UMB Launch Kit Planning GuideUMB Healthcare Services 4 Week 3: Create Materials • Fill in specific information about your company’s benefits plans in all materials you’ve decided

HSAs: Launch Communications Toolkit Planning Guide

UMB Healthcare Services

Health Savings Account Launch Communications Toolkit Table of Contents

1. Introduction ........................................................................................... 1 2. Implementation timeline ....................................................................... 3 3. Planning your campaign ...................................................................... 5

a. Best practices and guidance ......................................................... 5 b. Building your strategy ................................................................... 7 c. Communication plan template ................................................... 13 d. Communications timeline ............................................................ 15 e. Tips for effective communication ................................................ 16

4. Customizing the templates ................................................................ 18 5. Proofer’s checklist and style guide ................................................... 20 6. Producing final materials for distribution ........................................ 21 7. Additional resources and support .................................................... 22

UMB Healthcare Services 1

Introduction Whether you are implementing HSA-compatible plans for the first time or simply switching HSA custodians, educating employees and their families about these plans is critical. Why? These plans help change the way people purchase and use health care today and get them thinking about and saving for the costs of health care in retirement. Plus, the financial advantages of a health savings account are fantastic for employees and for your company. But if companies don’t communicate—well and often—about these plans to employees and their families, none of those benefits matter. By investing the time in communication, you will not only drive the actions and behaviors you want (such as high enrollment in high-deductible health plans), but you will also support smart decision-making during annual enrollment and smart use of your benefits programs all year round. Your launch communications toolkit has everything you need to build your strategy and launch your campaign.

• Planning guide: o Best practices and guidance o Planning templates o Tips for more effective communication o Additional resources and support

• High-quality, ready-to-use templates: o Enrollment guide copy (can also be repurposed for web content) o Employee enrollment presentation slides and speaker’s bullets o Tip Sheet on HSAs o Top 20 FAQs about HSAs o Five blog posts (can be repurposed as emails, newsletter content or online articles) o Two video treatments with scripts and slides (use these to produce the videos

yourself) o Reminder postcard o Three “People Like Me” Scenarios o Email o Sample HR Team Presentation

Most of the templates included assume that you are introducing high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts for the first time and that significant education is needed well ahead of your annual enrollment period. However, even if you are simply switching custodians, you should continue to educate your employees and their families on these plans. The templates can be easily modified to serve that purpose. Plus, we’ve included a few options to support a switch in custodian if you need them.


Take some time to review this guide and build your benefits communication strategy before you dive into customizing the templates. You’ll find detailed instructions on building your strategy, creating a timeline for your communications, and a step-by-step checklist for customizing the templates for your employees and their families. And you’ll find instructions on finalizing the templates and how to manage updates for next year’s enrollment campaign. We’re here to help! If you need assistance, you can find contact details at the back of this document. You’ll also find information about additional resources that may be useful to you. System Requirements The materials and templates in your toolkit have been created using Microsoft Office 2010 applications—Word and PowerPoint®. To insert cover design options into the benefits enrollment guide and to create PDF files of your materials to deliver to employees, you’ll need the full version of Adobe Acrobat®.


Implementation Timeline Creating an effective and inspiring communication strategy and timeline, and customizing the templates for your enrollment campaign, should take you about six weeks. We recommend you start communicating with employees and their families at least 60 days or more prior to your annual enrollment period—that means you should begin building your plan as soon as possible. Two of the biggest mistakes you can make are shortchanging the communications or trying to cram everything into a few short weeks before enrollment. Those are sure-fire ways to miss achieving your goals. Now that you have the toolkit, look over all of the materials included (especially this planning guide) and read the instructions provided with each template so you’ll know what you need to do to customize content and format and finalize the templates. Here’s a quick breakdown of how you’ll want to spend your time over the next six weeks:

Weeks 1 & 2: Gather Information and Create Your Strategy/Timeline • Schedule a planning conversation with any key stakeholders to discuss the elements of

your benefits communication strategy (goals, objectives, audiences, key messages, communication channels you’ll use and how you’ll measure the success of your efforts), along with specific benefits changes for the upcoming year.

• Then, build your communication plan (strategy) using the template provided here. The best practices and tips section will help guide your efforts.

