Keeping an employee handbook up-to-date for your clients can be another frustrating task on a busy insurance broker’s never-ending to do list. Who wants more paperwork, after all? But there’s tremendous value to you and your clients in keeping employee handbooks updated, informative, and accessible for employees.

Employers have an obligation to keep their employees informed regarding the many benefits that are available to them as part of their employment. And, as a benefit broker, you play an important role in helping HR make sure employees are kept up-to-date on the benefits available to them.

Beyond serving as a fundamental employee tool, did you know employee handbooks are also an insurance sales tool for you? Simply put: you can't sell what employees can't see. Employees need to be fully informed of what benefits are available to them, and at what cost in order to make informed choices. Employees should have access to details regarding what those benefit programs cover, what they provide, and what limitations there are to those benefits. That’s where you come in; the more supportive tools you can give HR for their employees, the more equipped their employees will become open enrollment or benefit eligibility time.

The employee handbook is your best shot at giving employees this information, and often an employee’s first introduction to their organization’s benefit program. Glossy handouts and brochures are fantastic sales tools during open enrollment, but they pale in significance to the role that employee handbooks play in helping showcase benefit options to employees for one simple reason: retention.

Employees in many organizations are required to read and retain a physical copy of the employee handbook, which includes the benefits offered. Even in organizations where this is not required, employees often keep a copy of the handbook close at hand -- which means your benefits information is never far out of reach from employees. Pro tip: set a reminder in your calendar to update the book regularly as benefits change over your relationship with the group.

So, if you want your sales message to have lasting impact on employees and for employees to have the information they need to make an educated decision regarding your benefit products well before open enrollment, be sure to supply HR with information for their employee handbook.