3 ways millennials, Gen Z will pressure benefit costs

In order to track employer benefits offerings, the Affordable Care Act (ACA) did something unheard of in the past: It required employers to aggregate and better manage complex workforce data from unrelated payroll, benefits administration and HRIS systems. This data aggregation brought with it many new opportunities for employer groups. With new insights stemming from ACA compliance and reporting data, benefits consultants and employers can gain a deeper understanding of how to use benefits and operational strategies to optimize the workforce. This article describes one way in which to leverage their ACA data.

For the first time in U.S. history, up to five generations are employed in the same workplace, suggesting that there is a wide range of differences in what employees will expect and need from their employers in the years to come. The two youngest generations, millennials and Generation Z, together make up 40 percent of the employee population and their numbers are rising.

As employees in these generations age and become a greater percentage of the workforce, they’ll put more pressure on benefits costs in three distinct ways: 1) Increased enrollment in employer plans, 2) choosing better benefits, and 3) opting for family plans. They will also challenge companies’ retention strategies, forcing the need to re-evaluate health and employee benefits offerings to achieve the engagement and retention results your employer clients are looking for.