• Build your timeline using the template provided here. • Understand the review and approval process. Who needs to see and approve any of the

materials you create? Examples include plan carriers, benefits managers and subject matter experts (SMEs), and your HR leader. Build reviews into your timeline as needed.

• Gather specific plan information, including contact information for all plan carriers, along with dates and times for enrollment and any instructions needed to complete the enrollment process. Having this information at your fingertips will make customizing the content in the templates much easier.

• Identify any gaps in source materials and request any needed information.


Week 3: Create Materials • Fill in specific information about your company’s benefits plans in all materials you’ve

decided to use. • Customize the materials to match the tone and style your company uses in your

communications. • Read through and proof materials for accuracy, consistency and style. Weeks 4 & 5: Review and Approve Materials • Send drafts of materials to reviewers/approvers. • Make any necessary edits required and proof again. • Obtain final approval of materials. Note: Reviews may take more than one week to complete, so be sure to allow for enough time. Week 6: Finalize and Distribute Materials • Create final PDFs. (Note: You’ll need the full version of Adobe Acrobat.) • Send materials to printer (if needed). • Distribute and/or post final materials online.


Did you know? 60–70% of health care costs come from dependents, not employees 70% of family health care decisions are made by women MetLife’s 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, 2011

Building Your Communication Strategy: Best Practices and Guidance The best practices and guidance below will help you engage in a productive planning session to determine the benefits communication strategy that will achieve your benefits program goals and objectives. You’ll find best practices for companies of all sizes and recommendations based on total number of employees. Best Practices for Companies of All Sizes • Start with strategy

• Document a plan with success measures every year (use the templates in this toolkit to create your strategy)

• Have clear objectives for each communication and how you will measure your success in achieving the objectives you established as part of your overall benefits strategy

• Brand your benefits • Leverage your corporate brand • Treat employees and their families like customers

• Focus on families too

• Make sure they have access to information • Tailor materials that are most relevant

• Integrate vendors and channels

• Own the experience and coordinate branding • Set the strategy and ask vendors to follow, not the

other way around

• Communicate year round (the resources in your Ongoing Communications Toolkit will help) • Just during annual enrollment is nowhere near enough • Reinforce key behaviors and promote health, savings and wellness programs all year

• Keep an open dialog

• Use social media tools or other methods for two-way dialog • Use managers for in-person communication and reaction


Best Practices by Employer Size

Company Size <100 100–500 500–1,000

1,000–5,000

5,000+

Benefits and communication strategy

Communication of legal requirements

In-person or virtual meetings

Branded benefits materials for enrollment, wellness and new hires

Way to capture employee feedback and questions

Monthly or quarterly updates/tips

Branded benefits website on the Internet*

Social media as part of overall benefits communication strategy**

* Benefits website on the Internet For many employers, an Internet-based benefits website is the single most important investment they can make in communication. Access and preference are no longer barriers to using online tools and social media for benefits communication: • 74% of English- and Spanish-speaking adults use the Internet and some 63% have a broadband

connection at home (Pew Research Center). • The mobile web is forecast to be more popular than the desktop Internet by 2015 (2010 Morgan

Stanley). • 44% of employees surveyed said receiving information online would be more meaningful to them

than other channels (MetLife’s 9th Annual Study of Employee Benefits Trends, 2011). ** Using social media for benefits and wellness communication Are you using social media for internal or benefits communication? If not, you should be. Once-a-year communication and traditional communication channels are simply not enough to engage employees and families in understanding how plans work, managing costs, saving for the future and taking steps to improve their health. Your goal is to provide employees and their families with on-demand, real-time, personalized information they can access from anywhere. Social media tools are perfectly suited for the task. Blogs, Twitter, social networking sites such as Facebook, user forums and videos/podcasts are the five most effective tools for benefits communication. When paired with your benefits communication strategy and the right foundation (a branded campaign and a benefits website on the Internet), social media tools can be an incredibly cost-effective way to reach employees and their families with frequent updates while also supporting peer-to-peer sharing and the competitive nature we all have when it comes to achieving health and wellness goals. Want help getting started using social media? Check out the Additional Resources section.


