3 Retention-Boosting
Employee Benefit Best Practices

More than 30% of your employees could be actively or passively searching for new job opportunities1. Some reasons for considering new positions include:

• looking for better advancement opportunities.¹
• seeking more flexible work arrangements.²
• earning higher salaries.¹
• finding better health and wellness offerings.³
  • For a comprehensive list of stats on why employees leave see 2019 Employee Loyalty and Engagement Statistics

Eighty seven percent (87%) of employers say that improving retention is a critical priority for their organization.⁴

Here, we’ll take a look at 3 ways forward-thinking companies are strengthening their retention efforts.

1. Great company culture

Employees want to have excellent experiences with their employers, and they want to feel good about where they work5.  Employers are going to greater lengths to understand what their employees need to stay happy, productive, and motivated—and they are delivering support in the following areas:

• Career development
• Community involvement/support/philanthropy
• Merit based promotions
• Workplace technology
• Workplace environment
• Work/life balance
• Compensation & benefits⁵

Taken together, these components can make up a compelling Employer Value Proposition (EVP). The more an employer can offer their workforce in terms of value-added benefits, while stacking up against other employers’ EVPs, the better chance they’ll have of keeping their employees satisfied.

2. Offering competitive benefits and access to voluntary benefit programs

Employees value better health, dental and vision insurance benefits the most, followed by more vacation time, flexible work hours and work from home options. ⁶

One of the trends in employee benefits is offering higher-deductible health plans, often coupled with health savings accounts, to help offset the rising costs of providing health care benefits. A popular way for employers to help their employees is to provide access to voluntary benefits/supplemental accident and health insurance policies. A Mercer survey found that 59% of respondents offer an accident plan, 45% offer critical illness plans, and 21% offer hospital indemnity insurance.⁷

Combined Insurance offers a range of supplemental insurance products to worksites and individuals, including:

• Accident and Sickness
• Critical Illness and Cancer
• Income Replacement
• Life

Benefits under these types of policies are paid directly to the employee and can be used to help offset out-of-pocket medical expenses, pay for groceries, child care, or other daily living expenses – to help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.  And since these policies are paid for directly by employees, employers don’t have additional benefit costs as a result of offering them as part of a comprehensive benefits package.

3. Communicating benefits effectively

One of the employee benefit challenges companies face is also an opportunity: ensuring employees understand the value of their benefits package. But it seems awareness among employees is not where it could be. A Society for Human Resource Management’s 2016 Strategic Benefits (SHRM) survey reveals that just 14% of HR professionals  said their organizations' employees are "very knowledgeable" about the employer-sponsored benefits available to them, while 69% indicated employees are "somewhat knowledgeable." And only about one-fifth indicated their employee benefits communications were "very effective" at informing workers about their benefits.⁸

Employers are eager to get the word out about their great benefits packages and boost their EVP in the process. It’s critical that they find ways to connect with employees and deliver benefit education that resonates and has an impact on benefits selection and usage—because those benefits are an important part of the employee experience and help boost their company loyalty.

To learn how Combined Insurance can help with voluntary benefits and communication, contact us today.

References:

1 Ceridian's 2018-19 Pulse of Talent. (n.d.). Retrieved from ceridian.com/resources/pulse-of-talent-2018-retention-throughout-employee-lifecycle
2 (Satter, M. (2019, February 14). Survey: Flexibility, wellness key to employee retention. Retrieved from benefitspro.com/2019/02/14/survey-flexibility-wellness-key-to-employee-retention/
3 Survey: 73 Percent Of Workers Consider Health And Wellness Offerings When Choosing A Job. (n.d.). Retrieved from rh-us.mediaroom.com/2019-01-07-Survey-73-Percent-Of-Workers-Consider-Health-And-Wellness-Offerings-When-Choosing-A-Job
5 Autry, A. (n.d.). 2019 Employee Engagement & Loyalty Statistics. Retrieved from blog.accessperks.com/2019-employee-engagement-loyalty-statistics
6 Employee Benefits Study: Which Job Perks Do Employees Value Most? (n.d.). Retrieved from frac.tl/employee-benefits-study/
7 Supplemental Health Coverage Makes Employees More Responsible. (2018, June 19). Retrieved from workforce.com/2017/01/05/supplemental-health-coverage-employees-responsible/
8 mercer.us/our-thinking/health/mercer-national-survey-2017.html.