MetLife’s study on benefits trends found that “with so much change, employees are looking for more stability, protection, and a safeguard against disruption. If they can find it in their employer, they’ll show their appreciation through loyalty.” Many companies offer flexible schedules, remote work, and are creating engaging, supportive, and fun workplaces to secure themselves as an “employer of choice.” The key is to provide a holistic benefits offering to give employees the best overall experience and value.

According to MetLife, these are employers’ top benefits objectives:

• Retaining employees
• Increasing employee productivity
• Increasing employee satisfaction
• Controlling health and welfare benefits costs
• Attracting employees
• Helping employees make better financial decisions

At Select International, our I/O Psychologists and consultants have years of expertise in these areas, helping business leaders and HR professionals hire, engage, and retain employees. I’ve compiled our best resources to help you stay on top of each of these top benefits objectives, creating positive outcomes for both your employees and your business – which, in turn, will help you retain employees.

Below are the top benefits objectives that MetLife found employers are prioritizing, along with our suggested HR solutions to help you reach these objectives:

1. Retain Employees

Recognize employees. Make recognition personal and specific to the accomplishment. Money is not always what causes employees to stay or go. Monetary bonuses are always nice, but simply recognizing a job well done is meaningful and drives employee loyalty. To retain talent, you must make employees feel appreciated, respected, and worthwhile and that their contributions are important.

Implement an effective hiring process to build the foundation for other employee retention tactics, like recognition and development. This will position you to choose candidates who are a good fit for both the job and the organization by determining what competencies and skills are required for success. Then, use valid hiring tools to identify individuals who possess these characteristics.

Evaluate motivational fit using employee assessments. Get this right and you’re more likely to hire employees who will stay and who will contribute to your organization’s success.

2. Increase employee productivity

Empower your employees. When people feel empowered, they are more likely to work harder and pay attention to details. An empowered workforce is generally better for productivity and the overall workplace climate.

Be progressive, diverse, and inclusive. Gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their peers and ethnically-diverse companies are 35% more likely to do the same, according to research by McKinsey.

Gamify. “Gamification” is a driver of measurable productivity improvements and positive business outcomes. A recent case study we completed found that employees who achieved a greater number of medals and badges were twice as likely to be rated as “Top Performers” by their supervisors.

3. Increase employee satisfaction

Offer opportunities for development. This tells your employees that there is room for advancement. Give challenging and stimulating work. Tap into their passion and allow them to focus their time and energy on projects they can enjoy. Communicate what career development plans you may have for them.

Make your employees feel like an asset to your company. Allow them to feel secure in their job. Greet them by name, letting them know that you know who they are and what their contributions are to the company. Get their input. Encourage goal-setting and let them make their own choices as often as possible.

4. Control health and welfare benefits costs

Offer health and wellness programs. It pays for companies to demonstrate that they value employee efforts and well-being by offering wellness programs. Organizational support for these programs is critical. This shows that the company genuinely cares about their employees.

5. Attract employees

Be an Employer of Choice. To determine your “EOC” status, do a market analysis to consider what advantages the Employer(s) of Choice in your area are offering, compared to what you offer. What benefits do they offer? Are there opportunities for advancement? What cultural benefits do other organizations offer that your company doesn’t?

Analyze your recruitment process and selection system. Target your recruitment efforts and understand how to highlight the most attractive and competitive features of the job.

6. Help employees make better financial decisions.

MetLife found that employees are concerned about their financial well-being, and 82% of employers believe that maintaining employee health and well-being is a responsibility of employers. It would be great if we could offer raises to all employees – but obviously, this isn’t a realistic solution. When you can’t adjust compensation, implementing a good mix of benefits solutions can help improve employees’ financial allocation and well-being.

A few examples include:

• Tuition reimbursement for continuing education classes.
• Incentives for healthy-living. (Think: employee step challenge or partial gym reimbursement.)
• 401K matching program and quarterly Q&A sessions.
• According to MetLife, 51% of employees agree that achieving financial well-being through benefits impacts their productivity at work.

What better reason to revamp your benefits package?

Call us today to let us help streamline your employee benefits packages!

“Can we make this system more efficient and more effective for those paying for the majority of the spending today?” she asked Monday at the Employee Benefit News Benefits Forum & Expo in New Orleans.

