Benefits Corner

Emerging Voluntary Benefits

The COVID-19 pandemic drove more employers to offer voluntary benefits, and now employee-pay-all benefits are expected to play a greater role after the pandemic.

"To meet employee expectations and attract and retain talent, employers are offering voluntary benefits, and broadening their voluntary offerings, to enable employees to create a package that works for their needs," said Kim Buckey, vice president of client services at Birmingham, Ala.-based DirectPath, a benefits education, enrollment and health care transparency firm.

"We're seeing increased interest in critical illness, hospital indemnity, long-term disability and life insurance buy-up, and even longterm care coverage, as a result of the pandemic, as well as financial planning, legal services, emergency loan programs and the like," she noted.

New survey data supports those observations. According to findings from consultancy Willis Towers Watson, 94 percent of large employers believe that voluntary benefits will be more important to their total rewards strategy going forward, compared with 36 percent of employers who deemed them to be important in 2018.

A total of 238 employers, who together employ 3.7 million workers, responded to the voluntary benefits section of the consultancy's 2021 Emerging Trends in Health Care Survey, conducted from Feb. 23 to March 12.

Fastest-Growing Benefits: "The pandemic has given rise to an increase in benefits that protect employees against big hospital bills and loss of income and provide personal protection," said Lydia Jilek, senior director, voluntary benefits solutions at Willis Towers Watson.

The five fastest-growing benefits, the survey showed, are: Identity Theft Protection, Hospital Indemnity, Pet Insurance, Critical- Illness and Legal Protection. Compared to pre-pandemic participation, these plans are projected to be offered over 30% more moving forward.

"Employers are supplementing existing core benefits with more personalized benefits to provide additional ways to support their employees' overall well-being and enhance the perceived value of their benefits offerings," Jilek said. The pandemic has provided employers the opportunity to re-evaluate the voluntary benefits being offered and get creative on what coverages may best meet the needs of their employee population.

*The majority of this content was taken from SHRM article “Pandemic Highlighted Value of Voluntary Benefits,” writer Stephen Miller, CEBS

Column Provided by: Shane Pennington, Regional Sales Executive, Educational Benefits, Inc.