It’s becoming more apparent that the opportunity share for benefits brokers is rising year-over-year. This increase in opportunity can be attributed to a number of varying factors such as a lower U.S. unemployment rate, a tighter labor market, the increase in competition amongst employers to attain and retain the top remaining talent, skyrocketing healthcare costs and more. Brokers can use these shocking employee benefits statistics to put into perspective that the market for voluntary benefits is two things right now:

  1. The demand is beginning to snowball due to both employees’ and employers’ developing requirements to combat an unstable healthcare market
  2.  The opportunity share is relatively untapped at this point, it’s now or never to move before everyone else catches wind of what’s actually at stake

Check out these employee benefits statistics that may change your mind on adding voluntary benefits to your current offerings as well as discussing the possibilities with a cloud-based, automated human capital management platform and it’s supporting modules such as benefits management, ACA compliance, the transfer of voluntary benefits selections to appropriate carriers and much more.

5 Shocking Employee Benefits Statistics

1. 12% of businesses are happy with current levels of employee engagement

As you can see, there are a lot of employers who are not too happy with the engagement levels their employees’ are exhibiting. Employee engagement efforts range from on the job expectations such as showing up to work on time, completing assigned projects and tasks, getting involved during meetings and attending required meetings and webinars to name a few. Some other non-work related engagement initiatives that may be monitored by leadership include participating during work exercises to improve employee morale, attending holiday parties, luncheons, happy hours, charity events and more.

Attaining high levels of employee engagement is not the easiest thing for employers to accomplish. After all, 75 percent of employees, “admit the workplace is  a major source of stress for them, negatively affecting their productivity levels.” As you can imagine, with employees overly stressed about work combined with the everyday stressors they face at home, it’s not too surprising that overall engagement at work can take a backseat to whatever other problems the average person may have at any given time.

Having a disengaged employee base can lead to a whole host of issues such as:

  • A high employee churn rate
  • Complete havoc on the employer’s finances due to replacing and training someone new to fill in vacated position(s)
  • The disruption of business-critical projects, campaigns, reports, tasks, etc.
  • A company-wide breakdown in morale across all levels of organizational alignment
  • Hundreds of hours a week wasted in some shape or form in the organization due to employee churn, managing their workload and more

What this means for brokers

Brokers can help employers improve employee engagement by adding the most in-demand voluntary benefits that today’s employee base is looking for most to help them and their families feel more safe, secure, prosperous and engaged.

Brokers can focus on the following areas to help improve employee health, wellness and more:

  • Nutrition and general health
  • Productivity
  • Fitness and physical activity
  • Challenges and contests
  • Rejuvenation
  • Mental health and personal growth
  • Cool perks, just for fun

employee benefits statistics

 

2. 78% of workers would likely remain with their employer because of the benefits they offer

This statistic is an homage to those employers who have successfully implemented an employee benefits program that resulted in happier and more engaged employees. These are the businesses who have or will be exhibiting the most success in their industries. It’s becoming more common today for employees to take slightly lower paying jobs if they have access to the benefits that they think will improve the lives of their and/or their families’ too.

With the unemployment rate in the U.S. at record lows, it’s more important than ever for employers to evaluate and make their benefits offerings more attractive just to compete with competition for the remaining top talent is in the market.

What this means for brokers

There are plenty of businesses out there who don’t have or lack a great employee benefits package. Typically, these companies will be stressed financially as they continue to battle employee churn, disruptions to their workflows, experience low morale and more.

Brokers can help these companies partner with various insurance carriers to provide in-demand voluntary benefits that will cost little to nothing to the company. In some cases, employees are willing to pay for the whole coverage themselves due to it being cheaper and easier access through a company-sponsored program.

3. More than 70% of employees agreed that fringe benefits would be a key consideration in evaluating future jobs

Employers are required by law to offer the following:

  • Social Security, Medicare and FICA
  • Unemployment insurance
  • Worker’s compensation insurance
  • For companies with 50 or more full-time employees:
    • Health Insurance
    • Family and medical leave

These are just the minimum an employer is required to offer to its employee base. These requirements are much more vast and intricate than what they were even just a few short years ago. For example, an employee on a typical health insurance plan may know that their coverage may not be enough to cover them or their family in the event a critical illness strikes. In turn, they may seek out employment opportunities to only those who offer the supplemental benefits they need to feel secure, happy and well.

Benefits brokers should be able to take and evaluate their clients’ current benefits offerings and provide them supplemental options that help with coverage employers may be lacking. Those suggestions should be based on employee requirements built on evidence that support society’s everchanging norms and views to work life balance and home balance.