Building Your Communication Strategy Use the questions here as the basis for your planning meeting. The answers will help you determine how best to tailor your communication strategy to your company’s and your employees’ needs. What are your goals and objectives for the enrollment period? In addition to driving enrollment in your high-deductible health plan with health savings account, you also want to educate employees about other benefits programs and incentives at the same time. That means a more robust campaign is required … it’s not business as usual. Identify which of the following goals are most important to your company.

• Drive enrollment in high-deductible health plan option The best way to entice employees to consider this plan is to communicate early and often about the high-deductible health plan and how it works. Employees will not choose a plan they don’t understand or are not comfortable with in terms of costs and how they will pay for care.

• Ensure all employees who enroll in high-deductible health plans also open the health savings account Follow up with employees who choose the high-deductible health plan during enrollment (or who need to transfer their balance from a prior custodian) to ensure they open the account (and transfer the balance), multiple times if needed.

• Improve employee understanding of the benefits available

• Improve employee perception of the value of their benefits

• Educate employees about where to go for help when needed

• Ensure employees have easy access to the right information, when they need it The best way to ensure these goals are being met is to provide clear, consistent information to employees. The toolkit templates will provide the foundation you need. The best way to improve the perceived value of their benefits is to get employees to use the programs effectively. Ongoing education is the best approach. A small investment in additional communication can make a big difference in terms of how employees perceive value.

• Increase use of programs (be sure to specify which programs, like health savings accounts, 401(k), health risk questionnaire, etc.)

• Encourage positive health care behaviors, like using generic drugs and getting annual check-ups The best way to ensure these goals are being met is to provide specific, actionable information to employees in a way that they can connect with—year round. Employee meetings are a great way to get out more information during enrollment, along with a communication campaign that reaches employees’ families as well. After enrollment, consider a mix of print and online communications, or other frequent updates to keep information fresh. The materials in your ongoing communications toolkit will make it easy.


Who is your audience? An effective benefits communication strategy requires messaging that resonates with different life stages and generational attitudes in the workplace and highlights benefits that will engage them. Segmenting your audience Taking time to understand the demographics of an employee population and segmenting the audience will help ensure your wellness program communication is as effective as possible. If most employees cover their families, make sure to include examples appropriate to how the plans work in that situation. Likewise, if there is significant variance in salaries, be sure to include examples that are appropriate for lower-income and higher-income employees. For lower-income employees, a high annual deductible they must meet before the plan shares expenses is going to be pretty daunting since they may already have difficulty meeting day-to-day expenses. Give them relevant examples, but also consider making a fairly generous contribution to the health savings account that will help them pay for expenses before meeting the deductible. And make sure that employees understand the total cost implications of their decisions—both premiums and out-of-pocket costs. Keep in mind that the health care decision-maker is very often the spouse (especially with mostly male employee populations), so you want to ensure that those individuals have the information needed. Ask yourself:

• What are their needs? • How do they want to receive information? • What is preventing them from taking action? • How can you make it easy, simple and fun? • Also identify: age, education, resources, health issues, participation.

Accounting for other groups Be sure to plan for all groups who may have slightly different needs, such as:

• Executives and leadership—often need early notice of information. Can also be key influencers when rolling out a new plan or changing strategy.

• HR representatives or HR community—may need or want advance notice so they can be prepared for questions.

• Managers—often overlooked but are a very important group in terms of influencing employee opinion, especially around topics like cost increases or wellness programs. Consider giving managers advance notice of communications and asking them to discuss big program changes with their reports. In this case, it is helpful to prepare the managers with specific discussion points or a Q&A so they feel prepared.


What is the current mindset of employees and the current state of company communications? If employees are generally satisfied with the company and employee communication is reasonably frequent, then enrollment communication may be less of an “event.” If employees are unhappy with the company or their benefits and communication is infrequent or subject to suspicion, then care should be taken for enrollment communication to be positioned appropriately and in the context of the bigger picture. Consider how enrollment communication works in relation to other events happening within the company. Are there any unique audiences that require special communication? If one segment of an employee population is going to be impacted by a change more than other segments, you may need to do additional communication specifically for that population. Also consider audiences who may have more complicated circumstances, such as employees on international assignment or new hires who join during the enrollment period. Any unique audiences can be segmented out and you can tailor communications directly to them, such as via email or a smaller group meeting or conference call.

