Employee Benefit Trends For This Year   | Fusion - WeRIndia

An area where employees are not happy—so change should come if the situation is to improve.

As per survey only about a third of employees say that their company’s benefit communications are easy to understand—and that leads many to assume they don’t need many of the benefits they’re offered.

That’s not a good situation.

71 percent of employers say that by working with an enrollment firm they could improve communication, including explaining and clarifying non-medical benefits.

For employers to stay ahead of the curve, they’ll have to join the movement to better educate their employees on enrollment.

Here are few tips about employee benefit trends to keep your employee’s happy:

Customized Plan Offerings and Correspondence

As the job showcase keeps on enhancing and organizations need to work harder to pull in and hold best ability, giving advantages that fulfill a different arrangement of representative needs will be an undeniably imperative path for bosses to remain focused.

This starts with health plan options, but employees are also beginning to expect a robust offering of supplemental coverage that can fit into their unique life situation. Voluntary benefits including accident, legal and pet insurance will be “must-haves” for employers of all sizes before too long.

The spirit of personalization is arguably even more important when it comes to communication. Especially considering how the workforce will be increasingly dominated by millennials, a generation shaped by on-request, interactive content tailored to the individual.

Employers must continue to find ways to communicate with their employees in a language they understand, through channels they prefer and with a message that resonates on a personal level to drive better decision making.

Growth of financial wellness

Employer-provided financial wellness programs have been picking up steam for the past few years. If someone can’t afford to come into work and be fully dedicated because they’re worried about a creditor calling them, that employee is not the best employee they can be. They want to help that employee get on more stable financial footing,” he explains. Even at companies where the staff is likely to have creditors calling, employers are providing tools and resources that help employees learn to create a budget, plan for major expenses such as college or a new home and understand other money concepts.

It’s no secret that the single greatest source of stress for employees is financial stress, which not only hurts employees but also employers’ bottom lines.

Employers who implement comprehensive financial wellness and education programs can help employees gain firmer financial footing.  In 2016, several companies made headlines by offering student loan repayment assistance, but it’s still a very small number of employers offering this benefit.

Digital or Advanced Health for Cost & comfort

We know that deductibles are getting higher for about everybody. Confronting strong out-of-pocket costs, employees will probably skip out on care they require – because they essentially can’t bear the cost of it. In fact, nearly half of middle-class workers admit that they have gone without medical services due to the expense, which, needless to say, can seriously hurt employees in the long run.

Delayed care can be extremely costly to employers, as well. Not only does it result in more lost work days when untreated conditions get worse and, in extreme cases, employees ending up on disability; it also negatively impacts productivity when you have employees working while sick.

That’s why digital health will continue to grow in popularity. These tools allow employees to access health care anytime, anywhere, at a fraction of the normal cost. Patients can use their mobile devices to talk, text or video chat with a doctor, share photos and test results, and get immediate answers, treatment and referrals for things that used to require driving across town and sitting in a waiting room for an hour.

It also offers the convenience of on-demand care. Employees can now get better sooner, while minimizing productivity loss.

 

More help exploring the human services framework

Rising health care costs strain employers and employees, but one positive development is that some employers now offer benefits that help plan participants understand their health care options and make more informed decisions.

Winkler points to health care consulting companies like Quantum Health that help guide employees through insurance and health care questions. “They actually replace the 800-number for the health plan on the back of your health care card,” he explains.

According to Winkler, companies like that can answer employees’ questions: “Did my claim get paid? Is my doctor in network?” Some health care consulting companies take a more proactive approach by making recommendations.

For instance, if an employee were calling to find an endocrinologist, the phone representative might highlight other employee benefits such on-site Weight Watchers meetings to help them manage their weight and reduce the severity of health conditions such as diabetes, Winkler says.

 

Proceed with interest in wellness programs

Employers continue to recognize the value of newer programs that address physical or emotional well-being so that their employees can stay healthy and productive.

However, Winkler says employers are using fewer financial incentives than in the past. For example, some employers who offered cash incentives or lower health care premiums found that low financial incentives didn’t change behavior or, if they were too high incentive employees to try to game the system.

Instead of giving employees cash for logging a certain number of steps or adopting other healthy behaviors, “what you’re starting to see now is companies might do a Fit-bit challenge, and they might have goofy prizes for who wins,” he says. “It’s a friendly team competition [rather than a cash prize],” he adds.

 

Additional working from home

Telecommuting and working from home became trendy five years ago, and the number of employers offering these choices keeps on developing.

The rate of businesses offering working from home on a specially appointed premise has expanded from 45 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2016, as indicated by a 2016 Worker Benefits review report directed by the Society for Human Resource Management. I think regardless we’ll keep on seeing working from home and adaptable work game plans develop.

As technology continues to improve, we’ll see changes in how companies approach working from home.

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