Episode 52 – Creating an Engaging Employee Benefits Strategy

Mike Stull (0:09)

Hi, everyone, and welcome back to HR Benecast. This is your host, Mike Stull. Stay up to date on all things Employers Health by checking out the links in the episode description.

There you’ll find helpful resources, upcoming webinars, and our monthly newsletter.

Today’s guest is Brandee Bell, Senior Benefits Specialist at Designer Brands, or DBI, the parent company of popular names you might recognize, like DSW, Keds, and Lucky Brand. Each year, Brandee and her talented team take on one of the biggest challenges facing benefits professionals, effectively communicating the importance of employee benefits and the open enrollment process to a diverse workforce.

What sets them apart is their creative, tailored approach that sees real results. Welcome, Brandee. It’s great to have you.

To kick things off, why don’t you tell the audience a little bit about yourself and your role at Designer Brands.

Brandee Bell (1:16)

Hi, Mike. Thanks for having me. A little about me, I just celebrated my seventh year at Designer Brands.

I’m an Ohio State alumni. Go Bucks. There, I studied business with a specialty in human resources.

And funny enough, I once thought I might go into law or marketing, but it all worked out because in benefits, I get to do a little of both. Outside of work, I love crafting and creating art, and I’m lucky that I get to bring that creativity into my role on the benefits team here at DBI.

Although we do have employees internationally, my focus is on our U.S. benefits portfolio and employee experience. My team supports about 11,000 U.S.-based employees, which is a mixture of full-time and part-time. When it comes to our full-time benefits eligible group, that is about 3,000 employees.

One of my favorite parts of the job is figuring out how to communicate benefits effectively.

It’s a challenge I genuinely enjoy, getting inside the mind of our employees, finding new ways to catch their attention, and helping them truly understand the resources available to them.

Now, we support a wide variety of employee groups, from our 500-plus DSW retail stores to two logistics centers and our corporate office. And the communication needs of each group are different.

On top of that, we differentiate benefits for full-time and part-time employees. So as you can imagine, one-size-fits-all doesn’t always work when it comes to communications. That’s why I’m really excited for today’s episode.

We’ll be diving into benefits, communication, and open enrollment, which are truly at the heart of what I do each day at work.

Mike Stull (3:35)

Excellent. Well, thank you. And certainly, you’re right.

Marketing and law all come into play with benefits. So maybe the law part a little more than we’d want it to at some point sometimes but certainly plays a part in there. So we’ve worked with Designer Brands now for 10 years and know you all go above and beyond when it comes to benefits and open enrollment.

Tell us a little bit about why this is so important to the organization and how it benefits from that approach.

Brandee Bell (1:16)

Well, thank you. I’ll say it’s come a really long way in the last decade. I’m proud to be a part of the progress we’ve made, but we go above and beyond with our benefits and especially open enrollment because we want to make life easier for our employees.

Benefits should support you through every stage of life, whether you’re just starting your career, raising a family, or preparing for retirement. From an organizational standpoint, investing in a strong benefits experience pays off. When our employees and their families feel protected and supported, they’re happier, less stressed, and more present at work.

It fosters pride in where they work, and that contributes to retention, engagement, and overall performance. I know you’ve probably heard this before, but in HR, we don’t directly contribute to the bottom line in the same way other departments might. Some companies might see the benefits budget as a cost center.

And while technically that’s true, at Designer Brands, we view it as a critical part of who we are. Offering comprehensive and easy to understand benefits is a reflection of our culture and our values. We don’t want employees to feel stressed or overwhelmed when it comes to benefits.

They shouldn’t have to waste time figuring out insurance or worse, delay care because something is confusing or hard to access. So our job is to remove that friction and make it as easy as possible for them to engage with what’s available. One of our core values at designer brands is we love what we do.

You’ll see, but my team does take that to heart. No, we aren’t designing or selling shoes, but we are making life easier for the people that do. That means clear communication, helpful resources, and doing everything we can to make benefits feel simple, not scary.

Mike Stull (5:19)

Yeah, and that scary piece. I mean, benefits can be intimidating for certain people. So how do you invite people to engage?

Brandee Bell (5:31)

Yeah. So take open enrollment, for example. We offer incentives just for logging in.