What are your objectives? Objectives are what you want your audience to KNOW, FEEL and DO. Refer back to the goals you want to achieve—enrollment in a high-deductible health plan with a health savings account, improved perception of benefits value, participation in wellness programs, etc. Here are a few examples of common objectives for annual enrollment communications and the implementation of high-deductible health plans with health savings accounts.

Know Feel Do The medical plan options available and how they work

The company provides me information and resources to understand and use my benefits

Enroll in or make changes to other benefits programs during two-week annual enrollment period

The other health, insurance and wellness benefits programs available

The company cares about my health and well-being

Choose the high-deductible health plan during annual open enrollment

How to participate in wellness programs and earn incentives or save money

The company provides the right information and tools to help me improve my health

Open a health savings account if enrolled in the HDHP

How to enroll in or make changes to benefits

Contribute at least the annual deductible to the HSA each year

What online tools and resources are available (from the company and plan providers)

Take the health risk assessment each year

Where to go with questions Get an annual physical and health screening every year

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Not people-‐focused: Benefits will change to more closely align this plan with the company’s goal to encourage consumerism. People-‐focused: You’ll now have preventive care covered 100%, but your copays will go up for non-‐emergency ER visits. See more on why it is better to save the ER for true emergencies …

Key messages What are the top three or four messages you want to convey? These provide the framework for your communications. Make your messages simple, concise and people-focused. You’ll use them across all communication channels. Here are a few examples:

• Your benefits are a valuable part of your overall compensation package.

• Annual enrollment is your once-a-year opportunity to enroll in or make changes to your benefits.

• It’s up to you to make the most of what’s available to you by understanding your options, choosing coverage and programs that best fit your needs, and using your benefits wisely throughout the year.

• High-deductible health plans, paired with health savings accounts, are a smart option for you and your family. They provide the flexibility you want in providers, protection against big medical bills, and a unique way to save for current and future health care expenses.

What formats and communication vehicles are available? Not all people take the same information away from one style of communication. To ensure you are reaching the majority of your target audience, use different styles and different methods of communicating to your employees. What you choose depends on:

• What your audiences have access to • The messages or amount of content you need to deliver

Channel What it is When to use it

Face to Face Meetings (live and virtual), manager conversations

As much as possible to communicate strategic decisions, gather feedback

Print Newsletters, flyers, posters, tip sheets; mailed to homes or distributed at work

To educate employees about complicated information, when a reference piece is needed, to drive traffic to online information and tools

Intranet/ Internet

Website content within or outside of the firewall

For detailed information, to direct employees to more information, on-demand/self-service

Email Email direct to employees News updates, reminders, invitations to meetings, link for full details

Social Media Blogs, podcasts, social networks, wikis

To build community, gather feedback, make frequent updates more engaging, to encourage “word of mouth” and sharing among friends/family

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What methods will you use to communicate? Here is an example of methods that could be used to reach employees and families. Channel Employees Spouses/Families

Office-based Plant/

Manufacturing-based

Field-based

Face to Face

Print

Intranet/Internet (including virtual meetings or webinars)

Email

Social Media

How will you measure the success of your campaign? The measures you’ll use to determine the success of your communication campaign should not differ from the measures you establish to evaluate the effectiveness of your benefits strategy overall. While you could put communication-specific measures into place, such as how many people attended a meeting or visited a website, we recommend focusing on the goals and objectives laid out in your benefits strategy. Here is an example:

Success Measure Data Source (how we measure)

Goal

2012 2013 2014

Enroll in high-deductible health plan (% of eligible or enrolled employees)

Enrollment data (benefits administrator)

30% 45% 60%

Open health savings account (% of new HDHP enrollees)

Enrollment data (benefits administrator)

100% 100% 100%

Complete health risk assessment each year (enrolled employees only)

Participation reports 45% 65% 85%

Get annual preventive care exam Claims data (medical plans)

35% 45% 55%

Get biometric screening (enrolled employees only)


Participate in wellness programs (enrolled employees only)


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Who needs to review and approve materials? Managing the review process can be one of the most time-consuming parts of producing any enrollment campaign. Setting clear roles and responsibilities from the start can help save time. Start with these questions to define the scope of your review process.

