Ethnic Marketing

Benefits and the Hispanic Employee: Keys to Successful Hispanic Marketing
by Bilda Acuña

The explosive growth of the Hispanic population is having an enormous impact on how benefits are offered and how brokers and agents reach this audience. Understanding the Hispanic population helps us evaluate the benefit needs of Hispanic workers. The Hispanic population is growing faster than any other ethnic minority. If current immigration trends continue, the Hispanic share of the workforce will more than double to 31% within two decades, according to The Pew Research Center.

Understanding benefits can be challenging for Spanish speakers, placing a burden on the employer to provide translation. When benefit communications are unclear, there are more questions for the HR department. A carrier should provide comprehensive employee education and enrollment services that make benefits easy to understand. Because of communication barriers, Spanish-speaking employees often don’t understand what they are purchasing or they don’t purchase what they really need.

Language is a significant barrier when communicating with Hispanics about benefits. Only 23% of Hispanic immigrants say they speak English well compared to 88% of their U.S.-born adult children, according to the Pew Hispanic Center. Forth-three percent of foreign-born Hispanics speak mainly or only Spanish at work. Ninety-four percent of U.S.-born Hispanics learn Spanish, according to a survey by the Pew Hispanic Center.

Culture is also a barrier. Thirty-five percent of the Hispanic population is relatively unacculturated. Besides being Spanish-dominant, unacculturated Hispanics may share other characteristics, such as family obligations and influences from their country of origin. They generally have larger families and have more generations living under one roof. Social protocols may drive the need for highly personalized customer service. Another barrier is understanding the need for and value of insurance since most products are non-existent or luxury items in their countries.

We can help overcome these barriers through culturally sensitive enrollment strategies and in-language benefit education tools. We can educate and build trust through relevant written and verbal communications and by addressing product benefits and key areas of confusion.

Meeting the Need

Those who earn less than the general population and have limited access to financial advisors can take advantage of worksite benefits that are more affordable than individual products. Several products may be applicable to Hispanics who have minimal personal savings and are ill prepared financially for the future or for emergencies. These products include short-term disability, accident, critical illness, life, and long-term care. Providing term life and interest-sensitive whole life may be advisable for those who are underinsured in life insurance and have extensive family obligations.
Critical illness coverage can help Hispanics who practice less health prevention and wait for illnesses to become serious before seeking medical attention. An accident insurance policy would be an option for Hispanics who are more likely to use emergency and walk-in healthcare services. A long-term care policy with a home health option would reduce the financial burden for Hispanics who believe in caring for the elderly at home.

Another vital way to meet the needs of the Hispanic market is to provide marketing materials or verbal communications in a clear and culturally relevant manner. Materials should be written from scratch in universal Spanish. Likewise, bilingual enrollers, claims representatives, or customer service representatives should receive in-language training.

The enrollment process needs to be explained in Spanish. Spanish is desired for complex sales among Hispanics. Also a face-to-face relationship is important.
Ineffective enrollment practices include the following:
• Enrollment announcements in English only.
• Enrollment brochures translated literally from English.
• Group presentations that include technical insurance jargon.
• Enrollers who don’t speak Spanish.
• Translations conducted by an employee volunteer without any preparation or training.
With an ineffective enrollment there are many questions for the HR department, there is low participation, and there are Spanish-speaking employees who don’t understand the value of the benefits the employer is providing.
On the other hand, a successful enrollment includes the following:
• A full array of pre-enrollment communications in Spanish including posters, stuffers, letters, newsletter, and a Website.
• Product materials written in Spanish with easy-to-understand terms.
• Fully trained, bilingual employees who walk employees through the enrollment process.
• An employer that is not burdened with translation.
With an effective enrollment, Spanish-speaking employees understand their options, make educated benefit choices, feel positive about the employer and the enrollment process, and see the value of their benefit plan.

Carriers should provide Spanish capabilities across key customer touch-points, especially after the sale to answer questions, in Spanish, on understanding policy provisions and filing a claim. Bilingual service capabilities are a must. There has been an increase in the demand for Spanish-speaking support in customer service departments. Calls to the Spanish line at the Unum’s Contact Center reached 35,000 in 2007.

Best Practices Checklist for Hispanic Marketing

• Offer effective benefit communication for Hispanics: This involves a deeper understanding of cultural differences, such as family and social values, traditions, attitudes, and beliefs. Find a benefit provider that can provide a full-range of Spanish educational communications that explain the value of benefits offered through the workplace.
• Offer a choice of benefits package so employees can select the level of coverage they need and can afford from dependent coverage to buy-up opportunities.
• Help Hispanic employees fulfill their commitment to family.
• A recent LIMRA study reveals that, with multiple generations living under the same roof, Hispanic employees likely have more people depending on them for financial support.
• Supplemental health can assist with out-of-pocket medical costs and the impact of catastrophic illnesses.
• Disability coverage can ensure that family obligations are met if an employee can’t work because of an illness or accident.
• Long-term care coverage with a home health benefit can be beneficial for Hispanic employees who have a strong cultural preference for taking care of ailing family members at home. Hispanic employees are less likely to choose coverage that is limited to nursing homes or assisted living facilities.
• Use a benefit provider that can serve Hispanic employees continuously, from one-on-one pre-enrollment sessions to responsive claims handling. This can take the burden off HR departments while serving the needs of workers.
Employers, brokers, and carriers should work together to meet the benefit needs of Hispanics. Increasing the participation rate among Hispanic employees depends on enhancing the Hispanic enrollment and communication process. Not only does this approach provide short-term rewards, but it also has long-term implications. Hispanics have a stronger brand loyalty than does the general population, so there is a strong opportunity to cross-sell over their lifetime. q
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Bilda Acuña is assistant vice president of Hispanic Markets for Unum. She can be reached at bacuna@unum.com.