Driving Utilization Starts With Easy Onboarding

When it comes to health benefits, one truth stands out: even the best solution won’t matter if employees don’t use it. Too often, organizations invest in great programs, only to see low utilization simply because employees never get past the first step: onboarding.

At Radish Health, we’ve seen this challenge up close. That’s why we’ve built an onboarding process designed not just to “get people signed up,” but to make it effortless, engaging, and lasting.

It Starts With Simplicity

We work directly with our clients to securely preload eligible employee census data, ensuring that the people who need access are ready to go from day one. For teams that want ongoing accuracy, we can also connect directly with popular HR, payroll, and TPA systems to keep data synced automatically.

From there, outreach is personal and proactive. Every eligible employee receives a customized email and text message inviting them to join Radish Health. When they tap through to register, they find their information already prefilled. All they need to do is confirm or update their details. Registration takes just a few seconds, not another chore on their to-do list.

We also provide printed posters with QR codes that clients can place around the workplace. Employees simply scan the code to quickly access Radish Health and complete registration, making the program visible and easy to use right where they are.

When Simple Onboarding Creates Real Impact

Take Maria, a warehouse supervisor at one of our manufacturing clients. Like many employees in physically demanding roles, she’d been dealing with chronic back pain for months but kept putting off seeking care. The company’s previous health benefit required multiple phone calls, lengthy forms, and unclear next steps – barriers that felt insurmountable during her busy workdays.

When her employer switched to Radish Health, Maria received a personalized text message during her lunch break. With just a few taps, she registered using her pre-filled information and immediately saw available appointment slots that fit her schedule. Within the same week, she had a virtual consultation, received a treatment plan, and was connected with a local physical therapist.

“I finally got the help I needed because it was actually easy,” Maria later told her HR director. “Before, I would have just kept dealing with the pain.”

Maria’s story illustrates what we see repeatedly: when the path to care is frictionless, employees don’t just register, they actually engage with their health benefits when they need them most.

Onboarding That Continues Beyond Day One

Onboarding doesn’t end with registration. Whether an employee signs up immediately or not, they’re guided through a thoughtful onboarding sequence over time. These touchpoints highlight how and when to use Radish Health, removing the uncertainty that often keeps people from taking the first step.

Because healthcare is about more than just moments of crisis, we also share timely educational content with employees, including tips on managing seasonal allergies and reminders about preventive care. These resources help employees see Radish Health as relevant to their everyday lives, not just something they’ll use when they’re sick.

If an onsite clinic is part of the program, our approach goes one step further. Our onsite staff actively engage employees, introducing them to the Radish Health platform and demonstrating how in-person care works together with the program. This personal connection builds trust and reinforces when and how employees should use Radish, making it far more likely they’ll take advantage of their benefits.

The Hidden Cost of Complicated Onboarding

The outcome is clear. When onboarding is this easy, visible, and ongoing, more employees engage with Radish Health from the start, and more of them continue to use it over time. That means higher registration, better adoption, and most importantly, healthier employees.

But here’s what keeps us up at night: for every Maria who gets the care she needs, there are countless employees at other companies still struggling with barriers that shouldn’t exist. Every day that onboarding remains complicated is another day that someone’s health challenge goes unaddressed—not because the solution isn’t available, but because the first step is too hard.

In the end, utilization doesn’t happen by chance. It happens when the path to care is seamless, supportive, and engaging. At Radish Health, we’ve designed our onboarding to do exactly that.

The question for every benefits leader isn’t whether your employees need healthcare support. It’s whether they can actually access it when they do. Because when employees actually use their benefits, everyone wins.