As an employer, employee benefits guidance instils confidence and trust in your commitment to your employees’ health and financial wellbeing. Assistance with the decision-making process also helps them make smarter choices about their benefits.
Rising healthcare costs and a pandemic-driven personal savings trend are pushing employees to compare healthcare and prescription prices and save for healthcare expenses. When considering your new hires and their employer-sponsored benefits, the following can create a more meaningful onboarding experience:
1. Create a seamless onboarding process that strengthens your messaging including employee benefits guidance
Hiring and onboarding set the stage for the employee experience, but only 45% of new hires in 2020 cited their onboarding experience as great or awesome.
Our research shows benefits enrolment is a cause of disconnect with new hires, and 77% of employees who rate their benefits education experience as “fair” or “poor” also rate their employer as “fair” or “poor.” As more employees focus on finding the right fit, and turnover is expected to increase, personalized benefits counselling can help employees make smarter choices and reinforce your messaging and investment in your workforce.
2. Differentiate in high-turnover industries and roles
Your perceived value as an employer relies on having a diverse selection of benefits and wellbeing support. As the talent market heats up, especially in high-turnover industries and roles, your company needs to stand out. Workers ranked better than average benefits as the second most important employer differentiator, behind better than average pay.
More workers are reaching for wellbeing programs and tools, like remote work support, financial wellbeing programs, and personalized support resources, and 80% of employees who have virtual wellbeing events available through their employer say it’s valuable.
Once you have a comprehensive package in place, employee communication and engagement in that package becomes critical.
3. Align with lower-income employees’ needs
Lack of education around benefits plans costs your lower-income workers more than their higher-paid counterparts. The growing cost of healthcare has caused 1 in 2 employees to avoid health care services (or seriously consider it), leading to higher claims costs when conditions become more serious. Guidance around benefit offerings can improve participation and enrollment in underutilized and low-cost plans.
