If the last year has taught us anything, it's to expect the unexpected. Perhaps that's why voluntary benefits continue to see growth, both in terms of how many employers are offering them and how many employees are enrolling in them. In 2017, nearly half of large employers offered accident, critical illness and/or hospital indemnity. At companies where voluntary benefits are offered, 28 percent of eligible employees purchased at least one voluntary benefit in 2017. This is a 33 percent increase since 2014.
Despite these trends, there is still massive opportunity for growth. When talking to employers who are on the fence or hesitant about offering voluntary benefits, here are a few talking points that I've seen help employees understand the value:
Voluntary benefits support physical and financial wellness. You've got to be living under a rock if you haven't been talking about wellness in the workplace.Employee stress from dealing with medical, legal and financial issues cost American businesses more than $300 billion a year. At first glance, the use of voluntary benefits to help combat these issues might not be clear. However, benefits like legal insurance give employees the resources they need to solve these issues effectively and efficiently so they can get back to work. Another popular voluntary benefit, financial wellness programs, can help with huge financial stressors like student loans, debt consolidation and tax issues.
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Your employees expect choices. Most people these days (especially millennials) are used to an on-demand world where they're in control of choosing options that are useful to them and ignoring options that aren't. People want this with their benefits package as well — a wide range of options so they can create a personalized package. As long as that includes things they are truly benefiting from, they won't mind as much that they are paying for it. Providing options pays off. An Aflac survey found that employees who were offered voluntary benefits were 19 percent more likely to be satisfied with their job and 14 percent less likely to be search for a new one.
Improved technology makes implementation less of a hassle. There's now a wide array of technology providers offering more streamlined technology that makes voluntary benefits easier to implement for employers and brokers. Online enrollment, automated processing of administrative tasks and the ability for employees to "self-serve" all make the voluntary benefits enrollment process more attractive. Not to mention that the right technology will actually lower employers' administrative and IT costs in the long run, plus provide valuable data to determine what employers need to offer moving forward to retain and recruit employees.
When taken full advantage of, voluntary benefits play a vital role in attracting and retaining the type of employees that make companies a success. Once employers understand the true value of these benefits, they will be more willing to increase their offerings.
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