• Who will manage the process?

• Who is involved in the review?

• Who will provide source material/verify accuracy?

• Who needs to approve materials?

Depending on your comfort level, you may need or want to have others involved in creating and reviewing materials. These outside reviewers may include the plan carriers and benefits administrator. Internal reviewers may include HR leadership, corporate communications or internal communications, and attorneys. Here are some tips for managing the review process:

• Set up a schedule, including all reviewers. Communicate the schedule early and make sure to ask reviewers to block off time on their calendar to meet the review deadline.

• Have the reviewers with the greatest volume of expected changes go first. It is easier to incorporate significant edits at the beginning of the review process than toward the end.

• Ask reviewers to comment on specific parts of the document and be sure to specify whether you’re asking for general comments (such as “Please let me know if this document hits the mark or if anything could be improved”) or specific factual edits (such as “Please check this document for accuracy of plan information”).

• Require reviewers to use the “Track Changes” feature in Word so you can keep an archive of their edits and so that they are easy to incorporate.

• Resave a new version of the document after each review. Make sure to note the new version in the file name and somewhere within the document.

• Use your veto power when needed. Do not feel compelled to incorporate every single comment or you will dilute the power and cohesion of your documents.

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Planning Your Campaign: Communication Plan Template Now it’s time to put it all together and create your plan (communication strategy) and timeline. Use the information you gathered from your planning session to complete your plan and timeline using the templates provided. Objectives What you want your audience to KNOW, FEEL and DO. (Remember that you don’t have to fill in every cell under each item. There could be five things you want your audience to know, three things you want them to feel and seven things you want them to do.)

Know Feel Do Audiences Who should receive (and act on) your communications

• Insert primary audiences (such as employees and covered spouses) • Insert secondary audiences (such as managers, HR staff or senior leaders)

Key messages The top three or four messages you want to convey. Supporting points can be used to flesh out specific details and success stories.

• Message 1 • Message 2 • Message 3 • Message 4

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Channels The methods you will use to communicate. Channel Employees Spouses/Families

Office-based Plant/

Manufacturing-based

Field-based

Face to Face

Print

Intranet/Internet (including virtual meetings or webinars)

Email

Social Media

Success measures How you will measure the success of your campaign.

Success Measure Data Source (how we measure)

Goal

2012 2013 2014

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Planning Your Campaign: Communications Timeline To get started, you need to work backward from the start date of your enrollment period and determine the timeline for your benefits campaign. Refer to the timeline template provided with the toolkit (CommunicationTimeline.ppt) to help you set dates and plan your overall approach. Use this information to create a distribution calendar so you know when each piece of communication needs to be completed and distributed. Remember, we recommend you start communicating with employees and their families at least 60 days or more prior to your annual enrollment period. Two of the biggest mistakes you can make are shortchanging the communications or trying to cram everything into a few short weeks before enrollment. Those are sure-fire ways to miss achieving your goals. Here’s an example that allows plenty of time for education prior to enrollment and follow-up after enrollment:

Once you have a calendar in place and know which documents you plan to use, you are ready to begin working with the templates. Gather the source materials and information before beginning the editing process, as many of the templates will require similar information. This will save you time and effort in the long run.

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Planning Your Campaign: Tips for Effective Communication Follow these tips to make enrollment communication more effective, to increase utilization and to demonstrate the value of your benefits programs. Keep it simple Employees and their families are easily overwhelmed by information, tools and resources—keep everything organized and easy to follow with tips and checklists. They are most concerned about:

• What’s new? • What will it cost me? • What do I have to do?

