Employers looking to retain their younger employees can use this suggestion: Offer voluntary benefits.

A MetLife survey finds younger employees appreciate robust benefit offerings more than their boomer counterparts, even if it means paying all the cost for those voluntary benefits themselves.

The Gen Y and X generations, who comprised 56 percent of the small business workforce in the survey, say they recognize that their goal of more financial security can entail a cost, and as a group they are willing to do their part, despite the financial strains some of them are feeling. Two-thirds of those younger workers say they'd be willing to pay more of the cost of benefits rather than lose them.