The Power of Modern Benefits Communication: A Real-World Success Story with Fortune Brands Innovations, Inc.

For many employers, Annual Enrollment (AE) remains one of the most challenging communication moments of the year. Materials tend to be dense, administrative, and overwhelming, especially for associates who are already juggling heavy workloads, varied schedules, and an ever-growing list of personal demands.

But with the right strategy, AE can become one of the most powerful opportunities to strengthen associate engagement, improve benefits literacy, and equip HR teams with tools that make their jobs more efficient and more impactful.

This year, our team at LoVasco had the opportunity to partner with Fortune Brands on exactly that kind of transformation. Led by the forward-thinking Benefits team—including Nina Auffart, Amy Hutkowski, and Frank Janecek—the organization wanted to completely rethink how benefits were communicated…and how associates experienced AE from start to finish.

A Clear Vision: “We Need People to Use Their Benefits.”

When I first connected with Nina and Amy, they were refreshingly candid about their goals.

“We just want people to use their benefits—really use them,” Nina told me. “We’ve spent the last couple of years building out this really curated suite of programs. But associates can’t engage if they don’t know what they have. The communications were too word-heavy and too intimidating.”

Fortune Brands had recently launched a new benefits website, which meant it was finally possible to remove dense, technical language from the AE guide and instead house detailed content online. That shift opened the door to something more meaningful: a thoughtfully reimagined Annual Enrollment experience.

Amy wanted materials that were:

• More visual
• More concise
• More conversational, relatable, and human
• Less administrative
• Less “change-management heavy”
• And most importantly: more engaging

She also recognized the reality facing today’s workforce.

“Sometimes when I open a document or email and see a long paragraph, I think, ‘I can’t deal with that right now.’ Associates feel the same way,” Nina said.  

Amy also noted: “We live in a world of short, sound-byte videos. We have to communicate in ways people are actually used to seeing.”

Their instincts were exactly right…and perfectly aligned with the latest communication trends we see across our client base.

Reimagining the AE Guide: From Administrative to Approachable

Our first major step was transforming the traditional AE guide into what Nina and Amy called “a more marketing-oriented piece.”

That meant:

• Breaking up content into digestible chunks
• Using compelling headlines
• Removing jargon and formal HR terminology
• Pushing detailed plan information to the benefits website
• Incorporating visual cues, callouts, charts, and summaries
• Adding content that was designed to provide decision support—not only to educate the associate on the benefits but to help them decide which were right for them as well
• Tightening the reading experience to feel lighter and more modern

The result was a guide that still provided structure and clarity—but was far less intimidating than in years past.

Because Fortune Brands employs a significant deskless workforce, and one that speaks various languages, we also produced fully translated Spanish versions, printed guides for plants, and large-format posters for onsite display. Every decision centered on accessibility, inclusivity, and multimodal communication.

We also created a home mailer with a QR code directing associates and their spouses to the robust website containing all enrollment materials and educational videos, a small but powerful step in meeting associates and families where they naturally are.

The Challenge: Delivering Information Consistently—Across 6,000 Associates and Families

While redesigning materials was important, one challenge loomed large: delivering AE presentations that would engage the full diversity of associates, making sure that the information conveyed was maximally understood—as well as easier for local HR teams across the company to share the information with associates at their locations.

Fortune Brands’ local HR teams are responsible for delivering enrollment meetings across locations—some in person, some via Zoom. But, as the team noted, “The delivery had the potential to vary from presenter to presenter, as everyone has their own personal style, approach, and comfort level when making presentations.”

The challenge is making sure that there is no wide gap in associate experience. And because associates often go to their own supervisors with questions before they go to HR, inconsistencies have the potential to arise if not addressed proactively and thoughtfully.

The Fortune Brand Benefits Team has been working to address this for years. But this year, they took those efforts to a higher standard, with a brilliantly modern solution.

