at work.

Take a look at the percentage of employees who are taking advantage of the insurance benefits you offer to them, if your company provides insurance plans as part of your benefits package. If there are a high number of individuals who have not invested in these insurance policies, you may want to find out why. While it could be because they have coverage elsewhere or they don’t believe it is necessary, it could also be because they’re not properly educated.

Make sure insurance is a consistent conversation in your office, even if your employees aren’t asking questions. While they may not be talking about the subject because they have it fully under control, it may be because they’re completely unware it’s even a conversation they should be having. Make sure everyone in your workplace knows how important insurance can be to them.

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