3 benefits trends to consider for a post-pandemic workforce
In the midst of what is being coined “the Great Resignation,” employers and brokers will need to be more strategic than ever when it comes to attracting…
Employees value different perks than before; employers should invest accordingly
Five years ago, trendy coffee machines, ping-pong tables and open-concept workspaces filled commercial offices designed to attract the best and brightest talent, but today’s workers have lived through a pandemic, and these perks are simply not wooing them like before. Many workers continue to operate from their home offices, basements and bedrooms, and together, we’re all weathering the ongoing ups and downs of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, employees’ core desires when it comes to their benefits have been simplified down to what impacts them the most outside the office. One of those is, of course, their health care.
At its core, the pandemic was a health care crisis that cemented the importance of investing in comprehensive health benefits for employees. As a result, it’s important to help clients assess their current options with a critical eye. Are they offering their employees flexible options that provide access to the health care services they need most? If not, it might be worth identifying which benefit partners could help provide what employees value most in the wake of COVID-19 (i.e., online care, virtual exercise programs, mental health care, etc.).
To be clear, it’s not the concept of perks themselves that is an antiquated idea. Rather, it’s about confirming that the perks employers offer employees are truly meaningful and valuable in our post-pandemic world. And this enrollment season is the perfect opportunity to ensure we’re helping clients invest in what’s truly important to their employees.
Modern benefits will address the insecurities workers felt during the pandemic
From Gen Z to the baby boomers, we’ve all experienced volatility over the past two years. And while these generations may look a lot different from each other, the insecurities we experienced during the pandemic were universal. As the economy took a hit, we worried about our jobs; as COVID-19 cases surged, we worried about our health; and as we were forced to stay home, we re-assessed what truly contributes to our holistic well-being. When it comes to benefit offerings, let’s not forget what today’s workforce has been through. We must find ways to ensure greater peace of mind when it comes to their insecurities and how they thrive.
Undoubtedly, paying for health care is an insecurity that every generation is likely to face, and one brokers should keep top of mind as they assess which benefit partners can help address this all too common issue. One example of this is buy now, pay later solutions, which can be used to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses. This helps promote financial and physical well-being when offered to health plan members. While buy now, pay later solutions are everywhere in the retail space, they are new to the health care industry. In a post-COVID world, creative financing solutions can help ensure that those who are wary of high medical bills and credit card debt can afford to get the care they need, when they need it.
This is just one example of the ways health benefits can be tailored to ease the insecurities of today’s post-pandemic workforce. This enrollment season, assess whether your offerings are providing true comfort and peace of mind to your employees.
Health benefits that incentivize utilization
Today’s post-pandemic workforce is filled with employees who have skipped out on or delayed preventative care over the past two years. The data shows 15% of Americans with employer-sponsored health insurance deferred some care between March and September 2020. That’s a startling utilization statistic that has both short- and long-term implications for prioritizing preventative care, catching small health concerns before they become costly more serious issues, and managing chronic conditions effectively.
For years, we’ve used deductibles and copays as a way to manage utilization and hedge cost increases in the hope that individuals would become better educated and make better health care decisions with some financial skin in the game. However, even before the pandemic, it was becoming clear that this didn’t work, but rather caused employees to defer and even skip preventative care altogether. And now, as preventative care utilization tanked during the pandemic, employers will increasingly see the costly, long-term effects of offering plans that don’t incentivize receiving care early and often. Instead, we want to find ways to help employees access the care they need, in the appropriate settings, thereby improving their health, reducing high-cost claims, optimizing the use of health care resources and costs, and delivering a health program with value for all employees.
For enrollment season, this means two things: finding plans that remove barriers to employees accessing care, and also ensuring the plans we offer simplify the user experience so that confusion does not also become a barrier to accessing care. In 2022, let’s welcome the utilization and health care engagement that contributes to better health outcomes, prevents more serious health issues, and creates more satisfied and productive employees. During enrollment season, this means looking for partners who will smooth out the entire experience with superior customer service and user-friendly tools – from enrollment to navigating bills, explanation of benefits (EOB), in-network doctors and more. It also means identifying innovative solutions like plan models that approach copays and deductibles in new ways or that do away with them altogether.
Thriving in the midst of today’s Great Resignation starts with identifying the ways our post-pandemic workforce has evolved and working to ensure that we’re offering health benefits that meet those changing needs. The Great Resignation is here and it’s real — and health benefits will be key to recruitment efforts. With your help, your clients can go beyond weathering this time to actually leveraging it, in conjunction with enrollment season, to attract the best and brightest talent out there.
Amy Spartz leads human resources for Gravie, a Minneapolis-based, innovative benefits company that is committed to improving the way people purchase and access health care.