Seriously, we enter our employees into a gift card drawing just for spending 10 minutes reviewing their benefits. We make a whole event out of it, and it works because these are choices that affect them all year long. That kind of engagement is key.

And really, our goal is to avoid those gotcha moments, like, wait, I thought my kid was covered for dental. No, Mike, they’re not. We know most people only think about benefits when they need to use them.

So as a team, we ask ourselves, how can we flip that? How do we help employees learn and engage before they need care? How do we keep that conversation going year-round and not just at open enrollment?

At the end of the day, we do all of this so our employees can live with a little less stress and a little more clarity so they can focus on what matters most, both at work and at home.

Mike Stull (6:28)

All right. Let’s talk about open enrollment communication. So we know that a lot of our clients, the teams there, don’t have the bandwidth to create a comprehensive open enrollment guide.

So what do you think are the most important pieces to include?

Brandee Bell (6:48)

Yeah, so I’d say one of the most important skills that I’ve learned in my career is how to teach people to fish, myself included. And that absolutely applies to benefit communications. If your team doesn’t have the bandwidth to create a detailed open enrollment guide, that’s OK.

The key is making sure your employees know where to go when they have questions and how to access the essentials. You should start with the basics. First is where can your employees find help?

Then, what are the key contacts or tools that they should use? And finally, how do you make that information easy to find and remember? Maybe that’s a magnet with a who to call for what and the most important contact numbers or a QR code to a digital resource hub.

Maybe it’s a postcard mailed to your employee homes or a flyer in a break room. Whatever format you choose, it should be clear, simple and accessible. Now, when it comes to communication design, don’t be afraid to have some fun with it.

Use color, humor and visuals to make your materials more inviting. We want to draw them in. And as you just said, benefits can be overwhelming.

So approachability matters. You should also always keep that what’s in it for me question front and center. People have limited time and attention, so it’s important to provide clear, concise information if possible.

And I know it sounds crazy but use less text and more visuals. Perhaps it’s a striking image with a memorable and informative title.

Mike Stull (8:21)

And sometimes I think it’s obviously a challenge to be more concise and to create engagement. So do you have an example of any catchy communication phrases you’ve used and how did that turn out?

Brandee Bell (8:35)

Yeah, I could list a lot for you, but here’s an example we did recently. We noticed there was a pattern where we had employees that weren’t filing their leave of absence on time. So we created a short campaign, and we titled it “Don’t Go MIA, Go On LOA.”

Simple, catchy. It got people to open the email and engage with our leave of absence guide. The guide itself we filled with icons and infographics to model out common reasons for leave, such as pregnancy, medical, family leave, all of that.

It worked because it was direct, visual and easy to absorb. Consider how you can use icons to space out and display information in a different way. Little tweaks like this can make your information a lot easier for your employees to navigate and to remember.

Mike Stull (9:22)

There’s so many details and fine print when it comes to benefit programs. How do you how do you balance what to include and what not to include?

Brandee Bell (9:33)

Yeah, I call myself a benefit nerd. I know a lot of us in the industry would say the same. And yes, there’s always more information we could share.

But your open enrollment materials should focus on key takeaways. What are the top three to five things you want every employee to know? Then give them a path to learn more if they’re interested.

For example, would you rather receive a copy of your SPD or a visual flyer with bold headlines like free virtual care or check out our maternity support program with a link and a QR code to more info? When you approach things this way, you’re telling people a program exists. That’s the first step.

You’re also showing them where they can learn more. Most employees don’t need or really want to become benefits experts, and that’s OK. Our job is to give them the tools to build knowledge over time.

So even if you don’t have a comprehensive guide, focus on creating one centralized resource and make it easy to find and show your employees where to fish when they need support.

Mike Stull (10:37)

Excellent. So let’s talk timing. When should which when should benefit teams start creating and strategizing for their next open enrollment?

Brandee Bell (10:50)

Well, that’s a bit of a trick question, Mike, because benefit communications really shouldn’t be limited to open enrollment. They should be happening year-round. For context, our open enrollment is typically in late October.

So we start creating our materials in July and August. It’s coming up. We work backward from when we want everything to be in our employees’ hands.

Basically, we look at our OE dates and think, when do we want this to be at their home? And we go from there. But we don’t just drop a bunch of info once a year and hope it sticks.