“An employer health-driven economy means employers collectively bear the burden of healthcare in our country,” responded Milt Ezzard, vice president of global benefits at Activision Blizzard, the video game publisher of Candy Crush and Call of Duty.

“We’re paying the lion’s share for the care of most Americans in the U.S.,” he said. “In order for that to work, employers need to band together with each other and with good health carriers who can help leverage what an employer needs to have happen.”

The bar for healthcare is so low, there is so much [employers] can do to make a difference, he added.

or example, Ezzard described how Activision Blizzard used to partner with the conventional carriers that offered conventional programs with third-party administration tools to process claims.

But engagement between the insurers and employees was low, he said. In fact, within a year, the carrier made only a total of 17 “connections” with Blizzard employees, and that, Ezzard said, was a “huge failure.”

Employers need to stop waiting for the consultants and insurers, and start driving the improvements themselves, added John Rankin, president of the North Carolina Business Group on Health.

“As employers, large and small, we need to be willing to seek out that technology and drive it without knowing what that ROI is, without knowing there is a return on investment,” he added.

But he cautions that with the plethora of technologies and providers out there, there is still going to be a challenge of integrating all the options.

“What you’ve seen is employers try to do these Band-Aid solutions for disease conditions,” said Rajaie Batniji, co-founder and chief health officer at Collective Health, a provider of workplace health management systems It solves a problem but it creates another. Now instead of going to one place, you might be going to 25 places and have 25 passwords. You’ve suddenly created more complexity in your benefits plan.”

The reason employer are going out there and looking for these best in class platforms is the large carriers haven’t done a very good job of connecting with people, he said. “They haven’t made it a good job to navigate through care.”

Many employers, though, are keeping their eyes on the Amazon-Berkshire-JPMorgan health venture as it unfolds.

None of us know what they’re going to do, but Amazon has the potential to remove some of the middle men, and that’s why companies like Cigna and Aetna are worried, Rankin added.

Article first published on Benefit News: https://www.benefitnews.com/news/employers-take-the-reins-on-healthcare-delivery?feed=00000152-18a4-d58e-ad5a-99fc032b0000

The answer, according to SunTrust’s financial well-being executive Brian Ford, is tied up with pride.

“They think that by participating in the program that it will negatively reflect on them both personally and professionally,” Ford said at the Employee Benefit News Benefits Forum & Expo, explaining that many fear showing up and being “only one of seven dudes in the room.”

To help them overcome their worries, Ford urges employers to make it clear that the program is for everyone and not target “folks with 401(k) problems” or those making “only $10 an hour.”

“The program needs to be confidential,” he said.

Other reasons for the no shows are also at play. Some employees may decide not to participate because they think financial topics, like budgeting, are boring, while others fear being sold insurance and other financial products.

Employee misgivings help explain the gap between their professed strong interest in financial wellness programs and their low participation in them. Some 60% to 70% of employees say they want the programs, but only 10% actually participate, according to Ford.

The gap is wider than that observed with health and physical wellness programs.

Ford urged HR professionals to provide employee incentives to boost participation in financial wellness programs. Providing perks, such as lunch or raffles, usually doubles participation, according to Ford.

Some of the best companies on this front are rewarding employees by helping them build emergency accounts, he said. If an employee goes through a financial wellness program and establishes an emergency account to which he or she is contributing on a regular basis, the employer might consider throwing in a certain amount monthly.

“The incentive is helping the person get in a better place financially,” he said.

Ford also exhorted HR leaders to measure the performance of their programs. At a minimum, they should track employee satisfaction and utilization rates. Employees should be able to give the program at least an eight on a scale of one to ten, and at least 90% should be willing to recommend the program to others.

Employers should shoot for utilization rates of about 30% if their financial wellness programs do not come with incentives. With incentives, they should aim for 40%.

Employers with fewer than 500 employees, however, need to aim higher and hit 50% participation.

“The smaller you are, the more you should expect greater participation,” Ford said.

Article first published on Benefit News: https://www.benefitnews.com/news/participation-in-financial-wellness-programs-needs-boosting?feed=00000152-18a4-d58e-ad5a-99fc032b0000