2022 was a year of opportunities and uncertainty for most employees. Many workers left their workplace during the Great Resignation for greener pastures elsewhere. While at the same time, escalating living expenses, particularly in health, have affected workers trying to manage work and family duties. Despite this instability, the inclination to work from home, triggered by the pandemic, remains crucial for many employees.
Employers must be able to maintain a delicate balance. They must aim to recruit and retain top talent by staying current on employee benefit trends. But at the same time, inflation requires employers to carefully consider and manage their benefit expenditures and be creative in addressing employee needs.
Companies should become familiar with the changing benefits landscape to inform their decision-making. Implementing significant action through an effective benefits management system will help keep employees happier, healthier, more productive, and committed to their work. Here are some developments in employee benefits that employers must consider.
Healthcare Accessibility
Health benefits that increase healthcare accessibility have become a standard among employee benefits trends. A healthy workforce is a cornerstone for increased efficiency, productivity, and a happy work environment. Employers who seek to make healthcare more cost-effective and accessible convey the notion that they value their employees as individuals.
Employers can adopt several measures to enhance healthcare accessibility. Aside from a comprehensive health insurance plan and medical services, integrating employee self-service health benefit accounts can maximize the potential for employees to save on their healthcare expenditures.
Expanded Mental Health Programs
Providing benefits that promote enhanced mental health and well-being connects to increasing healthcare accessibility. Workplace mental health is an interwoven issue closely tied to general well-being. While many companies expanded their mental health benefits during the pandemic, this will continue in 2023, with many organizations spreading their offers to better care accessibility.
Aside from providing Employee Assistance Programs, Human resource management supervisors can focus on providing manager and staff training on identifying mental health issues. With this, managers will become more capable of responding to an individual having issues, providing a mental health navigation service, and reshaping strategy to make mental healthcare more cost-effective.
Personalized Benefits
Depending on workplace culture, a one-size-fits-all employee benefits system may not provide the advantages companies intend to provide. Employees will gravitate toward businesses that constantly explore ways to suit their demands as they place a greater value on benefits apart from their salary. Personalized benefits are one approach to provide employees with the option of designing a tailored benefit plan.
Companies can consider providing voluntary benefits, such as financial counseling, health and wellness training, and supplemental insurance options, such as pet coverage.
Financial Wellness
Employees are concerned about their current financial status, which is aggravated by inflation. Potential applicants now want organizations that care about their financial well-being in the short and long run. It entails assisting them in setting priorities that will result in long-term behavioral transformation. Seminars and courses from budgeting, spending habits, and financial planning to debt reduction and credit development can help employees minimize financial stress and worry, boosting their psychological and physical well-being.
Employee expectations have shifted since the pandemic. Recognizing current employee benefits trends will assist companies in identifying the options that employees demand nowadays. With this knowledge, companies can navigate which trends to adopt to create a benefit plan ideal for their workers and their bottom line.