We think about how to keep benefits top of mind all year long. One thing our team is really passionate about is making benefits feel approachable and engaging. Our annual benefits book, for example, it looks like a magazine rather than a manual.

It’s colorful, image heavy and something employees actually keep at their desks and in their homes. Do you want to know how we differentiate our medical plans in the book? We literally compare them to concert tickets and how you can purchase or spend money on food and T-shirts at a concert.

We’ve recently started using real associates submitted pictures as well. Photos of their families, their pets, nature, pictures they’ve taken on a vacation. It’s added a personal and inclusive touch to our materials.

In fact, our book for 2025 had about 85 percent of employees submitted content for our pictures. And we shouted this out. It created buzz and it made people excited to flip through their materials for the chance to spot a familiar face.

Mike Stull (12:18)

That’s awesome. I really like that idea. I’ve also heard that you all don’t even put your open enrollment dates in your benefits book.

Tell us about that.

Brandee Bell (12:31)

Yeah, you’re right. We do not put our open enrollment dates into our actual benefits book. What we do is we separate out our open enrollment information into a standalone flyer and we include all the dates, important changes, the opportunity to win a gift card, QR codes, pretty much everything they need in one one concise piece of paper.

That way, our actual benefits book becomes a year-round guide. The open enrollment details are still timely and actionable, but it doesn’t make our benefits book feel outdated by the time the new year starts. But again, this isn’t just about one season. Throughout the year, we tailor our communication to what’s happening in the business and in the world. For example, when we noticed an uptick in mental health related leave of absence claims, we ramped up messaging around our mental health resources. We really wanted to drive home all the incredible low or no cost options for mental health.

We’ve done a lot of work in this space with a mixture of emails, posters, on site sessions, employee resource group partnerships and leadership education to help spread the word. And it’s really paying off. We’re seeing a higher utilization of services, but we’re seeing fewer people needing to go out on leave.

That’s the kind of outcome we’re proud of. Benefits are working before things become overwhelming to the point of needing a leave. That’s what these programs are here for.

One thing that’s really helped is our monthly benefits newsletter. It’s personalized. If you’re not enrolled in a program, we don’t clutter your inbox with that content.

We highlight what’s relevant, tap into timely themes like back to school or financial wellness and share upcoming vendor webinars or events. Our employees now trust that when something comes from our team, it’s tailored for them, actionable and worth opening. This has helped us slowly educate our employees throughout the year about programs they are enrolled in.

I’ll be honest, though, benefit communications take time to develop, and you’ll need to find the group that’s right for you and your organization. Open enrollment is certainly the Super Bowl event for us benefit professionals, but it can quickly become daunting and overwhelming to your employees if they’re only seeing benefits information once a year during open enrollment season. So to answer your question directly, sure, start your prep about three to four months out from your open enrollment dates.

But your communication strategy, that should be living and breathing all year long. When you do that, open enrollment becomes less of a scramble and more of a moment to deepen understanding, not just introduce it. This allows your employees to make better decisions for their families.

To sum it up, the best benefit decisions happen when employees aren’t hearing about it for the first time in October.

Mike Stull (15:12)

Good point. So, a lot of the things that you’ve talked about sound pretty fun. So we’re curious how you balance that fun and professionalism in your communications, especially around topics as important as how to use your benefits.

What inspired your team to take a chance on trying things like goofy emails or GIFs or TikToks? And then how have the employees responded?

Brandee Bell (15:45)

I love this question. Have you ever heard the saying, do it and ask for forgiveness later? That’s pretty much how the humor, GIFs and TikToks started in our communications.

The cool part is we’ve never had to ask for forgiveness. People actually wanted more. I’ll also add that professional doesn’t have to mean boring.

And when you make benefit communications fun, people actually pay attention. We’ve always believed that benefits shouldn’t be intimidating or dry. Our philosophy is simple.

We talk to employees the way we talk to a friend or a family member, whether we are on the phone helping them with a question or writing a companywide benefits information.

Mike Stull (16:23)

So, it sounds like down to-earth, open communication style, definitely part of your culture. But what made you all try using GIFs and memes to explain benefits?

Brandee Bell (16:38)

It really is part of our culture. But when it comes to GIFs and memes, honestly, it’s a big part of who I am, too. I think in movie quotes, song lyrics, memes and GIFs.

