70% of employees revealed that they want their employers to provide financial assistance and financial wellness voluntary benefits.
Employers have ramped up their benefits packages in the shortest span of time due to the pandemic. With the COVID-19 concerns, there was renewed awareness and focus on employee health and wellness. Companies began to invest in tools that can become a part of their repertoire and ensure that employees remain engaged, even while working from home because they know that their organizations show care and concern. The big question is – are companies doing only what is mandated, or are they also exploring the route to provide voluntary benefits?
Corestream, which is a leading platform for connecting employees with personalized voluntary benefits, has shared its new survey findings. As per these findings, voluntary benefits are driving employee retention and engagement. Voluntary benefits are essentially benefits that are offered in addition to the medical, dental, and vision coverage. The survey was conducted to cover 152 employees and 151 HR professionals in companies with at least 5000 people.
There is a huge knowledge gap between employers, among which 77.5% reported offering voluntary benefits, and employees, almost half of whom (49.3%) do not know what voluntary benefits are.
The respondents shared that offering voluntary benefits is a great way to attract and retain talent. Most employees (68.4%) said voluntary benefits have the potential to positively influence their desire to work for and remain with their employer. Also, almost half of the HR professionals (45.7%) said voluntary benefits attract new talent, 58.9% said they retain talent, and 43% said they help with employee engagement. One of the significant areas that were shared in the survey was financial support – almost 70% of the employees shared that if their employer offered financial assistance and financial wellness voluntary benefits, such as low-interest loans, student loan debt refinancing, and retailer discount plans, they would use those benefits.
In addition to that, there is a big opportunity for companies to improve their internal employee communication about voluntary benefits to close the knowledge gap that is present. The survey shares that while more than half (50.8%) of the HR professionals spend between almost a quarter to more than half of their time talking to employees about or administering benefits programs, only 23.8% of the employers communicate about benefits to employees regularly. Most employees (73%) prefer email as the method of communication about benefits.
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Given the correlation between voluntary benefits and employee engagement, there is a rise in this form of benefits. Here are some of the benefits that were launched during the pandemic.
1. Financial planning support – Platforms such as FinFit entered into partnerships with HR solution providers like PeopleStrategy to provide access to its financial tools and resources to PeopleStrategy’s clients. This will, in turn, ensure that these clients can provide expert advice to their employees on how to improve their financial wellness. Given the financial stress that workers are experiencing, this is a relevant voluntary benefit to offer. Similarly, if companies invest in platforms such as WorkJam they can ensure that through its ExpressPay functionality, the front-line employees can access their pay before payday and thus reduce their financial strain.
2. Working parenthood support – Villyge is also an employer-paid benefit that is designed to support working parents. Through its in-house team of lawyers it takes care of leadership training and also specializes in lactation accommodation law. Virtual childcare support from Flexable, UrbanSitter, and other such solution providers, is also being paid for by some organizations.
3. Insurance or Health Plans with more features – The regular medical care plans are not sufficient to meet employees’ current needs. There is a need to add aspects such as meeting the costs for telehealth, telemedicine, and therapy. Since employees are now working from home, there is a need to also provide them with benefits such as reimbursements for mental health counseling, ergonomic injuries, and so on.
While providing more and more voluntary benefits is a good approach, an equally important concern is to ensure adequate communication. Tools such as Alight Benefits Guidance are designed to help employees in improving their benefits utilization. The company’s licensed counselors guide the employees to increase their understanding of the complete benefits package, which includes voluntary and core benefits. The goal is to enhance employee experience so that they can leverage the company’s benefits strategy and understand their options better.
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