Attachment 4 - Communication Vehicles.doc

Communication Vehicles

We expect the Contractor to concentrate the education and marketing campaign on Federal and United States Postal Service employees and annuitants, active members of the uniformed services, and retired members of the uniformed services. Peripheral groups, such as adult children and parents, cannot be easily identified but can be reached tangentially through the core groups mentioned above.

We also expect the Contractor to discuss, plan, and schedule all communications events with OPM before implementation.

The rest of this section describes many available communications vehicles that may be unique to the Federal community, and how the Contractor can use them. However, these should not be considered the only forms of communication available to the Contractor, who we encourage to be creative and innovative in their use of all types of communication channels.

General Communication Vehicles OPM Website

We have an Internet web site devoted to the FLTCIP at www.opm.gov/insure/ltc. We provide basic information about the Program on this site and provide links to the Contractor’s web site, where detailed Program information will reside. OPM’s “Insure” web site (www.opm.gov/insure), which provides links to the health, life, dental/vision and long term care insurance pages and the flexible spending account program page, is heavily visited throughout the year and is especially active during the annual Federal Benefits Open Season. This web site is advertised extensively in benefits material and is a featured link on the OPM.gov home page.

Affinity Organizations

Affinity organizations such as the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), Federally Employed Women, Blacks in Government, and the Federal Managers Association, can be effective in helping to disseminate information to their memberships. However, OPM does not assist in developing these relationships.

Communication Vehicles Specific to Federal Employees

Decentralized

Communicating with Federal employees is decentralized at the agency/department level. We do not have a master list of email or home addresses for Federal employees. The Contractor will be unable to mail information directly to employees’ home addresses.

Federal Benefits Officers

Each agency/department has at least one official headquarters benefits officer who coordinates the Federal Benefits Open Season for their agency and disseminates information on the various Federal benefits – retirement, thrift savings plan, health benefits, life insurance, long term care insurance, leave programs, etc. These benefits officers are the Contractor’s “gateway” into the agency for educational and marketing efforts such as retirement seminars, Open Season fairs, new hire orientations, blast emails, Intranet postings, etc. There are approximately 150 benefits officers. A list of headquarters level Agency Benefits Officers and their contact information is located at http://apps.opm.gov/abo/.

We hold regular meetings of benefits officers in OPM’s auditorium. Time on the agenda can be made available to the Contractor to talk about FLTCIP issues and initiatives.

We have specifically told benefits officers that they do not need to be conversant on long term care insurance issues and they are not responsible for educating their employees about the FLTCIP. When employees approach their agencies with a question, the human resources professionals refer them to the Contractor’s toll-free number, the website, or written material. Agency human resources professionals are conduits in directing employees where to go for answers, as opposed to answering the questions directly. The Contractor is responsible for educating employees and answering their questions using a variety of avenues.

Many agencies offer retirement seminars, lunch and learn sessions, benefits fairs, financial literacy efforts, and other venues in which the Contractor can participate. The Contractor must work through individual agency benefits officers to determine what opportunities are available.

The Small Agency Council (www.sac.gov) is the voluntary management association that represents about 80 sub-Cabinet, independent Federal agencies. The SAC may be able to provide insight into effective ways to reach employees of small agencies.

LTCInfo Listserv

OPM conveys important FLTCIP information through an automated email listserv called LTCInfo. This listserv is targeted toward human resources personnel responsible for or interested in the FLTCIP, including those in the military, although anyone can sign up to receive the emails. We know that some members of the press and industry representatives are on this listserv. We used this extensively during the 2002 implementation and Open Season and occasionally throughout the rest of the contract term.

We have another email listserv at our disposal, called BENEFITSInfo. This listserv is also targeted to human resource personnel but has a wider reach than the LTCInfo listserv. It has extensive non-governmental membership, but its drawback for FLTCIP purposes is that it does not have military membership. A third email listserv, BO-ANNOUNCEMENTS, is restricted only to agency headquarters benefits officers.

