More than 75% of employees appreciate efforts by bosses to improve overall wellbeing

Concerns among American workers about financial wellbeing have intensified during the pandemic, with many struggling to manage competing financial priorities such as monthly bills and emergency savings. Which is why employees consider health insurance, retirement benefits, and paid time off as major contributors to helping them feel more financially secure.

That’s a big takeaway from the 2021 EBRI/Greenwald Research Workplace Wellness Survey, which examines worker attitudes toward employment-based benefits in the workplace, as well as a broad spectrum of financial wellbeing, employment-based health insurance, and retirement benefit issues.

The survey’s findings were presented Feb. 2 during a webinar featuring several presenters, some of whom focused on the health benefits component of the survey.

Nearly all employees are at least “somewhat satisfied” with their current health plan, according to the survey — so much so that six in 10 employees say they would not trade their health benefits for higher wages.

Overall, the 2021 Workplace Wellness Survey found that 76% of employees favorably view their employer’s efforts to improve their overall wellbeing. And one in three acknowledge increased emphasis from their employers on improving emotional, physical, and financial wellbeing.

What’s more, 76% of respondents agree that their employer “has a responsibility” to make sure employees are mentally healthy and emotionally well, 74% agree that their employer should make sure they are healthy and physically well, and 69% agree that their employer should make sure they are financially secure and well.

The Workplace Wellness Survey includes the opinions of 2,016 full-time and part-time workers in the United States between the ages of 21 and 64 — including nearly 600 Black employees and more than 660 Hispanic employees. Online interviews were conducted in July 2021.

Health insurance vital to sense of security

Health insurance is the benefit employees say helps make them feel most financially secure. Nearly two-thirds of employees indicate their health insurance “contributes a lot” to their security and trust their health insurer to make good decisions.

“Despite the satisfaction employees have with their health benefits, rising health costs are a great concern, with one in three employees having seen their healthcare costs increase this year,” Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program, said in a statement released prior to the webinar. “Due to these increases, employees have experienced a variety of impacts, including increasing contributions to [health savings accounts], decreasing contributions to their retirement plan, delaying going to the doctor, increasing credit card debt, or using up all or most of their savings. Forty percent have had difficulty paying bills or other basic necessities, up from 29% in 2020.”

That said, the pandemic has “sparked a reset in thinking about how employers can help employees better manage their financial lives,” Rodney Bolden, a vice president and field engagement specialist at Morgan Stanley, told webinar viewers.

A survey that the investment banking firm conducted in Fall 2021 suggests that a majority of human resources executives are paying attention to employee concerns about financial challenges.

“COVID-19 has blurred personal and professional boundaries, which may account for greater visibility of specific financial hardships,” Bolden noted on a slide presented during the webinar. “COVID-19 also has had an enormous reach in negatively affecting employee economic situations, leading HR executives to call for benefits to help employees better manager financial stress.”

As a result, Morgan Stanley’s recent research reveals that 93% of HR executives “agree their company must do a better job of helping employees maximize the financial benefits offered to them.” Employees are more attuned to their financial benefits now, too, compared to 2020.

New emphasis on paid leave

Overall, today’s employee benefits “run the gamut,” Fronstin said. The three most common are health insurance, retirement savings plan, and dental insurance, followed by vision insurance, life insurance, and long-term disability insurance.

Of those, he said, health insurance and retirement savings remain the benefits employees are most likely to consider when making employment decisions. But, Fronstin added, when paid sick/vacation leave benefits are introduced, other benefits drop in importance.

Lisa Greenwald, chief executive officer of Greenwald Research, noted during the webinar that “paid time off/paid leave” was a new category added to the survey question “How does each of the following benefits offered by your employer contribute to your feeling of financial security?” Almost 90% of all respondents indicated that it contributes in some way, which Greenwald said surprised her — and further suggests that paid leave benefits are emerging as increasingly important to employees.