3.5 not-so-voluntary trends that will continue in 2021 and beyond
Benefits once known as “voluntary” are becoming more commonly known as “essential.”
The pandemic has changed not only the way we work, interact and communicate with our family and friends, but with our colleagues and clients, as well. Because of this change, we’re hearing from our partners and clients that the benefits once known as “voluntary” are becoming more commonly known as “essential.”
Related: How voluntary benefits have been impacted by COVID-19
So, sit back and let the three of us, and a collection of industry experts, share why we believe the following trends will continue into 2021 and beyond.
1. Employer-funded “shopping sprees”
“The only way we’re ever going to help ensure benefits and health care become truly consumer-driven is by educating and empowering employees to decide for themselves what benefits are best for their own unique situations.”
We asked Chris Wolpert, founder of Group Benefit Services, for his thoughts on employer-funded “shopping sprees.” He says, “offering the stereotypical four benefits of dental, vision, life and disability checks off a box for most brokers, but how is that innovative?”
These are the same benefits brokers have been encouraging employers to fund for decades. Employers have been making decisions for their employees as if they know for certain that these specific benefits are the “holy grail” of benefits, which perpetuates the same old-school thinking.
All of these benefits are extremely important, still requested and popular. But we don’t believe employers should only offer and fund these benefits, as if they’re the best and only places an employer should be spending their company funds. Wolpert says, “When I analyze claims data, I often see the majority of employees aren’t really using these benefits.”
We’re seeing growing popularity and impact across the country in the “shopping spree” approach, otherwise known as employer-funded defined contribution. From a marketing perspective, telling an employee they now have a defined contribution made available just doesn’t have the same appeal as telling them they’re receiving an employer-funded shopping spree.
As brokers, our objective is to help employers control the cost of care, but also to ensure the actual consumer of health care has a say in what benefits are the most important for them and their families. After all, who are we to make that decision for them? We can’t continue asking employers to fund random benefits and then expect employees to find value in them.
If an employee is offered status-quo benefits at one employer, there’s a high likelihood that if they go to the competitor across the street, they’re going to be offered the same benefits. How is this helping attract and retain talent? How is this moving the needle towards benefits innovation?
The only way we’re ever going to help ensure benefits and health care become truly consumer-driven is by educating and empowering employees to decide for themselves what benefits are best for their own unique situations.
2. Year-round communication
“Email can’t be the only way an employer communicates with their teams in 2021. Open rates are stabilizing or decreasing, and companies are looking for new ways to engage more effectively.”
When everyone was forced to follow shelter-in-place orders early in 2020, the vast majority of enrollments from 2019 had just ended and the priority for most companies was simply figuring out how to stay in business.
Communication seemed much easier pre-pandemic. Gone are the days of simply posting a flyer in the breakroom or including a notice in employee paychecks about the upcoming open enrollment. While email was widely used before the pandemic, and is still the top way for most companies to get a message out, it is quickly becoming the new “snail mail.” Ed Ligonde, EVP at Nielsen Benefits Group, says “email can’t be the only way an employer communicates with their teams in 2021. Open rates are stabilizing or decreasing, and companies are looking for new ways to engage more effectively.”
Here are a couple of simple ways we have assisted employers with communication, not just during enrollment, but throughout the year.
- Text messaging: Text is an easy way for employers to get simple and direct messages out. Clients that use a text platform can communicate with their team instantly, no matter their location, about topics like enrollment, deadlines, and even site closures or other challenges. According to a recent industry study, text message open rates are as high as 98%, compared to an open rate of 20% for email. The average person takes less than 90 seconds to respond to a text, as opposed to more than 90 minutes for email, if they read it and respond at all.Michael Hart, employee benefits specialist at Dillingham Insurance, says, “We must communicate the same way we prefer to be communicated with. When my wife needs me to pick something up from the grocery store on the way home, she doesn’t send me an email; these days, she doesn’t even call me. Isn’t our smartphone just an expensive text messaging device?”
- Video: Employer clients who provide custom videos for their benefits program have seen a noticeable increase in employee engagement. “Video allows employers to provide information about their benefits program in a preferred, on-demand format,” says Jim Blachek, CEO of Dynamic Benefit Solutions. “Clients who make use of on-demand video marketing can embed videos on their intranet and use them throughout the year for new hires.”
These two formats are incredibly impactful and something you can easily start using right away. Other trending ways to communicate include virtual group meetings, virtual one-on-one meetings, virtual benefit fairs, and even using your clients’ business social media presence. All indicators point to them continuing to grow and become the norm.
3. Products to keep your eye on
“Over the past few years and throughout the pandemic, we’ve seen massive growth in the adoption of pet benefits, ID theft protection, student loan consolidation services and earned wage access products,” says Doug Kreszl, president of National Benefit Partners East. “These benefits are typically positioned as a ‘lifestyle’ benefit that employers should consider offering as part of their total benefits package.”
No one’s questioning the importance of traditional benefits or products like accident, critical illness and hospital indemnity. But the fact that Americans spend billions on their pets illustrates the growing need and demand for pet benefits.
And you can’t read or watch the news without hearing about another cybersecurity breach that compromised millions of credit cards and left customers exposed; thus the increased interest in ID theft protection coverage.
Meanwhile, Americans have amassed more than $1.5 trillion dollars in student loan debt, to the point that the government is even debating ways to forgive student loans. When you can offer employer clients a way to help employees with consolidating massive student loan debt, you’ll be a hero.
Finally, millions have had their employment impacted or interrupted by the pandemic. Even among those fortunate enough to have a job, the average employee lives paycheck to paycheck. Many would greatly benefit from having access to their already earned wages to keep food on their table.
3.5. Self-serve and on-demand call center access
“In-person group meetings and face-to-face enrollment are going the way of the land-line,” says Ben Conner, CEO of Conner Insurance.
The pandemic has greatly increased what we already knew: Employers no longer have to pull employees into large unproductive group meetings or combat the voluntary carrier rep trying to convince them why they must meet with every employee one-on-one.
Virtual self-serve enrollments via the many incredible benefit administration enrollment software options available have been very well received by employers all over the country. Couple the ability to allow employees a self-serve enrollment experience in an “Amazon-esque” fashion, while including an optional on-demand call center where benefit counselors are now available via the phone and video, and you set your employer clients and their employees up for success.
Further, when enrollments are communicated properly, the participation rate is typically the same or even higher than it was in the “good old days.” The biggest difference is allowing technology to do the work for you, so you can become more efficient.
The pandemic has opened everyone’s eyes to new ways of spending, communicating and enrolling. We’ve had the technology for a while, but it took a pandemic to supercharge adoption.
We urge you to think differently about how you’re advising employer groups to spend, how you’re communicating, the products you introduce, and how you conduct enrollments. Remember, if you choose to not share these things with your clients, someone else will.
Eric Silverman is founder and owner of Voluntary Disruption. Andrew McNeil and Rosario Avila are senior benefits advisors at Arrow Benefits Group.
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