Employees today aren’t just asking what they get. They’re asking: Do I matter here?
And too often, the answer is fuzzy, inconsistent, or missing altogether.
According to MetLife’s 2025 Employee Benefit Trends Study (EBTS), employees’ perception of being cared for dropped eight percentage points in just one year. That number jumps to 11% among Millennials. The workforce is tired, skeptical, and increasingly vocal about what matters.
Companies may be offering the right things, but they’re not communicating them in ways employees trust, understand, or even see.
Culture Isn’t a Poster in the Break Room
You can’t build culture with a mission statement. You create it with the everyday stuff: how people are treated, how support shows up, how transparent leadership is, and yes, the policies and benefits that either back your values or quietly contradict them.
That’s the thing about benefits. They’re cultural artifacts. They tell your people what you care about.
- Generous parental leave? That says family matters.
- Investment in career development? You believe in growth.
- Comprehensive mental health coverage? Well-being is a priority.
These are signals employees are reading. They don’t expect perfection, but they do expect consistency between what’s said and what’s done.
The Real Risk Is in Not Knowing
The bigger problem is that even when companies do offer meaningful support, too few employees know it’s there.
MetLife reports that 89% of employees believe their organization could improve its benefits to build trust … yet many remain unaware of what’s already available.
That’s not a generosity problem. That’s a communication gap.
When there’s a gap between what you offer and what employees perceive, the result is confusion and dissonance, which leads to doubt.
Doubt in the company’s intentions. Doubt in leadership. Doubt in whether they actually belong there.
Internal Communication = Culture in Action
One of the most overlooked drivers of culture is how you talk to your employees. Not just at orientation, not just during open enrollment, but always.
Forward-thinking companies treat internal communication like internal marketing, with the same care and clarity they bring to external messaging. That means:
- Ditching the jargon.
- Showing up in the right channels — emails, Slack, 1:1s, town halls.
- Sharing real stories from real employees.
- Repeating what matters.
In a time when trust is fragile, repetition is reassurance.
Culture That’s Felt (and Believed)
At the end of the day, benefits and policies are the proof points of culture. And communication connects those proof points to employee belief.
If employees don’t see the support, it doesn’t exist for them. If they don’t trust the message, it doesn’t matter how generous the offer is.
Don’t let your values get lost in fine print or forgotten slide decks. Show your employees they matter in the moments that count — through benefits that align with what you stand for and communication that proves you mean it.
Because culture isn’t what you say — it’s what they feel.
Make it seen. Make it heard. Make it undeniable.
Learn more about how TRS helps organizations bring their total rewards to life — clearly, consistently, and meaningfully.
