How to successfully launch a new employee benefit

Rolling out a new workplace benefit is an opportunity to strengthen retention, reinforce company culture, and genuinely support employee wellbeing.

But even the best benefit in the world won’t make an impact if employees don’t know about it, understand it, and see its value. In fact, a 2024 report found that 73 percent of employees want more education on their company benefits.

The report emphasizes, “...For employers to make their benefits investments walk the talk, they must work proactively to encourage employee involvement.”

Whether you’re launching a recognition program, a mental wellness program, an employee resource group, or another perk, a successful benefits rollout is all about communication.

Below is a step-by-step framework to ensure your launch isn’t just a flash in the pan, but a lasting, high-impact initiative that your employees actually use.

1. Start with a strategic foundation

Before you send an email or design a single slide, pause and ask: Why this benefit? Why now? 

Launching a new employee benefit isn't just about adding another line item to your HR offerings. It's a strategic move that should be rooted in a deep understanding of your workforce's needs and your organization's overarching objectives. Perhaps the motivation stems from a desire to alleviate financial stress experienced by your frontline employees. Or, maybe there's a push to provide a wider range of wellness benefits that cater to diverse lifestyles and individual preferences, ensuring that everyone feels included and supported. 

Whatever the driving force behind the new initiative, it's crucial to connect it back to tangible employee concerns and clearly defined business targets. This means going beyond surface-level assumptions and taking the time to gather data, conduct surveys, and engage in meaningful conversations with employees to truly understand their challenges and aspirations.

For instance, consider the potential impact of investing in comprehensive childcare benefits. By offering reliable and accessible childcare support, you're not only addressing a critical need for working parents, but also directly tackling issues like absenteeism. With childcare assistance readily available, parents are less likely to have to take unplanned days off to care for their children. This demonstrates a direct correlation between a new employee benefit and positive business outcomes. 

Whether you want to increase employee satisfaction scores or decrease absenteeism, having clarity now sets you up for meaningful impact later, and setting measurable objectives helps you tell the story of that impact to stakeholders.

2. Get stakeholder buy-in early

Whether you work in a large company with stakeholders across multiple departments or a small business with fewer cooks in the kitchen, a benefit launch requires checking a few different boxes for approval: leadership, finance, and legal, to name a few.

Start by bringing your various stakeholders into the planning stages as early as possible. This ensures that all stakeholders understand the benefit's objectives and how it aligns with overarching company goals.

Transparency and clear communication are key to gaining support and ensuring a smooth implementation. Clearly articulate how the new benefit fits into the company's strategic vision and present a detailed analysis of the expected return on investment (ROI).

This can include projected improvements in employee satisfaction, productivity gains, and potential cost savings. When everyone is on the same page and recognizes the tangible benefits, securing approval and streamlining the rollout process becomes significantly easier.

To further enhance support and enthusiasm, frame the new employee benefit as a win-win—something you can do because you started by establishing success metrics. For example, implementing earned wage access \EWA\ doesn’t just give employees early access to their earned wages. It also leads to:

• ​ Happier and more engaged employees: EWA addresses employees’ financial needs and improves their overall experience.
• ​ Reduced HR bottlenecks: EWA eliminates the administrative burden of pay advances, freeing up HR resources for other strategic initiatives.
• ​ Smarter and more efficient budgets: EWA is proven to decrease turnover rates when available for frontline workers, saving your business time and resources spent on hiring and onboarding new employees.

By showcasing the multi-faceted gains of a new benefit and looping in stakeholders early in the process, you can effectively garner support and ensure a successful launch that benefits the entire organization.

3. Choose the right timing

The success of your benefits launch hinges significantly on when you choose to unveil it. While the quality of the benefit itself is crucial, a poorly timed launch can dampen enthusiasm and hinder adoption rates.

For example, revealing a financial planning benefit right before the end-of-quarter crunch could see it lost in the shuffle of urgent deadlines. To truly make an impact, steer clear of launching during periods of heightened activity.

Instead of merely avoiding inconvenient times, actively seek out moments that resonate with your company culture and employees' current concerns. Consider aligning your benefit launch with upcoming holidays or observances. For example, if you’re launching a new financial wellness benefit, April is Financial Literacy Month—a great time to share sustained educational resources over the course of a few weeks to really help the perk stick.

By strategically timing your benefit launch, you can ensure it receives the attention it deserves and makes a lasting positive impact on your employees. Aligning your announcement with cultural moments and avoiding busy periods will lead to increased visibility, greater engagement, and ultimately, a more successful benefit program.

