Various recent studies have explored what to expect in the near future: Figure 1: Proportion of employees working remotely before, during, and after COVID-19 pandemic. Here's how employers and employees can successfully manage generative AI and other AI-powered systems. This is about navigating boundaries, says Willis Towers Watsons Stone. The same LIMRA-EY research shows that, as a result of the pandemic, nearly two-thirds (62%) of employers believe employees will have more influence over benefits decisions in the future. Do they understand their mental health benefits? The 2021 report, The Future of Time[7], found this desire for a flexible approach in all seven surveyed countries: the U.K., U.S., Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, and Japan see Figure 2 below. No one had a playbook for the pandemic, Prettol says, so we used the playbook on employees returning from maternity leave as the cornerstone in how we trained managers on remote-work management.. This transition from group to individual policies will have two major implications for employee benefits. Now, Coakley is analyzing data on how many repeat sessions employees have scheduled and whether they are meeting with the same coach, which can indicate that employees are building relationships with specific professionals. Some of these benefits include more flexible work-from-home schedules, increased access to voluntary benefits, and a greater focus on wellness programs. Our survey reinforces this and found that employees surveyed reported easy access to financial wellness education and training would ease their overall well-being. 3. While raising wages is one way to attract and retain employees, research conducted by Paychex and Future Workplace among 603 full-time workers during November, 2021 found well-being benefits to be a key criterion when applying for a new job. However, while this shift is already under way, employers are already asking themselves where employee benefits will be in the next few years. We mentioned that the majority of employees would jump ship for better learning opportunities. Amy Danise. The areas of financial well-being included in the research were; overall compensation, retirement plan, and the ability to access financial wellness and education programs. Companies can start this process by conducting regular surveys and segmenting the data by groups such as generation, work environment (in-person, remote, or hybrid), or gender to identify where there might be benefit gaps and opportunities. The future of benefits is about a renewed focus on the benefits that keep employees healthy and productive. } With that in mind, the future of benefits is likely to see a reallocation of employer funds away from wage increases and toward more modern and customizable benefits. While remote and flexible work have become crucial for many companies ability to attract and retain talent, those work modes can come with their own drawbacks whether social isolation, the stress of juggling work and parenting, caring for aging loved ones, or other psychological pressures and household distractions. If no, what actions can help change the culture? Despite the progress, however, mental health continues to affect employees and their productivity. This study, which was fielded in February 2021 and previously in March and June of 2020 - is part of The Hartfords ongoing effort to deliver new insights about U.S. workers and their benefit preferences, as well as trends in the benefits employers provide to their workforce. Frontline workers, for example, may want a benefit like a PTO buybacktrading earned time off for additional money. The first wave was fielded from Feb. 27-March 13, 2020, just before the pandemic escalated in the United States, and included 761 employers and 1,503 employees. Here are four ways leaders can better make the connection between well-being benefits, employee recruitment, and retention. Your article was successfully shared with the contacts you provided. Consider this: A Fortune 100 company offered about 20 different choices for weight loss (online, group therapy, hospital supervised, etc.) The study showed that 75% of employers have expanded their paid leave and PTO programs beyond state or federal requirements. Personalization Is The Future Of Employee Benefits. For optimum engagement, employers will have to integrate into their overall financial wellbeing strategy whether they are utilising financial education, technological support such as apps or more physical support such as workplace saving schemes. Employees had every reason to sign up for such policies since they didnt require a medical exam or and employees didnt have to answer any health questions to qualify. Copyright 2023 ALM Global, LLC. Traditional . Download the full report to explore key considerations for adapting and optimizing employee benefit strategies . An award-winning team of journalists, designers, and videographers who tell brand stories through Fast Company's distinctive lens, The future of innovation and technology in government for the greater good, Fast Company's annual ranking of businesses that are making an outsize impact, Leaders who are shaping the future of business in creative ways, New workplaces, new food sources, new medicine--even an entirely new economic system. We can help! Employers need to minimize the entry points, so that they can still offer a lot of benefits and choice, but actually give people the convenience to navigate them. But the impact of such arrangements on productivity, creativity and morale has been . As the country begins to move forward into different phases of reopening and more employers transition their workforce back to the workplace, the additions, adaptations and attitudes help define an emerging road map. If that happens, the changes to employee benefits in 2021 and 2022 could be just the beginning of an entirely new era. The COVID-19 pandemic has catalysed huge amounts of change in how we work and where. The guiding light of post-pandemic employee benefits is likely to be flexibility. As a result, employees are increasingly demanding access to supplemental individual insurance policies. Enter and space open menus and escape closes them as well. Beyond navigation, the path to achieving personalization is understanding more of what employees are experiencing and better meeting those needs. Guideline for training and development. Each of these policy types can be fully customized to suit the needs of individual employees and can transfer with them when they switch employers. It may be that due to homeworking these methods are not as engaging as they once were; employees may have an element of communications overload and technology fatigue. However, nearly half (49%) still have no allocated budget and just over a third (36%) have no internal resources to support creating an engaging benefits and wellbeing communications programme. What solutions are emerging to address the increasing need for flexibility and personalization in benefits, and what must group insurers be ready for? Starting in 2021, a movement known as the Great Resignation swept through the U.S. workforce, leading to millions of employees quitting their jobs and finding new employment at an unparalleled. Employers also appeared to be tuned in with employee needs; 91% said they believe employee expectations are changing, and nearly half (40%) said they believe their current benefits do not meet the needs of the existing generations in their workforce. Access to other award-winning ALM websites including ThinkAdvisor.com and Law.com, Unlimited access to BenefitsPRO.com - your roadmap to thriving in a disrupted