Financial Benefits Play Important Role for Employees

In addition, nearly half feel that the workplace plays a more important role in their personal finances compared with five years ago, according to The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America’s inaugural “Guardian Workplace Benefits Study.”

The study features the Benefits Value Index (BVI), which reflects the degree to which American workers value their benefits—the level of belief employees have that their benefits are meeting their needs, are reasonably priced, contribute to their health and their financial security, as well as how successfully their employers are communicating their benefits offerings. American workers, on average, have a score of 6.8 (based on a scale of one to 10), suggesting that while today’s American workers do value their benefits, there is room for improvement. Two-thirds of workers said employee benefits are very important when deciding to stay with an employer, and 72% indicated benefits are very important when deciding whether or not to take a new job.

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The study found personalized, benefits-related content can improve worker attitudes toward the value of their overall benefits package, which contributes to engagement. More than nine in 10 workers are interested in receiving personalized recommendations about benefits and coverage levels. Content that is targeted to a worker's background, life stage or even household can allow workers to make more informed decisions about their benefits and ultimately lead to greater confidence that they have made the right decisions.   

Delivering benefits communications and enrollment services in the channels most preferred by workers also contributes to higher perceived value and engagement. While receiving information online remains the preferred enrollment channel, employees have a clearer sense of benefits satisfaction when they are provided the option of selecting their own channel of enrollment (score of 7.4). This helps employees project more confidence in the benefits that they select, thus contributing to greater loyalty and engagement and a higher BVI score. In addition, this segment of employees also tends to have a longer tenure with their employer, places greater value on their benefits and is predicted to have an increased likelihood working at this company one year from now.   

Helping workers make better decisions about their employee benefits also improves their perceived value and satisfaction of benefits overall (score of 8.5).   

The full research study can be downloaded from www.aboutemployeebenefits.com/workplace/.