4. Craft a clear, multi-channel communication plan

To effectively launch a new employee benefit, it's crucial to develop a comprehensive communication strategy that meets employees where they are—everywhere they are. If updates are crafted for the platform they’re shared on, you don’t have to worry about feeling like you’re bombarding employees with information.

Traditional methods like email remain essential for formal announcements and detailed information. However, incorporating more immediate channels like Slack or Teams can help reach employees quickly and facilitate real-time discussions. Integrating the launch into onboarding sessions is also vital, as it ensures new hires are aware of the benefit from the start.

You can also host lunch-and-learn sessions on-site with frontline employees to provide detailed explanations and answer questions in a more informal setting. Strategically placed physical posters or digital screens in common areas can capture attention in shared spaces.

Additionally, consider conducting short walkthroughs or organizing demo days and optional office hours. These interactive sessions can help build familiarity with the new benefit and provide a platform for employees to ask questions and receive personalized assistance.

To enhance understanding and adoption, leverage all available vendor-supplied resources. For example, ZayZoon Employer Connect allows employers to download posters, flyers, and other assets to help drive benefits adoption.

• ​ And, don’t overlook the power of SMS updates for employees, especially deskless workers. This method offers a direct and immediate line of communication, ensuring crucial information is seen promptly.

5. Train your managers

Often, when strategizing the rollout of a new employee benefit, we concentrate on direct communication to employees. However, a critical and frequently underutilized resource resides within your organization: your managers. They are the bridge between leadership and your wider team. Failing to engage them effectively risks the overall success of your benefit launch.

Equip managers with the essential tools and knowledge to become genuine advocates for the new offering. Provide a quick-reference guide, or a FAQ, that clearly explains the key features, advantages, and processes of the benefit. Don’t forget that managers themselves are employees who may have questions about the benefit, so make time to address their concerns before assuming they are ready to educate their teams.

Crucially, managers must grasp not only the mechanics of the benefit but also its broader impact. If you are able to illustrate how your new benefit can tangibly support their team's performance and overall well-being, you’ll get natural advocacy.

Employee advocacy within an organization is far more effective than any formal communication campaign. Managers’ personal endorsements can overcome initial skepticism and drive widespread adoption of the new employee benefit.

6. Monitor, measure, and optimize

The initial excitement of launch day can quickly fade if you don't actively nurture, promote, and optimize the benefit.

Track critical performance indicators like usage rates, adoption or activation, and the metrics you decided to measure alongside your new benefit launch. Ideally, this is something your vendor supports you with. We mentioned ZayZoon Employer Connect earlier—not only does it equip you with tools to help drive adoption, it also is a one-stop shop for managing programs like Earned Wage Access and Rewards & Recognition.

With Employer Connect, you can unlock insights into how your employees are using ZayZoon. These metrics offer a valuable look at the effectiveness of your launch and areas for potential improvement.

Should initial engagement be lower than expected, don't hesitate to re-send invitations or targeted reminders to employees who haven't yet activated their benefits. Regular checks on employee engagement levels will help you identify who's actively using the benefit and who might need additional encouragement or information.

Above all, actively solicit and genuinely listen to employee feedback. Establish formal and informal feedback loops to gather insights. Surveys can provide structured data on employee experiences, while informal check-ins offer opportunities for more personalized discussions. Ask employees directly about their experiences with the benefit, any challenges they may be facing, and suggestions for improvement. Continuously analyze the feedback to identify trends and patterns that can inform improvements to the benefit—and future benefits as well. 

ZayZoon takes the chaos out of benefit rollouts

Rolling out a new employee benefit is a significant undertaking that goes far beyond mere logistical execution. It requires a thoughtful, well-orchestrated strategy and a deep understanding of your employees' needs.

 At ZayZoon, we see ourselves as more than just a product provider—we are strategic partners with HR teams, working collaboratively to ensure that every benefit rollout is not just smooth, but truly impactful and thoughtfully tailored to the unique dynamics of your organization. We recognize that each workforce has its own distinct needs, preferences, and communication styles. That’s why our approach is never one-size-fits-all.

Our dedicated Client Success and Customer Care teams guide you and your employees through every step of the process, from initial planning to ongoing questions and updates.

Our personalized launch tools, such as SMS invites and Employer Connect, are designed to effectively communicate the benefit's value and encourage engagement.

We don't want your benefit to launch and fade into the background—we help you make it land with impact and make a tangible difference for your employees.