Make sure communication is simple and direct. Spell out these answers (and why) in easy-to-understand terms along with simple step-by-step instructions on how to enroll. Focus on employees and their families—and their personal needs Educate employees and their families about changes and how the benefits support them—don’t make assumptions about how well everyone already understands your programs. When you talk about changes that could decrease out-of-pocket costs, tell employees what that will mean to their pocketbook: “Using generic drugs instead of brand-name prescriptions could put an extra $500 into your pocket each year” rather than “The cost of brand-name drugs is three times that of generic drugs and adds $800,000 a year to health care costs.” Treat employees like customers In our cost-conscious world, it is easy for benefits communication to take on the voice of what “the company” needs. “The company needs to control costs.” “The company must make changes.” “The company is changing this program in order to … .” But benefits are really about employees and their families. You’re communicating information about their health and well-being—important stuff. And you’ll do that best when you think of employees like you would think of customers. Ask yourself how to make something meaningful to those individuals—what will help them understand and take action? The magic in benefits communication happens when what’s good for employees is also good for the company. When the strategy puts employees first—and articulates goals so employees see what’s in it for them—your employees will get better outcomes. Promote missed or underutilized benefits Annual enrollment is a great time to promote underutilized benefits—whether they are part of annual enrollment or not. Make sure decision-support tools and any interactive media (videos, websites, etc.) are promoted.

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Brand your benefits communication materials If you already have a branded benefits communication campaign, the look/feel of your enrollment communications materials should follow it. If there is no branded campaign in place, your enrollment campaign is a perfect time to introduce one and set the foundation for future benefits communication. A branded campaign includes:

• Design elements like a graphic or logo • Color palette • Consistent style of imagery or graphics like icons • Voice/tone of the communications (formal vs. casual, written directly to the employee

using the second-person “you,” etc.)

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Customizing the Templates How to use the templates The templates have been created without any or very minimal design. You can customize them to align with your branded benefits campaign (or if you don’t have one, your company’s brand). The color palette used to create tables, charts or other graphic elements in the templates is neutral and can be easily changed. Each template includes basic instructions on what needs to be done to turn the document into a customized piece. Many of the documents are similar in terms of necessary edits, but be sure to look carefully at the instructions so you do not overlook anything. Often, edits will need to be made in headers and footers as well as in the main text. The placeholders in [bold italic brackets] for all of these edits describe the information that needs to be entered. The templates provide the basic structure for many different types of plans and offerings. You may need to copy and paste if you offer more than one type of plan (two HMOs, for example), or you may need to delete entire sections if you do not offer a plan of that type. Due to entire sections being copied or deleted, it is possible that the flow of the content will be disrupted, so you may need to make additional edits to make the document read better. The templates are set up to be as easy to use as possible. However, Microsoft Word is not always a friendly program for formatting. If you run into problems, chances are there’s a Word expert in your company who can help. Many administrative assistants are highly skilled at editing Word documents. Also, be sure to save your documents frequently while editing. You may want to save a new version of a document each time you make significant edits. That way, you can revert back to an older version easily. Consistency is important Be as consistent as possible between documents. Many of the templates will refer to the same information, but with varying levels of depth. Keep plan names consistent as well as any abbreviations, acronyms, terms, etc. This will help employees and their families become more familiar with the information and lead to fewer questions and less confusion. Take the time to re-read the materials after making edits to make sure that the content is consistent with your company’s communication style and that the information being presented is clear and follows a logical progression. Consider using a proofreader or internal reviewer with communication skills to have an objective eye on the materials. Or, use the proofer’s checklist and style guide on page 20 to help you review the materials yourself. Information you need to get started You will need to gather information from company benefits experts and from any plan carriers for the plans you offer. Be sure to identify what’s changing, as that will be a key employee concern.

Company information needed • Dates and times for enrollment period • Process of how to enroll (online, phone, etc.) • Who is eligible to enroll • Eligibility requirements (be sure to note if there are differences between part-time and full-

time employees or other differences in eligibility)

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Plan carriers’/other institutions’ information needed • Specific plan coverage details • Contact information for employee questions • New plans offered/plans no longer offered • Changes to existing plans • Costs/rate changes for plans

How to handle employee questions Make sure employees know where they should go for specific questions. Give specific examples of scenarios that should be handled by each of the different groups (plan carriers, benefits administrators or the HR department).The more specific you can be, the less likely questions will be directed to the wrong people. If a question is repeatedly being asked, note to address it in future communications. Make contact information readily available and provide it to employees often. The less they have to look for the information, the more likely they will use it and not come to the HR department unnecessarily. As mentioned earlier, be sure contact information is up to date and accurate for all plan carriers/institutions employees may need to contact.

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Proofer’s Checklist and Style Guide 1. Read for typos and grammatical errors.

