3 Ways to Optimize Benefits Offerings

Over the course of my more than two decades in the employee benefits insurance space, I’ve had a first-row seat to the evolution of the workplace and the shifting dynamics between employers and employees.

Today’s workforce is more diverse than ever before, with multiple generations and significant ethnic and racial diversity. The pandemic has also accelerated trends previously seen, including demands for flexibility and growing awareness of holistic health and well-being.

With job satisfaction at a 20-year low and continued declines in loyalty, this has created a challenging environment for employers across every industry. I hear it consistently from many of our customers, and MetLife’s recent Employee Benefit Trends Study also confirms: talent attraction and retention are rising to the top as a leading concern for employers, with 63% rating it as a priority concern.?

While benefits are just one piece of the puzzle, they have an important role to play in meeting the changing and diverse needs of the workforce and driving a positive employee experience. In fact, employees who are satisfied with their benefits are 70% more likely to be loyal to their employer.

Here are three actions employers should consider to optimize benefits offerings:

1.???Evaluate current benefits and employees’ evolving needs?

While many employers have made concerted efforts to expand their benefits offerings, data shows a significant gap still exists between what employees are looking for when it comes to their benefits and what employers are focused on. Part of this has to do with the diversity of today’s workforce, with different generations and demographics prioritizing various aspects of the benefits offering.

For this reason, it is critical that benefits plan design is not done in a vacuum. Give employees a voice in the process by implementing ongoing listening mechanisms that help to identify and track employees’ changing needs. It is also important to ensure that planning committees include representation from all parts and demographics of the workforce. Voluntary benefits, like group legal, accident & health and pet insurance, to name a few, are a great way to build choice into the benefits offering by empowering employees to select the options that best meet their unique personal and family needs.?

2.???Consider benefits as part of the broader employee experience

Similar to how benefits plan design cannot be done in a vacuum, benefits also don’t exist in a silo. Instead, they are one piece of the broader experience that a prospective employee weighs before joining an organization and that keeps current employees where they are.

Employee experience includes everything from purpose, culture, and training and development to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives. By designing benefits offerings to complement these areas, employers can create a richer, more connected and holistic employee experience that meets the expectations of top talent and supports employees both inside and outside of work.

3.???Enhance benefits communications

Even the most well-designed benefits offering will not be effective in impacting talent attraction and retention if employees don’t understand what it entails. Today, only two-thirds of employees (65%) say their employers’ benefits communications are easy to understand, and that number is lower for Generation Z employees. When you consider that understanding benefits coverage impacts trust in leadership and job satisfaction, those numbers are even more eye opening.

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution to driving understanding and utilization of benefits, there are a few things employers should consider. Every audience within an organization is different, so use a range of channels and tailor communications to what matters most. Human storytelling can also help to bring benefits to life. Finally, creating easy-to-use tools and resources to help employees understand their options and make decisions, as well as providing a clear place to go for questions, are other ways to help drive utilization.

We are in one of the most interesting periods of reinvention, innovation and evolution in the workplace and it is clear that benefits remain top of mind across the generations of today’s workforce. When benefits offerings meet the unique needs of employees, are aligned to the broader employee experience and are known and understood by employees, they can be a valuable tool in the employer toolbox to attract and retain talent.