The gaps weobserve in penetration rates of fundamental benefits provide uswith opportunities in two dimensions: improving our messages toemployers and to employees. (Photo: Shutterstock)

It's a general perception that people who see a glass as halffull are optimists and those who see it as half empty arepessimists. But in our business, that may not be true. Let'sconsider a half-empty glass as a marketing opportunity.

The half-empty glass is disability income protection. In fact, ourmetaphorical glass is more than half empty because of gaps at boththe employer and employee level. Consider these facts: First,SHRM's 2017 Employee Benefit Study indicated that only 65 percentof employers offer short-term disability income protection and 72percent of employers offer long-term disability protection. Second, onlyabout half of all eligible employees enroll in disability incomeprotection. Put these together and you have a big gap between thebenefits employees should have and those that actually protectthem.

Related: 5 way brokers can maximize voluntary benefitsportfolios

Marty Traynor is vice presidentof voluntary
benefits at Mutual of Omaha.

There is a significant gap in life insurance penetration, as well. Accordingto LIMRA, only about two-thirds of employees purchase lifeinsurance through their employer when offered. That leaves a gap ofaround one-third of all employees.

The gaps we observe in penetration rates of these fundamentalbenefits provide us with opportunities in two dimensions: improvingour messages to employers and to employees.

At the employer level, life insurance and disability incomeprotection coverage should be considered part of the base ofbenefits. Employer-provided life insurance should always besupplemented by voluntary life insurance options. Employersgenerally provide a base of life coverage to employees, butindividual needs usually exceed the amount funded by employers.Similarly, disability income protection with options for bothshort- and long-term coverage should always be available.

At the employee level, voluntary benefits provide a greatservice. LIMRA studies of insurance buying behavior show that manypeople do not buy insurance because they become “stuck shoppers.”Consumers often become stuck because they do not know whichinsurance company to trust, whether they will be turned down due tohealth issues, or what plan design to choose—to say nothing of howmuch coverage they need or the cost of coverage.

Employers take charge of many of these decisions in planningtheir voluntary benefits. We help as well, during enrollment, whenwe show employees the cost of the products per pay period. Thishelps them see how affordable voluntary products can be.

Finally, payroll deduction allows employers to take the burdenof paying premiums off the employees' shoulders. In all, voluntaryplans help stuck shoppers become happy buyers.

Improving employee participation starts with the employer.Employers want voluntary benefits to help attract and retaintalented employees. If an employer thinks that “supportingvoluntary benefits” means simply loading them into a system, theyare missing the value of voluntary. We need to be able toproactively present voluntary benefits so they can make informeddecisions.

Every month, we see articles enticing brokers and consultants tomarket voluntary plans that answer much less basic needs thandisability income protection and life insurance. Let's not make themistake of missing fundamental opportunities to chase secondaryneeds. Let's fill up those half-full glasses!