2010 HERMES CREATIVE AWARDS SUBMISSION

Flex Express Benefits — What’s Your Story?

2010 Hermes Creative Awards
Category: # 43 – Design: Illustration / Graphic Design
Date created: October 8, 2009
Client: Amex Canada, Inc.

Amex provides a Flex Benefits Plan to employees, offering a choice from among four options, each with varying levels of coverage. Leading up to the Flex Plan annual re-enrolment, Amex’s Human Resources leadership was concerned that a large number of employees didn’t understand their plan options. Past enrolment data indicated that employees often didn’t take best advantage of the available choices, selecting coverage levels that represented a middle ground rather than a good fit for their particular circumstances.

Amex conveyed that they wanted to engage employees with their benefits on a more emotional level, so we provided a proposal suggesting a new approach that would present a number of case studies on postcards, each representing a different demographic, explaining their option choices in the Flex Express plan. This would allow employees to better understand what circumstances would lead someone to a certain choice, and give them an opportunity to identify with one of the situations in the case studies. In conjunction with the Benefits Profiler (an online tool that recommends plan choices based on a series of questions), this could help them assess their own needs and decide which option suits them best.

We felt that a printed piece worked best in this situation, as employees are more likely to spend time with this medium versus an electronic format, and would thereby absorb and appreciate the content more fully. It also made it easier to share with family members affected by benefits choices. The communications were created in both English and French and made available to all full-time employees of American Express.

The postcards successfully promoted online re-enrolment. 55.6% of eligible employees completed their re-enrolment online during the enrolment period, which represents a 2.7% increase compared to 2009. Overall, the number of incoming calls to the Benefits provider decreased by 23.2% compared to the 2009 re-enrolment period, suggesting employees are becoming more familiar and knowledgeable with the re-enrolment process and better educated through the proactive communications delivered by Amex Human Resources. Immediately following the rollout, our client expressed their satisfaction with the project in the following message:

“Everything worked out great this year. The posters & postcards were delivered ahead of schedule and we completed the desk drop of the postcards on Monday.  I have already received positive feedback on the postcards.”
– Judy Benson, Human Resources - Benefits Administrator, Amex Canada Inc.

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