The Breakthrough: Seven Custom Video Vignettes

Instead of relying solely on live static Power Point presentations, we all agreed we could improve engagement by embedding short, polished videos directly into the AE slide deck, turning the presentation into a multimedia experience.

We loved this instantly. The videos would:

• Ensure every associate hears the exact same information
• Reduce pressure on HR presenters
• Improve clarity and comprehension
• Add a dynamic, engaging “rhythm” to the presentation
• Provide evergreen content for new-hire orientation

With Frank’s leadership support to make this change, Nina and Amy collaborated closely to shape content balanced with associate and HR needs. Working at an unusually fast pace—seven videos in ten weeks—our team collaborated with theirs to write scripts, develop storyboards, produce motion-graphics videos, integrated alternated male and female voiceover talent, and coordinate embedded Spanish captioning that could be toggled on as needed.

The final presentation included seven explainer-style videos, each focused on a specific topic, with live presenter transitions in between.

The result was immediate. Nina, Amy and Frank observed, “What we found was that the content covered in the videos had far fewer questions than the content that was not. It was fascinating, and it really proved how powerful this format can be.”

Amy also noted that attention didn’t wane in the way it sometimes does in traditional 30-minute, single-voice presentations. Instead, associates were actively engaged, shifting focus every few minutes as the presentation moved between presenter remarks and video segments.

A True Partnership—and a Remarkable Turnaround

Behind the scenes, this was an extremely tight timeline, one that required focus, responsiveness, and collaboration on both sides. I told Nina and Amy more than once that not every client could have successfully executed this level of transformation in such a compressed window. Her clarity and decisiveness were a major asset. Weekly meetings, quick feedback loops, and clear decision-making helped us keep production moving at a speed rarely seen in AE video projects.

The Fortune Brands team was all-in. And that commitment showed in the final outcome. After rollout, Nina sent me a message that meant the world to our team:

“The videos are fantastic—simple, clear, modern, and crisp. It’s such a great feeling to have this content buttoned up and readily available for our associates and their families. This year’s AE communications have moved us forward in a meaningful way and have truly elevated our overall communications strategy.”

If the goal was to elevate benefits communication from functional to strategic, the Fortune Brands team achieved exactly that.

Measurable Impact—and a Foundation for the Future

While results are still coming in, early indicators are strong:

• Engagement during presentations increased noticeably.
• HR teams reported significantly reduced pressure and a more consistent delivery experience.
• Associates asked fewer questions on topics covered through video.
• Even with a passive enrollment year, participation reached approximately 70%—well above expectations.
• A partner responsible for updating the benefits portal told Fortune Brands that the AE guide was “one of the most professional” she’d ever seen.

Most importantly, associates are now receiving information in a way that is approachable and easy to act on—supporting the organization’s population-health strategy and eliminating unnecessary friction for both HR and supervisors.

What Other Employers Can Learn from This Work

Three lessons stand out:

1. Modern benefits communication is multimodal.

Print alone doesn’t work. Video alone doesn’t work. Email alone doesn’t work. But in combination, they create a powerful, accessible experience.

2. Visual, concise content drives comprehension.
The days of dense booklets and paragraph-heavy emails are gone—and that’s a good thing.

3. Strategic communication lifts HR’s reputation internally.
Nina said it best: “In the eyes of associates, this was a step up for HR as a whole, delivering information in a more modern approach—more aligned to the way associates receive information in their personal lives.” And she’s right. When communication looks polished and feels intentional, associates notice. It helps further employer/associate trust, as the company comes across as more transparent. The team added, “As an organization, we truly want to help our valued associates understand what’s available to them…and to use it to their maximum benefit.”

Think Different to Make a Difference

Projects like this illustrate what’s possible when an organization is willing to think differently—and when leaders like Nina, Amy, and Frank champion innovation, clarity, and accessibility—measurable impact can be achieved and teams can make a real difference. When done well, creative thinking can transform not only Annual Enrollment, but the associate experience as a whole.

The modernization of associate benefits communication isn’t just a trend anymore. It’s a strategic imperative.