Charts: Voluntary benefits on the rise

According to new data from Aon, employers offering voluntary benefits increased 27% during the past enrollment period.

Brokers and employers went into this past employee benefits open enrollment season armed with entirely new playbooks. One key area of focus was voluntary benefits, the need for which have become more evident during the pandemic. According to new data from Aon, employers offering voluntary benefits increased 27% during the past enrollment period.

Related: 3.5 not-so-voluntary trends that will continue in 2021 and beyond

“The biggest shift we saw in the last open enrollment cycle was the addition of voluntary benefits because they had little to no budget impact for employers,” said Dani McCauley, U.S. customer experience leader for voluntary benefits & enrollment solutions at Aon. “Employers have been able to improve employee satisfaction with an expanded menu of relevant voluntary benefits in light of COVID-19.”

With more employees working remotely, enrolling in ID protection was a must for many employees. Aon’s data also suggests that the pandemic has been a wake-up call about the need to prepare for a major health care incident. Supplemental health insurance–including accident, hospital indemnity and critical illness plans–has seen the greatest increase in growth among voluntary benefits employers have added to their rosters.

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