• Check that only a single space follows all punctuation, such as periods, colons and question marks.

• Check for missing words and repetition of a word. • Check for extra spaces or missing spaces. • Check for missing end punctuation. • Check that em dashes, en dashes and hyphens are used appropriately. • Check for beginning and ending parentheses, quotation marks and brackets. • Check for smart quotes, instead of inch marks. Check for true apostrophes, instead of foot

signs. • Check that asterisks are used properly and have a corresponding footnote.

2. Check for consistency with style guide terminology, especially when referring to plan or policy

names, service resources and website names.

3. Check for correct and consistent use of the comma.

4. Verify all mathematical computations to the extent of your ability.

5. Check phone numbers and website addresses for accuracy.

• Check that all website addresses are boldface. • Check for correct phone number format.

6. Check for consistent headline, header and footer treatment.

7. Check bullet and list punctuation and formatting for accuracy and consistency.

• Bullet size and shape should be consistent. • Bullet spacing and indentations should be consistent.

8. Read for logic, clarity, flow and organization of ideas.

• Are there redundant words or awkward or long sentences? • In bulleted lists, does the lead-in copy apply to all the bulleted items that follow? • Can any sentences be improved by deleting or rearranging words?

Style Guide Reference Materials For grammar, punctuation, spelling and styling, use the latest edition of the following:

1. The Associated Press Stylebook and Briefing on Media Law (first preference) 2. The Gregg Reference Manual (use when there is no AP style recommendation)

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Producing Final Materials for Distribution Before distributing the communication materials, you will want to make sure they have a finished, professional look. Creating PDF files The fastest and easiest approach to finalizing the materials is to turn them into PDF files. This will allow the documents to be protected so that anyone who is able to access them will not be able to make changes to them. It is also advantageous to have files saved as PDFs if they are to be sent via email to employees. Chances are you already have software on your computer to create PDF files. If not, you can purchase Acrobat® from Adobe®. Printing materials The communication templates are formatted and designed to allow you to use them as is and to create professional-looking documents. You can turn them into PDF files and have them printed and mailed to employees or distributed at work. You have many options for printing, ranging from in-house printing (meaning, you do it yourself) to FedEx Offices to local or online printers. Online portals/no-paper campaigns To save money on print materials or for a more environmentally friendly campaign, employees can access all of the materials online if you use an online portal or have an intranet site for HR and benefits information. You will need to make it well known to employees that this is where all the information will be accessible, since mailings will be minimal or no mailings will be sent. In many cases, spouses and family members help make the benefits decisions, so make sure there is a simple way for them to get the information. If you have a benefits website on the Internet (and we recommend that you do!), post materials there so all employees and family members have access. Make sure you account for enough time for your IT group or web master to update and post the content.

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Additional Resources and Support Additional Resources Content Article Pack Blogs. Intranet articles. Newsletters. Emails. Need help keeping up with all that content? Our Benefits Pack articles and tweets reflect trends in HR, health care reform, wellness, retirement, and savings and benefits use. The articles and tweets in the Benefits Pack are written in Word so that they can be easily edited and customized for your intranet or newsletter articles, emails or blog posts. You’ll also find templates and tip sheets to help you plan and implement a year-round communication strategy with the articles and tweets in the Benefits Pack. You’ll find more details on our website at www.benzcommunications.com/benefits-content-pack. Purchase 6 articles for $300 or 12 articles for $600. All tools and tweets are included in the purchase price. You’ll find more details at www.benzcommunications.com/content-subscription-package. Get $100 off of your first six-month subscription when you use coupon code UMBCONTENT100. Social Media Starter Kit Integrating social media channels is a simple, cost-effective addition to your communications toolbox. But it’s easy to get lost in tools. What’s relevant to benefits communication? What’s effective? The Social Media Starter Kit from Benz Communications covers everything you need to know to start integrating social media into your benefits communications. Download the toolkit for free on UMB’s Employer Portal! Need assistance? We’re here to help! Contact us at 816.860.4848.

Documents

UMB Launch Kit Planning GuideUMB Healthcare Services 4 Week 3: Create Materials • Fill in specific information about your company’s benefits plans in all materials you’ve decided