{"id":17999,"date":"2020-04-07T08:30:33","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T12:30:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/benefits\/communication\/how-to-talk-about-pensions-and-benefits-during-coronavirus-144735"},"modified":"2020-04-07T08:30:33","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T12:30:33","slug":"how-to-talk-about-pensions-and-benefits-during-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2020\/04\/07\/how-to-talk-about-pensions-and-benefits-during-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"How to talk about pensions and benefits during coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"alignleft clearfix\">\n<div class=\"wp-caption feature-image alignleft\"> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"316\" height=\"190\" src=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/29090165-123RF-FeedbackCommunication.png\" class=\"attachment-feature size-feature wp-post-image\" alt title=\"How to talk about pensions and benefits during coronavirus\"> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p class=\"byline\"> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/experts\/alyssa-hodder\">Alyssa Hodder<\/a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;April 7, 2020 <\/p>\n<p>The&nbsp;coronavirus pandemic has hit us all hard, and pensions and benefits are no exception.<\/p>\n<p>The pandemic has implications for out-of-country emergency travel insurance, disability benefits and even day-to-day health-care claims, since plan members aren\u2019t able to access many of their usual practitioners and may be looking for virtual alternatives. From a pension standpoint, the recent market downturn has had a huge impact on pension plans and, more broadly, on individuals\u2019 retirement savings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/webinar-coronavirus-what-do-employers-need-to-know-144295\">Webinar: Coronavirus: What do employers need to know?<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>During difficult times, it\u2019s more important than ever to help people stay informed. Here are some tips for plan sponsors on how to communicate with employees and plan members on pension and benefit matters.<\/p>\n<p>This is a time when communication is critically important. Just about every organization I\u2019ve interacted with in the last few years&nbsp;\u2014 from restaurants and hotel chains to my local public library&nbsp;\u2014 has reached out to tell me how they\u2019re handling the coronavirus. If they have my email on file, I\u2019ve heard from them! In this environment, staying silent&nbsp;could be viewed by&nbsp;employees as a glaring omission.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Communicate often, but not too often<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The flip side of that recommendation is, more isn\u2019t necessarily better. Regular updates are useful&nbsp;\u2014 perhaps even expected&nbsp;\u2014 but communicating just for the sake of communicating doesn\u2019t add value. In fact, it may add to employees\u2019 stress.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/70-of-employees-satisfied-with-employer-communication-around-coronavirus-144042\">70% of employees satisfied with employer communications around coronavirus: survey<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many people are facing employment challenges, whether due to layoffs, work stoppages or navigating a new work-from-home environment, so it\u2019s important&nbsp;to avoid overwhelming employees. It\u2019s about striking the right balance between too much communication and too little. And if&nbsp;a plan sponsor isn\u2019t sure about the right frequency, it never hurts to ask.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be mindful of your tone<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>We\u2019ve all seen some good communications and some not-so-great ones. In early March, food takeout app Ritual sent out an email to promote its services, ending rather flippantly with, \u201cNow, please excuse us while we go wash our hands while humming the first 20 seconds of Lizzo\u2019s \u2018Truth Hurts.&#8217;\u201d It didn\u2019t go over well.&nbsp;The company quickly sent out another email, apologizing for making light of a serious situation. As a more positive example, check out Galen Weston\u2019s email updates \u2014 they\u2019ve got a good handle on the right tone, messaging and level of detail.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Be honest and as transparent as possible<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In times of uncertainty, there\u2019s a fine balance for employers between reassuring people and promising what&nbsp;they may not be able to deliver. If the pension plan is in rough shape, glossing over that information won\u2019t serve plan sponsors (or their members) well in the future, especially if changes are ultimately&nbsp;required to re-establish funding levels or ensure plan sustainability.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/sounding-board-governments-must-ease-burden-on-pension-plans-in-era-of-coronavirus-144304\">Sounding Board: Governments must ease burden on pension plans in era of coronavirus<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>That said, try to avoid using&nbsp;words like \u201cpanic,\u201d \u201cfear\u201d and \u201ccrisis.\u201d There\u2019s no need to add fuel to an already raging fire. And, employers shouldn\u2019t be afraid to admit when they don\u2019t know the answers. With things&nbsp;changing day by day, plan members will understand if their plan sponsor doesn\u2019t have all the answers&nbsp;\u2014 just commit to keeping them informed.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Give them accurate information<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It goes without saying that the information that employers provide needs to be&nbsp;correct.&nbsp;There\u2019s so much information and data floating around out there, especially on social media, that it can be hard to distinguish fact from fiction.<\/p>\n<p>What employees and plan members really need right now is reassurance and access to useful, relevant resources. For example, in the current environment, employers may find more people are dealing with increased stress, anxiety or mental-health issues. If they have an employee assistance program, it can be a helpful resource to support employers, so make sure people know it\u2019s there and how to access it.<\/p>\n<p>This is a challenging time to be a communicator. But it\u2019s also a chance for employers to be the voice of reason and a voice&nbsp;their people can trust.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/benefits\/communication\/how-to-talk-about-pensions-and-benefits-during-coronavirus-144735\">Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alyssa Hodder&nbsp;|&nbsp;April 7, 2020 The&nbsp;coronavirus pandemic has hit us all hard, and pensions and benefits are no exception. The pandemic has implications for out-of-country emergency travel insurance, disability benefits and even day-to-day health-care claims,&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17999"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}