In fact, in college, I was nicknamed the meme queen for a period of time. Sometimes I like to joke with my team that they just didn’t know what they were in for when they hired me seven years ago because this playful tone just sort of happened naturally because it’s who I am. I think to myself, how can I make this relatable or memorable?

Benefits tie into all kinds of life moments. And there are so many GIF and meme worthy things to relate to. We were already doing a lot of work to make our materials lighthearted, approachable and easy to understand.

So as our communications have continued to evolve, we just keep pushing the envelope further by educating through humor. Our demographic does skew into millennial and Gen Z more and more. And hello, you have a zillennial here writing the benefit communications.

So when it came to teaching our employees about important topics, I drop in a song lyric or a fun GIF to grab attention. And as a team, we said, well, let’s try it out and see what happens. We can always ask for forgiveness later, right?

So, it’s been one of the most rewarding things to see the countless replies we receive on our communications, people noting the goofy puns hidden within a reminder or getting caught in a clickbait moment.

Mike Stull (18:06)

OK, clickbait, so sounds interesting. What’s something that you’ve sent out that you’d consider clickbait and how did it go?

Brandee Bell (18:17)

Yeah, we used quite a bit of clickbait during open enrollment last year. Let me set the scene. So it’s the final days of open enrollment and we sent an email out with a tailored subject line.

We have a surprise for you, Mike. And we personalized with each person’s first name. Inside the email was a big GIF that said, gotcha, and then it followed with, now go in and confirm your 2025 benefit elections, Mike.

People were laughing and replying to let us know it was well-played and more importantly, it drove action. We saw a solid bump in our completion rates and the replies we got were gold, too. Even our executives like to get in on the fun.

One leader replied to a benefits email with, ha, thanks for reminding me to file for my wellness benefit. I forgot I had that. That kind of engagement tells us that we’re doing something right.

At DBI, we’re lucky to have the right mix of demographics and leadership support to try things that break the mold. It helps that one of our core values is we love what we do. And when it comes to communications, I truly love that I get to bring this silly, creative side of myself to work and to our employees.

It’s really paid off in keeping them engaged all year long because they never know what they will find inside one of our emails. That curiosity keeps them coming back.

Mike Stull (19:38)

That’s great. It sounds like you’ve had good anecdotal evidence that these campaigns are successful. But talk to us a little bit more about how you measure the success.

Brandee Bell (19:51)

We definitely look at the traditional metrics like email, open and click rates, traffic to our benefits mobile wallet card website and enrollment completion stats during the OE season. Across the board, we’re proud to consistently see 65 percent or higher open rates on our email campaigns. During open enrollment, that often jumps and stays consistently in the 80 percent open rate.

We’ve even hit the 90s with some of our more clickbaity subject lines like gift card winners revealed or camping alpaca my tent. I know it sounds silly, but it works. Humor drives engagement.

Click rates are one of my favorite metrics because they tell us what people really want to learn more about. We design our emails to tease the info with short, catchy intros and then link to more details. When we go and look at what people are clicking into and even how far down, they scroll, we get a really good sense of what’s resonating and what’s not.

For example, at the bottom of each newsletter, we have a section called stay in the loop with us. Slight shoe pun, of course, but we link out to past newsletter additions, other standalone communications about mental health resources or what’s included with the medical plan. Seeing clicks on those items tells us that people are making it to the bottom of their emails.

It also helps inform me when it might be good to do another reminder about a certain topic for open enrollment. Specifically, we do monitor daily engagement and completion stats using our Ben Admin platform data. We look at who’s logged in, who’s confirmed and who hasn’t even touched it yet.

My awesome boss, Aaron, loves to nerd out over this, and it is so satisfying to see those stats increase as we pulse out new reminders.

Mike Stull (21:40)

And I agree. Aaron is awesome. When it comes to open enrollment, what’s your what’s your overall goal when it comes to engagement?

Brandee Bell (21:53)

I’ll admit I am probably the most militant on our team when it comes to open enrollment completion rates. I dream of 100 percent compliance even in passive years because, come on, how how can you not take 10 minutes to confirm the benefits you’ll have for an entire year? And we frame open enrollment in that way.

It’s not optional. We’ve never had a fully active enrollment in my time at DBI, but last year we saw 85 percent completion and 87 percent login rates. That’s huge.

