Side Affects Episode 139 | Non-Negotiables for Benefit Communication: Part II

October 16, 2024·28 min·1 clip

You find throughout the entire meal you are continually looking up at the television screen.

Kenzie McEvely hosts Side Effects with Dave Homan back to finish the rest of his non-negotiables for effective benefits communication. He brings nearly 30 years in the employee benefits industry and a year devoted to studying the psychology of benefit communication. The focus stays practical. Homan says a presenter’s job is to keep the room engaged, not just get through the deck. Energy matters. So do eye contact, open-ended questions, polling software, and quick invitations for examples. He pushes presenters to avoid spending too long on slides that only matter to a tiny slice of the audience. A five-minute detour for 2% of the room is a bad trade if it loses everyone else. The episode then shifts into a slide experiment with colored balls on the page. The point is simple: fewer objects are easier for the brain to process. Homan uses the timing results to show why slide density matters. More objects take longer, fewer objects land almost immediately. That leads into working memory, visual clarity, and the real cost of clutter. He keeps coming back to the same idea: communication should help the audience hold onto the message, not just stare at it. There is also a memorable reveal with big red letters on a black background across two jumbotrons. It lands like a stage trick, but it also makes the memory lesson hard to miss. McEvely keeps the conversation moving with follow-ups that bring the ideas back to open enrollment presentations. The result is a clear, practical talk about presentations, attention, and benefits psychology. It stays focused, which is exactly what it wants from everyone else.

As heard by us

Better benefits communication starts with the room, not the slide deck.

The episode stays practical about what keeps a benefits presentation alive: eye contact, questions, polling, pacing, and not hanging around a slide that only matters to part of the room.

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Why you'd press play

Your open enrollment deck needs fewer words and better room control.

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Play clips from this episode More from McGohan Brabender Side Affects: Disrupting Health Care