In today’s hiring landscape, employers are moving beyond traditional health and retirement benefits to embrace unique incentives that attract top talent. In particular, employers are hyper-focused on unique benefits that attract the millennial generation, which has surpassed Generation X as the largest age group in the workforce. While most employers and HR professionals have likely read countless articles about empowering millennial employees in the workplace, it cannot be denied that this generation faces a much different work/life landscape than those that came before them.

Since traditional benefits no longer serve most of the workforce as they once did, continued conversation is necessary to identify new employer strategies, including the implementation of unusual benefits that address millennials’ specific needs and challenges. These include the flexibility to allow employees to work where and when they want, personalized wellness programs that incorporate gamification and recognition for goals met, mental health resources for employees and their families, sabbaticals that encourage personal growth and exploration, and more. Such examples not only meet the unique needs of millennial employees, but they also help organizations foster an authentic and empathetic workplace culture.

Rethinking traditional benefits to address employee stress

One of the main goals employers have for their workplace benefits is to reduce employee stress. Personal stressors can lead to decreased workforce productivity, absenteeism, and turnover—which ultimately take a negative toll on overall office culture. Reducing stress is particularly critical for millennial employees, as this generation reports higher stress levels than any other age group. Millennials are also more likely than other generations to say their stress has a very strong impact on their physical and mental health.

Naively, the benefits world has always held firm to the belief that stress derives from the effect of a problem, rather than the cause of a problem. For example, instead of trying to provide health and wellness tools to an unhealthy person, a better strategy is to ask why the person faces health challenges to begin with. Slowly, employers are coming to realize that the only way to solve the effect of stress is by implementing unique benefits that address the underlying cause. Only when employers understand where their employees’ stress is coming from, will they be able to create programs to help their teams avoid those stressors in the first place.

Considering the main cause of millennial stress: their finances

Arguably the biggest cause of stress for young adults is money. A 2017 Workplace Benefits Report states that 67 percent of employees in this age group say financial stress impacts their ability to focus and be productive at work, and 68 percent said that financial stress takes a negative toll on their physical health as well. Many are burdened by student loan debt but hold an entry level job for mediocre pay. Older millennials are balancing their long-term educational debt with the cost of raising a young family, saving for a wedding, or buying their first home.

In the past, young employees could seek financial advice from a confidant or an older family member about retirement, loans, and bills, but as technology has advanced, financial terms are no longer so simplistic. In fact, millennials and Gen X employees are withdrawing more money from retirement plans than prior years, according to a recent PWC employee wellness survey. Many of these withdrawals are the result of unexpected expenses. Therefore, it is crucial for employers to consider their employees’ financial knowledge and stress levels by providing benefits beyond traditional retirement plans and health and wellness programs. These solutions should empower financially-stressed employees through personalized education to put them more in control of their spending.

Employers should also seek unique benefit solutions that can easily isolate segments of their workforce to deliver the right kind of communication to the right person. This capability allows employers to help millennial workers, for example, crush student loan repayments, while also meeting the needs of their Gen X and Baby Boomer employees.

By addressing individual employee financial stressors with access to personalized and relevant content, as well as professionals that can help employees get a handle on the underlying causes of their stress, employers can take proactive steps in creating a culture of holistic employee wellness.

Unique benefits impact company culture

Unique benefits, such as financial wellness, do not only help attract millennial talent and address their stressors. They are also important because the way an organization structures its benefits, especially its unique benefits, ultimately determines the type of company culture a workplace has.

As organizations begin to think outside-of-the-box about benefits that help employees manage stress, employers will find that employees feel more comfortable at work. Increased workplace comfort also inspires a greater sense of employee loyalty and workplace satisfaction.

This idea is exemplified in Businessolver’s 2017 Workplace Empathy Monitor survey. Nearly all of employees (95 percent) believe that showing empathy is an important way to advance employee retention, and two-thirds of respondents believed employers can best express empathy through benefits packages. It’s no surprise that the benefits employees pointed to as opportunities to demonstrate employer empathy were directly related to their stressors. In fact, ninety percent of respondents agreed financial well-being and student loan debt repayment benefits express employer empathy, as well as other unique perks such as flexible work hours and location, paid maternity and paternity leave, and family benefits.

In our current immensely competitive hiring landscape, employers are searching for new ways to attract high-caliber talent and retain existing staff. Since culture is what is truly attracting millennials to the workplace, unique benefits now play a key role in how an organization can create the culture it desires. Remember that if a company doesn’t establish and cultivate its culture, the culture will set itself.

Organizations that take the time to identify key stressors in the lives of their employees, and offer unique benefits that help ease those challenges, are making great strides in ensuring a positive company culture that promotes employee happiness and loyalty.

Instant Insights /

Are your benefits easing employee stress and building company culture?

More From HR Executive

Related Stories

Recommended For You