Websites

Individual Federal agencies/departments also have their own Internet web sites and/or Intranets and many provide links to the FLTCIP web site from their pages. Some agencies may accept “turn-key” announcements to post on their web sites.

Access to the Internet

The majority of Federal employees have Internet access either at work or at home. However, by the nature of their work, some employees have limited or no access at their workplace (e.g., letter carriers, forest rangers).

Payroll Inserts Most Federal employees receive their pay through electronic funds transfer. Most no longer receive a hard-copy statement of their pay each pay period, but rather log onto a web site to access their statements. You may contact payroll providers to inquire about placing messages on hard copy or electronic payroll statements that are usually limited to one or two lines. This should not be a major focus of educational efforts.

Distribution Channels

Material distribution is decentralized at the agency/department level and the number of distribution points will vary from agency to agency.

Benefits Administration Letters

We issue Benefits Administration Letters (BALs) with important information about our benefits programs. We post the Benefits Administration Letters on OPM’s BAL website at http://www.opm.gov/retire/asd/htm/bal-1.asp and on the human resources page of the FLTCIP web site at www.opm.gov/insure/ltc/hr.asp. We also distribute all BALs via email to subscribers of the BENEFITSInfo listserv and those specifically on long term care insurance to subscribers of the LTCInfo listserv.

We use the BALs to send information and instructions to agencies, and can also send them pattern letters, pattern emails, pattern articles, pattern HTML text, etc., for use in employee letters, employee emails, house publications, Intranets, etc. This is a good way to get information to employees through their human resources offices.

Satellite Broadcasts

Several agencies, including OPM, have established systems for broadcasting presentations of interest to Federal employees through satellite transmission and web streaming. The Contractor may be able to work with these agencies to produce broadcasts about the FLTCIP. Agencies may charge a fee for this service.

Other

Many Federal employees read publications such as the Federal Times, NARFE Magazine, Federal Employees News Digest, Govexec.com, Federal Managers Association newsletters, and FedNews Online.

There are opportunities for the Contractor to participate in radio shows and online chats on benefits issues, such as those through Federal News Radio and washingtonpost.com. Other forms of communication, such as podcasts, can be investigated.

Communication Vehicles Specific to Federal Annuitants

Correspondence Addresses

We have correspondence addresses for Federal annuitants and survivor annuitants who are on OPM’s rolls receiving an annuity. We can facilitate direct mailings to annuitants, if desired, but we will not pay postage costs.

Although 67% of Federal annuitants surveyed in fiscal year 2007 state a preference for receiving information via postal mail, there are some challenges to this method. Annuitants frequently tell us that they do not receive mailings, including annual mailings that OPM sends. Because most annuitants receive their annuities via electronic funds transfer and many receive other updates via OPM’s Services Online system, there isn’t a strong incentive for annuitants to keep their correspondence address up-to-date. The other obstacle we run into is the lack of awareness that a particular mailing is important and so it is treated as junk mail.

Access to Internet

Sixty-two percent of 2007 survey respondents said that they have access to the Internet. This percentage has risen two to four percent with each annual survey. Thirty-nine percent reported that they accessed OPM's web site (www.opm.gov/retire) in the previous year.

Five percent of survey respondents state that they prefer to receive information over the Internet, while 10 percent prefer to receive information via e-mail.

Other

Many Federal annuitants also read NARFE Magazine.

Communication Vehicles Specific to Uniformed Services

Communication with active members of the uniformed services is decentralized and particularly challenging. Information is passed through a variety of channels: Unit/commander, functional area, word-of-mouth, public affairs, and traditional media. Communications through these sources may have secondary spillover effects into civilian federal employee, retiree, and family audiences. Advertising in traditional media (installation newspapers, local publications near installations, publications targeting military markets, service-affiliation organizations) can be an effective way to reach this audience.

Websites

The Department of Defense sponsors many websites. The Contractor can investigate opportunities to publicize the Program or provide links to the FLTCIP website from a multitude of these sites. Currently, the Military Compensation website at http://www.defenselink.mil/militarypay/benefits/militaryben.html contains a link to the FLTCIP site.

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