It has never been more important to keep up with the recent trends surrounding employee benefits. After all, employee benefits are not as simple as a 401(k) plan and a healthcare plan anymore. Businesses are expanding their employee benefits and offering more resources every year. For the companies that want to improve employee retention and productivity, it is time to take notice. Offering health and dental insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacation time have always been employee benefit staples.
As businesses, employees, and technology change, however, the employee benefits industry changes with them. Common resources today are known—health and fitness benefits, financial advice, family leave benefits, eldercare assistance, etc.—but it’s the trends surrounding them that are changing. From gamification to financial wellness, knowing the employee benefits you need to offer in 2018 and beyond is a recipe for increased morale and productivity.
- Gamification
Increasing morale and engagement in an increasingly disengaged world takes effort. Luckily, gamification is one way to battle employee disengagement. Gamification—or taking typical elements of game-playing (contests, point scoring, rules of play, etc.) and applying them to real-world situations—is a proven HR method that has developed a lot of interest.
Gamification is known to increase engagement and create healthy competition among teams by using behavior-motivating techniques like those found in Monopoly or Bingo in nongame environments. For example, Fitbit Group Health is a corporate wellness program that uses gamification to motivate employees and increase employee wellness. Through this gamification, Fitbit Group Health is transforming wellness into a competition—a competition that’s increasing employee utilization levels, employee morale, and engagement.
As a part of the company’s corporate wellness program, Fitbit devices are provided to employees and track steps taken, stairs climbed, hours slept, and so on. Through the “Communities” on the Fitbit dashboard–where employees connect to coworkers–users can see who the running leaders are in activity each week, turning wellness into a competition. Many companies even offer prizes when employees reach specific goals, further encouraging employee wellness.
Incorporating gamification into employee benefits not only is fun for employees but also improves workplace culture and employee productivity. This trend is one to incorporate, and soon.
- Financial Wellness
The traditional 401(k) benefits, unfortunately, aren’t standing up to employee demands anymore. The new corporate financial wellness wave has arrived, and it’s helping employees reach optimal financial health while improving productivity and workplace culture. In the past, traditional financial employee benefits provided retirement plans, but it has left out issues such as regulating spending habits, how to increase savings, managing debt payments, and so on. Because of this, the financial wellness wave introduces an all-encompassing approach.
Financial wellness has grown upon the fact that physical health and financial health are closely related. In fact, financial stress results in many unfortunate physical side effects, such as the following:
- Heart disease/attack
- High blood pressure
- Gastrointestinal problems
- Weight gain/loss
- Substance abuse
Financial wellness programs address the underlying issues behind financial stress (e.g., forgetting to pay bills on time or not budgeting correctly) that create physical and mental stressors and distract from the workplace. Through the use of step-by-step plans; motivating and inspiring content; and ongoing, accessible support, financial wellness programs are increasing employee success and financial health.
- Family Leave Benefits
Now is the time to increase paid leave if your company is looking to keep your top talent. Many Silicon Valley companies are leading the way in drastically increasing paid leave. Amazon.com has increased paid leave to 20 weeks for all new parents. Adobe increased its paid leave to 26 weeks, and Zest Finance increased its paid leave to 6 months. Netflix implements the longest paid leave by offering parents up to a year off after the birth of a child.
When employees feel they’re not taken care of—especially when they need family leave benefits—it decreases employee loyalty and increases turnover rates. If employees do leave, the costs associated with searching for talent, along with the work it takes to interview and train new hires, all outweigh the costs to invest in paid leave. Increasingly so, companies are beginning to see the consequences that come with not offering extended paid leave, such as the following:
- High turnover rates
- Decreased morale
- Decreased productivity
- Increased absenteeism
- Low employee loyalty
And although most companies worry about how long-term paid leave will affect their business, research shows this isn’t a problem. A study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the majority of California business owners didn’t find any effect on their company’s performance or profitability. So, it’s clear that the benefits outweigh the costs. As more companies offer increased paid leave, the top talent will gravitate toward companies that invest in employee well-being.
- Eldercare Resources
The need for high-quality eldercare resources in employee benefits is growing every day. For companies that employ Gen X’ers (35+-year-old adults), you’re responsible for catering to the “sandwich generation”—middle-aged workers who are “sandwiched” between caring for their children and elderly parents simultaneously. These employees are juggling job responsibilities, parenting minors, catering to their personal lives, and caring for their elderly parents. Naturally, one or more areas of responsibilities will suffer, and it’s often work obligations.
However, identifying a high-quality eldercare assistance program is key in providing the best benefits for employees. To accommodate the increasing elderly population in 2018 and beyond, the perfect eldercare assistance program should offer these features:
- Connection to a vetted professional,
- Simple integration and implementation,
- Use of clear language,
- User-friendly navigation, and
- Cost-effective pricing.
With 10,000 people turning 65 every day for the next 13 years, it’s clear how necessary eldercare resources are in an efficient employee benefits program. The truth is that working caregivers don’t have the manpower to handle their dual roles and continue to perform at their best level. The more companies that offer eldercare resources in 2018 and beyond, the more employees will be engaged in the workplace; in turn, productivity levels will increase.
So, the wide range of employee benefits is growing, and each year, the benefits become more and more personalized and advanced. To support your employees and increase business efficiency in your company, these four things are integral parts of an effective employee benefits program.