Huge Co. (you may want to review the facts in the Huge Co. case in Chapter 4)

has now developed the new benefits program for the software managers based on the consulting company’s report, which incorporated an assessment of best practices in the industry and consultation with benefits managers at both companies.

The new program has the following features:

• Life insurance options will be unchanged for employees from both premerger companies. Huge Co. will pay for a base level of insurance (two times salary) and the employee can elect to pay for additional coverage.

• A flexible spending account is a new key feature, under which employees can set aside pretax dollars for medical spending or dependent care. This will be a new feature for the CC employees.

• A vendor who is new to both companies will provide medical insurance, but the new company offers a broader choice of physicians than either plan previously, and employees will retain several choices about the type of plan they enroll in. Employees who actively participate in exercise classes and other health maintenance activities will receive additional credit toward health care deductibles.

• Dental/orthodontic insurance is optional and, if elected, is paid for by the employee.

• Vision will not be offered, but would be covered under the flexible spending account.

• The company will match 401K contributions up to 12 percent of salary, and stock options will be offered to high-performing software engineers. The change team (CT) has managed the major integration of the two companies, and they have asked for your input on a task that has a smaller scope but is essential to the continued success of the company: advising the software engineers of both companies about their new plan. As Mariel Salinas, the former benefits manager at Computer Co., your new position will encompass all the benefits for the two merged companies.

You believe the new plan is consistent with the mission and vision of the merged companies and that it really is the “best of both worlds” in merging the plans from the two companies. The new flexible spending account will be attractive to the software engineers. Most of the other key features of the plans remain fairly similar, with only a few key changes.

The Assignment You, as Mariel, have been asked by the CT to develop a communication program to roll out the new benefits to the approximately 5,500 software engineers across the company, which still has offices in four countries. You are expecting delivery of the booklets with all the key details of the plan within two weeks, but the information is readily available on their Web sites right now.

You must consider the steps you will need to take to convey this information, the media you will use, the sequence of events, and the content of the communications about the new plan. Develop the communication program to submit to the CT. Remember that a key reason for the merger was adding the software engineers from Computer Co. to the Huge Co. team; they need to understand the new plan and to feel that they are valued members of the new team.