environment. Exclusive discounts on BenefitsPRO.com and ALM events. Employers will continue to expand their use of employee surveys, find new ways to study the data they already have (reviewing utilization of existing benefits and determining if they should offer something different), and look to partner with companies that can provide a more holistic view of a companys data. This needs to be clearly communicated to prospective and current employees, with how to easily access these enhanced well-being benefits. All Rights Reserved. When ChampionX was transitioning to remote work in the early days of the pandemic, managers found that digital tools designed to support employees returning to work following childbirth were helpful when managing a newly remote workforce. Registered in England and Wales. Work Smarter, not harder. When it comes to what insurance benefits they should buy, 58% of surveyed workers would like a personalized recommendation on what they should select. Theres also been a shift in how employers are presenting their employee benefits to their workforce. But they also know that because many employees are financially stressed, their evolving needs must be prioritized as competition continues for true talent, despite the wave of layoffs among companies whose workforces grew too big too fast. The employers surveyed were HR professionals who manage/decide employee benefits and employees surveyed were actively employed. else if(currentUrl.indexOf("/about-shrm/pages/shrm-mena.aspx") > -1) { This is a BETA experience. Our goal is to make benefits as flexible and personalized as possible, says Dan Healey, SAP North Americas vice president of human resources. The Buck 2022 Wellbeing and Voluntary Benefits Survey[9] found that 73% of millennials, the largest generation currently in the workforce, would switch to another job offering greater flexibility if their salary and responsibilities remained the same. At Electric, Coakley is digging deeper into aggregate user data for insight into how and how often these tools are used. Electric, an IT provider in New York City, mandates that its 290 employees take a companywide day off on the first Friday of each month. Many OECD nations are projecting increases in the number of one-person households, single-parent families, and couples without children. While overall employee well-being appears to be rebounding after a slump at the height of the pandemic, workers now expect support for their mental, physical, and financial well-being as part of their benefits package. 86% of employees and 66% of HR directors assert that a diverse workforce will become even more important as roles, skills, and . Building a culture of care and communicating this by providing a full range of employee well-being benefits is becoming table stakes to attract and retain workers and stem the Great Resignation. How many employees are staring down eviction notices? May 30, 2023 at 02:46 AM While some business leaders might dismiss this as a temporary measure, the reality is that remote work is likely here to stay. Remote working has changed the value of a number of traditional benefits, such as commuter benefits, free or subsidized meals, and on-site childcare. Hybrid flexibility reaches the front lines. It is clear the total rewards package starts with compensation and health benefits but also needs to include a holistic package of employee well-being benefits, including financial and mental health benefits. As many as seven in 10 may be living paycheck to paycheck. There are still things we are trying to figure out., Ensuring consistent quality of telemedicine and digital health care tools is another concern. However, this return-to-the-office drive has been met with a lot of pushback from employees who have grown used to the benefits of working remotely. As we have explored in this detailed article, personalization, mental health support, financial wellness, work-life balance, and technology-driven solutions are key trends that will shape the landscape of . Specifically, leaders should ask themselves, does their culture de-stigmatize mental health? All Rights Reserved. It starts with a day off, and we want it to lead to an ongoing conversation about employees physical and mental health and wellness, says Dan Healey, the companys vice president of human resources in Newtown Square, Pa. With employees working from home, the lines between home and workspace have blurred to the point where it can be tough to see the lines at all.. Surveys by Aon[5] and Capgemini[6] found that flexible working/working from home and more flexible working hours are two of the top employee expectations coming out of the pandemic. Join us at SHRM23 as we drive change in the world of work with in-depth insights into all things HR. If employers continue supporting remote or hybrid work arrangements among their . Employees demanded increased flexibility in where and when they worked, and companies started to consider hybrid working models. So far, our employees have said that its been monumental for them as a way to let go of their stresses, find better balance, and allow them to take their best selves home. And this cumulative anxiety is having an effect on employee. When it comes to our careers, the future is flexible and portable, so our employee benefits need to follow suit. The fifth annual Benefitfocus State of Employee Benefits TM report provides insight into: Employee health insurance cost for families, individuals and employers. Professional services firm PwC has added a new leave option that allows employees to take on no work for up to six months while maintaining their benefits and collecting 20 percent of their salary. var currentUrl = window.location.href.toLowerCase(); What employees need to remain healthy, productive, and engaged within a fluid and decentralized workplace today looks very different from just a few years ago. The most common benefits added last year were paid medical leave and sick time: However, our data shows that some employees believe there is a stigma associated with taking a leave of absence. Among many other advantages, it enables employees to continue their roles as caregivers, whether it be for elderly parents, young children, or pets. Debates that have fairness at the core, whether it . Offering ways to show employees that their employer cares, is listening, and understands their struggles can be a powerful force for the positive. Editor. Retain your best employees. Everything in this space is moving so quickly, says Kate Brown, Mercers Center for Health Innovation leader in Austin, Texas. The Hartford's Future of Benefits Study, which polled U.S. workers and human resources benefit decision makers in early March 2020 just before the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., and again in mid-June, found 73% of employees now say they value the insurance benefits their company offers them, down from 80% three months earlier. By. Reuters. We must not lose sight of supporting the other pillars of wellbeing, which have been equally affected by the pandemic especially when employees are potentially isolated whilst working from home, with other forms of opportunity for social interaction also drastically reduced by the pandemic. For example, publishing company John Wiley & Sons Inc. in Hoboken, N.J., saw a 35 percent utilization rate when it introduced a mental health app to help its 7,000 employees manage burnout and workplace stress, says Danielle McMahan, Wileys chief people officer. These changes in family structures have also created a generation where many people are sandwiched between caring for children and caring for elderly parents.