Employees still unaware of company lifestyle benefits, survey finds

Employees are dealing with multiple fronts in terms of costs. Inflation remains high, especially in areas of groceries and consumer goods, and they are facing lifestyle costs such as dealing with elderly parents or home assistance.

New research by Alegeus, a health care payment solutions company, found that more than half of 608 surveyed U.S. employees spend most or all of the annual lifestyle benefits (e.g., elder care, daycare, pet care and adoption assistance, etc.) that their employers offer.

Due to numerous present-day economic factors, consumers have increasingly become cost-conscious, with many respondents stating grocery and gas/transportation as areas where they continue to cut back due to inflation, according to a previous survey by Alegeus. Recognizing the growing issue, employers have introduced benefits geared toward cost-savings for expenses.

Their research also shows that employees are unaware if their employer offers lifestyle benefits and what the allocated budget is. Thirty percent of respondents are unsure of the dollar amount their employers offer in lifestyle benefits, and only 10% believe their employer allots more than $2,000 annually to lifestyle benefits.

“Lifestyle spending accounts offer tremendous flexibility to employers to design programs that address the needs of their specific employee populations and segments,” noted Jennifer Irwin, senior vice president of Marketing and Strategy at Alegeus. “This research does a great job of illustrating the diversity of wants and needs across different segments of employees – as a result, one-size-fits-all benefit programs often fall flat.”

Also, demand is a high for benefits associated with family care. But, this is not true for all generations – baby boomers and Generation Xers both agree that work-from-home and food support are high priorities, while Millennials favored family care and healthy living perks. On the other hand, the Silent Generation prioritized food and leisure/hobbies for lifestyle perks and Generation Zs ranked food and family care on top.

Also, only 29% of respondents say their employer perks are fully aligned with their lifestyle. When it comes to generational differences, Millennials were most likely to agree that their perks were fully aligned with their lifestyle, while baby boomers and Generation X said their perks didn’t align with their lifestyles.

Read more: What do employees care about more: Life/health or lifestyle?

“We know in this post-pandemic, inflationary, and hybrid work environment – that people are facing new challenges in terms of work, life and finances,” she added. “Lifestyle spending accounts are a great tool to help augment employee’s finances, provide targeted dollars toward their family and lifestyle needs, and deliver perks that their people might not otherwise be able to currently afford.”