About this template
What is an employee benefits guide?
An employee benefits guide is a document detailing the incentives, programs, and support offered by an employer. They provide information on healthcare coverage, retirement plans, paid time off (PTO) policies, company-provided life or disability insurance, and any other offerings, like transportation reimbursement, wellness programs, and remote work options.
These guides help employees understand what their benefits are and how to use them effectively. They’re useful for HR teams to have one definitive guide that covers everything an employee needs to know about job-related perks.
Creating these guides can take time, but an employee benefits guide template speeds up the process by allowing you to add your information to a ready-made document. Using a digital template, such as the one available in Slack, means everyone can access it easily with updates showing in real time.
How to use this Slack template (step-by-step)
Follow these steps to make the most of the employee benefits guide template:
- Download the template. Click “Get template” to generate a Slack canvas with the template.
- Replace the placeholder text. Add your company’s name, the name of the benefits program, an introductory message, and the effective dates. You can customize it further by adding more categories.
- Add resources to the template. Instead of creating the resource from scratch, the template lets you consolidate existing benefits documents. You can either paste links to intranet pages or other canvases or upload policy documents, claim forms, and similar resources.
- Set up an FAQ section. At the bottom of the template, include a brief FAQ section to help employees quickly find answers to common questions. You can also add links to additional resources that didn’t fit elsewhere on the template, such as contact information or an employee question form.
- Create a question form and a workflow for getting answers. A question form can help employees find answers to their more complicated questions. You can make a no-code form in a canvas and set it up to submit questions to your team. Using Slack’s Workflow Builder, you can develop a workflow that notifies HR staff when questions are submitted and lets you monitor the status of questions.
- Make the guide editing collaborative. Allow all necessary HR staff to co-edit the document and add comments as needed. Versioning can help you track what has been edited and when.
- Share your employee benefits guide. You can create a benefits hub in Slack that serves as employees’ primary resource for benefits information. Pin the final version of your guide to the hub so employees can find it easily.
- Update the guide as needed. As policies change, this template allows your team to update it in real time.
Benefits of using an employee benefits guide template
Most organizations have their benefits information scattered across onboarding materials, intranets, printed handbooks, and more. However, using a clear template for your employee benefits guide improves the experience for both HR and employees.
Reduces confusion for employees
When employees can access all benefits information in one place, they’ll be less confused about what benefits they can claim and how to claim them. All employees will receive the same information in the same way.
Better employee experience
In addition to reducing confusion, a templated employee benefits guide also minimizes frustration by providing employees with a straightforward user experience that removes the need to search for information.
Faster new-hire onboarding
When all benefits information is available in one place, new hires will have an easier time learning about their options and understanding the nuances of how to use their benefits.
Time savings for HR
Linking or uploading information to a template takes much less time than creating and formatting a new resource. Providing employees with a simple benefits resource also saves you the time you would have spent answering their questions.
Easier benefits updates
This template can be updated in real time, ensuring employees always have access to current information.
More accurate information
When information is spread across different documents, inconsistencies can go unnoticed. Combining everything into a template allows you to review all documents for accuracy and makes it easier to maintain that accuracy in the future.
How Slack’s template streamlines employee benefits guide creation
Slack’s employee benefits guide template eliminates the need to build a guide from scratch. Slack’s collaboration features make the process even easier. Your team can work together easily while creating it, chat about the guide, and edit it in real time on the same platform. Version control capabilities and simple commenting make it straightforward for the whole team to collaborate and bring the guide to life.
Once the guide is live, you can implement workflows that notify your team when an employee has a benefits question and track the status of that question. Since everything is stored in Slack, updating the guide when a policy changes only takes a moment.
Five tips for how best to use an employee benefits guide template
Follow these tips to make your employee benefits guide as helpful as possible.
1. Audit the location and quality of all existing benefits information
You’ll fill out the template more efficiently if you start by locating exactly where all your benefits information is currently stored. List every benefit your organization provides and find the plan documents or informational guides for each. Besides making your benefits guide creation easier, this will also help you spot any missing or outdated information.
2. Offer regular communication and easily accessible support
Once the guide is live, frequently remind employees that it exists. You might want to announce its launch via email and at all-hands meetings, then mention or link to it again whenever you send out communications about your organization’s benefits.
It’s also important to maintain two-way communication between HR and employees by making it easy for employees to ask questions about both the benefits and how to use the benefits guide. A button in the guide that directs employees to a question form is a great way to do this. It also ensures you establish a process for your team to facilitate quick responses.
3. Integrate the guide into your standard onboarding process
Make new-hire onboarding easier by providing a link to the guide and guiding them through each benefit. This not only simplifies their first day but also encourages them to refer to the guide for information.
4. Monitor and measure guide usage
Gather data on how frequently employees use the guide to evaluate its effectiveness. If usage is low, consider how to enhance awareness or improve the guide itself.
5. Regularly update the guide
After the guide is live, set aside time to periodically review it and ensure all information is current.
Transform how employees discover their benefits
Employees need a clear and comprehensive benefit guide so they know exactly what’s available to them. However, benefits guides are often outdated, static documents that are hard to navigate and sometimes even hard to find.
Slack’s employee benefits guide template turns your benefits guide into a simple, easy-to-use, dynamic document that’s intuitive to navigate and always current. To use this template or any other customizable templates in Slack, find a Slack plan that works for you and get started today. [# /]