 

 

employee benefits statistics

What this means for brokers

There are tons of employers out there with subpar benefit offerings that are most likely struggling to attain and retain their talent, complete work, and other projects on time due to employee churn and more. Brokers should be educating their clients on the importance of supplemental benefits and how they can help to deliver happy, motivated and engaged employees.

After all, those are the ingredients to create a successful business, wouldn’t you say?

4. Employer costs for group employee health insurance plans are to rise to nearly $15,000 per employee in 2019

Employers typically cover 70 percent of these costs. It’s no wonder why they are so concerned about adding voluntary benefit options that are designed to help offset skyrocketing healthcare costs.

Employers are currently researching the following areas of voluntary benefit improvements to help offset the rising costs and to promote health, well-being and engagement:

  • Healthcare related supplemental benefits such as Critical Illness Insurance, Accident Insurance, Cancer Insurance, Disability Insurance, Hospitality Indemnity Insurance and Medigap Insurance
  • Enhancing Access to Digitial Healthcare

What this means for brokers

Brokers can help offset total benefit costs for employers by offering supplemental options that focus on health, wellness, finance, productivity, fitness, physical activity, rejuvenation, mental health, personal growth, and more. With the addition of these offering, employees, employers and brokers win because:

  • Voluntary benefits give employees more customization options so they feel they have the full coverage they need
  • Most voluntary benefits can be added to an employer’s benefits program for little to no cost to the company
  • These programs are huge in an employer’s ability to attain and retain top talent
  • Voluntary benefits offer brokers an additional route of revenue that can be long-lasting

employee benefits statistics

5. 58% of employees want customized benefit options based on their personal information

In today’s workforce, people are living in a wide variety of lifecycles. For example:

  • There are more single-working women than ever before
  • Same-sex marriages are increasingly common
  • Careers are lasting longer, and many people have several careers in a lifetime

This diverse mix of people represents new realities for employers. Employees want their benefits to reflect their changing lives, and respond to the diversity of needs that affect them and/or their families.

What this means for brokers

Brokers can help their clients identify suitable voluntary benefit offerings based on demographics, company surveys and more acquired from the total employee population. When a business is successfully able to evaluate, improve and then offer the supplemental offerings their employees want most, they are in turn rewarded with an engaged workforce, more production, less employee churn and more.

 

 

Voluntary Benefits Administration Software

Increasing employee engagement and communication, navigating the challenges of ACA compliance and seamlessly handling the transfer of employee voluntary selections to appropriate carriers during the Open Enrollment period are all elements of benefits administration that employers today are looking to add most.

Benefits brokers who partner their offerings with a cloud-based HRIS platform—and its automated HR and payroll modules—can offer to their clients a solution that automates crucial workflows in the benefits management arena.

With all data corralled in a single-source database, information can flow freely internally and/or externally to third-party vendors via integrations. Cloud-based, HCM technology promotes efficiencies to both end users and administrators by automating manual tasks, reducing the need for paper, customizing impactful reports, saving hours of time, money and more.

Let’s not forget, Benefits Brokers win by improving their overall sales and by providing their clients with new technology that can scale to meet the needs of a companies’ ever-changing requirements over the long-term. By providing your clients with HCM technology that works, over time, they will continue to want to use it, as well as potentially add more modules to improve other areas of their HR operations.

The Arcoro cloud-based, automated full HCM platform is the perfect option for benefits brokers who need a strong HCM, benefits management and ACA compliance partner to combine within their current benefits offerings. With seamless integrations to top carriers such as Unum, Aflac, BlueCross BlueShield and more, consultants partnering with Arcoro have seen their opportunity-share rise in the market they are chasing.

The full HCM platform also offers modules in the following areas:

  • Benefits Management
  • ACA Compliance
  • Employee self-service (Employee Portal)
  • Payroll Processing
  • Recruiting Applicant Tracking
  • Time and Attendance
  • Reporting
  • Performance Management and Feedback Delivery
  • Online Learning Management
  • Succession Planning
  • Employee Onboarding
  • Surveys
  • Job Posting and more

 

Related Reading:

The Brokers’ Guide to HR Automation

The Top Voluntary Benefits for Brokers to Offer in 2019

Stonewalling the Decline of ACA enrollment with HCM Technology

Explaining High-Deductible Plans to Employees

How to Improve Employee Engagement During Open Enrollment

5 Rising Voluntary Benefits Employers Should Offer to Their Employees

The Critical Illness Insurance Market Continues to trend upwards in the U.S.