Americans depend on their workplace benefits to help shore up their financial security, but most employers don't feel any responsibility to help employees prepare financially for retirement.
That's according to the third annual Guardian Workplace Benefits Study, which found that almost two thirds of workers believe their employers have a responsibility to offer insurance and retirement benefits.
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But employers, for their part, are somewhat disconnected from the whole process. While they acknowledge that workplace benefits do help employees and their families achieve financial security, only 16 percent strongly believe they have a responsibility to provide benefits.
Employers don't think employees are happy with their benefits, either; fewer than two out of every 10 believe their workers are extremely satisfied, while one out of every three employees describes himself that way.
Naturally enough, employees who get a total benefits package from work value their benefits more; they also consider their company's benefits communications effective. In addition, 87 percent of that group say they feel more confident in their own benefit decisions.
While almost three out of four employees who receive a total compensation statement say that seeing in dollars and cents how much their benefits are worth made them value them more highly, only a third of employers say they provide workers with such a statement. The others lose the opportunity to help employees see just how much those benefits are worth.
If employers placed a higher priority on communicating about benefits with employees, not only would employees be happier with information they can quantify but they'd be getting more help from their employers in getting the most out of those benefits.
According to the study, 42 percent of employees surveyed get most or almost all of their insurance products through the workplace, while 68 percent rely on their benefits for at least half of their financial preparedness.
But even when employers offer these benefits, many workers lack the decision-making skills to take advantage of them—or their employers have failed to communicate with them about the value of their benefits or have failed to educate them on how they work.
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