In the world of workplace nonmedical benefits, product design can seem like a bit of an arms race. Seeking to differentiate their products in the market, carriers continue to add new benefit triggers, features and riders. Employers selecting a new plan or carrier must sort through an increasing number of options, hoping to choose a product that will provide the most value to their workers at a reasonable price.  At the same time, this growing complexity can make it more difficult for employees to understand their benefits, negatively impacting the customer experience.

Which benefit features are actually important to employees — the users of these products? To explore this question, LIMRA recently surveyed employees about their views oo product features for three common workplace benefits: accident insurance, critical illness and life insurance.

What matters most?

It is worth noting that employees have generally positive views of most potential product features, with at least 50 percent of employees rating almost every feature as "important" to them. However, some benefit attributes are clearly valued more than others.