Basically, each year we just try to see if we can top last year’s completion. It’s sort of like an internal competition at this point. And it’s super motivating to me.

If we ever do a truly active enrollment, we will be prepared, which is also great. Plus, we’re shouting out gift card winners at the end and people really love the chance to win and see if their name is announced. We also partner closely with our HR business partners, sharing regular stats and even running friendly competition between departments to boost engagement.

Seriously, I’ll send an email out and say in an announcer voice, we have this department in the lead, and it helps create some healthy pressure and it keeps benefits top of mind. It also helps my team communicate with employees through a different medium by using their HR representative. Beyond the data, though, some of our best success indicators come from more organic interactions.

We’ll hear that a leader in our stores saw something in their benefits newsletter and now all the stores in their region are cascading the information to their teams. Our associates aren’t shy about sharing their feedback with us either. In fact, this year we’ve received testimonials and stories just out of the blue from some of our employees.

For example, one of our employees reached out to share more about their family’s fertility journey and that because of DBI’s benefits and support, he finally became a father. Moments like those just melt our hearts and it reminds me why we do this. We also see the impact in how people reach out with questions.

More and more employees are coming in with baseline knowledge. They know about the program and what they get. Now they just want to be sure they’re taking full advantage, like filing that $50 wellness benefit.

That shows us that our targeted year-round education efforts are working. And finally, we’ve built great relationships with our employee resource groups. Now they come to us asking to partner on events and content and they’re proactively sharing benefits info within their communities.

It’s a powerful ripple effect and it’s one that we are really proud of. For us, success isn’t just high open rates. It’s when employees feel informed, supported and empowered to use their benefits.

Mike Stull (24:27)

Yeah, we always say benefits are called benefits for a reason and you want individual employees to use them and find them valuable. Let’s talk about the communication initiative. Maybe that’s surprised you the most.

Either in how well it worked or in what you learned from it.

Brandee Bell (24:49)

Yeah. One initiative that really surprised and delighted us this year was a virtual scavenger hunt we launched during Mental Health Awareness Month. We’ve been sitting on the idea for a while, and it may felt like the right time to bring it to life.

And honestly, it worked better than we could have imagined. Now, as a side note, as you have new ideas for communications, even if they’re a little out of the box, jot it down on a list and save it for later. Just because it’s not something you’ll action on right away, maybe one day down the line it will come to life.

Mike Stull (25:21)

And is that what happened with the scavenger hunt?

Brandee Bell (25:24)

Yes, it is. I’m glad we waited and experimented with this concept for Mental Health Awareness Month.

Mike Stull (25:31)

What did designer brands do for Mental Health Awareness Month and how did this scavenger hunt come into play?

Brandee Bell (25:38)

We had a suite of offerings, some quick 30-minute overviews on our counseling and support benefits, manager and mental health trainings available for all of our store, logistics center and corporate employees, and then a mixture of emails direct to employees about their counseling and support benefits, resilience and more. Now, the goal of the scavenger hunt was actually to wrap up the month’s events and reinforce the key takeaways from our communications. The goal of the scavenger hunt was to wrap up the month’s events and reinforce the key takeaways from our communications.

We kept it simple, just a short Microsoft form with a few questions that forced our employees to actually engage with their benefits, like identifying which programs were free or counting how many support options were listed on our mobile wallet card. All of the answers were in the emails or links we’ve already shared. And of course, we offered prizes to make it fun.

It was designed to be easy. We just wanted people to engage. But the real surprise came in the final open-ended question.

What’s one thing you took away from Mental Health Awareness Month throughout our events or emails? The responses were incredible. One store manager told us he’d attended the managers and mental health training and shortly after his wife lost her job.

He said the training helped him feel better prepared to support his family during that difficult time. Dozens of people said that they felt proud to work at DBI because of how much support we offer, especially at no cost. That kind of feedback shows us that perception really matters when it comes to building trust.

Leaders across the business shared that they now feel more confident promoting these benefits to their teams. And a few people admitted they wish they’d known about these programs sooner, which only motivates us to keep pushing awareness year-round.

Mike Stull (27:18)

So you mentioned at the beginning overview on counseling and support benefits in instead of mental health benefits. And so, I know from our work together over the years that Designer Brands isn’t afraid to rebrand some of its benefits programs. Is that intentional?

