1st Lesson: The fastest (and cheapest) way to breathe life into your employee benefits

Many employee benefit programs consist of a few pages on the intranet under the title "Staff Benefits."

The fastest and cheapest way to encourage interest in your staff benefits program is to bestow an identity on it.

If your primary corporate colour is blue then perhaps call your program “Blue Sky“ or “Blue Ocean” or “Blue Lagoon” . Your welcome message could be: “Welcome to our Blue Sky Employee Benefits Program – Special deals and savings each day!”

If you give your program an identity, maybe even a logo, then your employees will have something to recognise on posters and in emails. Word of the program will spread amongst employees and they’ll say in conversation: “Oh yes, we have a benefits program, it’s called Blue Sky.”

Interestingly, this lesson is the reason behind the idea for our company name Mumba. We picked a name that had no meaning, was short, interesting and could be applied to any benefits program or HR initiative. Some of our clients have used our name Mumba to brand their benefits program. It’s not compulsory however has proven to catch on amongst staff and thus confirmed this lesson learnt.

You may lack resources or time to drive your employee benefits program forward. You may therefore feel shy to brand your program if you think that your offerings could disappoint your employees.

I’ll take a look at some ways to overcome these obstacles next time. Please feel free to comment, share or write to me if you have any questions.