Brandee Bell (27:46)

Great catch. It is intentional. This is actually something super interesting.

We learned from being on site in one of our logistics centers a few years ago. I was doing a tabling event during shift change. I had a table set up.

I was ready with some fun swag and important flyers about mental health benefits. Now, as employees were leaving their shift or arriving to work, if I said mental health benefits, I’m not kidding. I received less eye contact.

People literally walked further away from the table on their way past me. So when I would say counseling and support benefits for you and your family, people started to flock over. They were way more inclined to ask questions and take the flyer home with them, especially when we emphasized it’s for their families, too.

Even when I ran out of the free swag, people lined up to grab a flyer on their way out. That was huge insight for us. We’ve come a long way in destigmatizing mental health, but clearly there’s still more work to be done.

And sometimes it’s as simple as rebranding the message. We now refer to those programs as counseling and support benefits in all of our materials. And we always emphasize they’re available for families, too, not just employees.

That shift in language and perspective made all the difference in how people engaged. And that’s really the heart of effective communication, meeting people where they are with language that makes them feel safe and seen. So sometimes your most successful campaign isn’t just one that gets clicks.

It’s one that builds trust and starts a conversation that wasn’t happening before. Don’t be afraid to rebrand your programs. It can really help.

Mike Stull (29:27)

Yeah, and certainly sometimes it takes time to to get the engagement that you’re looking for. So a rebrand can can help certainly get that. So let’s let’s wrap up.

Talk about advice you’d give to other HR and benefits teams looking to improve engagement, but unsure of where to start.

Brandee Bell (29:51)

My best advice, start thinking like a marketer. Your product is your benefits, and your job is to help people understand and use them. Think about it.

In the hundreds of emails and communications you get every day, what catches your attention? That’s how you want to approach your communications. Start with your audience.

Something most marketing teams don’t have in the traditional sense is a captive audience. When it comes to benefit communications, we are fortunate because we do know exactly who our audience is. We know what they’re enrolled in, what questions they ask, and what they need to take action on.

That’s gold. We have a unique ability to tailor and provide relevant messaging that drives education and action when needed. Then ask, how do your employees work?

Are they behind a screen all day or are they on their feet and hands-on? That should shape how you reach them. Not everyone is checking email or clicking into apps regularly.

What’s their comfort level with technology? You need to meet your employees where they are. Next, evaluate your communication channels.

Are you sending physical mail, email? What’s going out from your vendors? Do you have digital signage or break room screens you can use?

Can you leverage any employee resource groups or frontline leaders? Again, like in marketing, think about creating an omni-channel experience. For example, when you go from shopping in-store at DSW to online at DSW.com, the messaging is cohesive. How can you do that for your employees when it comes to their benefits information? Listen to the question your employees are already asking. Those are your biggest clues.

Are there any topics your employees are always getting hung up on? That’s where you need to invest your time.

Mike Stull (31:40)

And that seems to make good sense. Do you have an example of how you’ve done this?

Brandee Bell (31:45)

Yes, there used to be what I would call the dreaded where’s vision question. Currently vision is bundled with our medical plan. And although we have it listed in the benefits book and in a number of other places, people would always ask us while they were enrolling, I don’t see the vision button, where is it?

So we added a pop-up in our enrollment platform to tell employees that vision is included with medical. Does it solve every problem? No, but did it help?

Absolutely. And finally, just know that finding your voice with your benefits communications takes time. Where we are now did not happen overnight.

It started with small steps, adding more visuals, using clear language, experimenting with color and tone. Over time, we built trust and engagement with our employees. So, if you’re just starting out, don’t wait until it’s perfect, start small.

Try to target your content so it’s relevant to your employees. Be consistent, get curious, take that time to build up trust. And most importantly, keep your employee experience at the center.

Mike Stull (32:54)

Very good. So that’s obviously a lot of thoughts on this subject, but Brandee, thank you for taking the time to put some thought into how employers and other clients can do this and have the same level of success and engagement that you all have been able to achieve. So, thank you very much.

Brandee Bell (33:21)

Thanks so much, Mike.

Mike Stull (33:25)

So thanks again to Brandy. As always, be sure to subscribe to HR Benecast to be notified when new episodes are released. And thank you for taking the time to listen and for your continued support, participation and interest in employers’ health.

Be well, and we’ll see you soon.