4 Things Your Employee Benefits Program Needs to Have

Today and Beyond

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Keeping up with the ever-changing landscape of employee benefits is a must. After all, employee benefits aren’t only as simple as a 401k and a healthcare plan anymore. Businesses are expanding their employee benefits and offering more resources every year. For the companies who want to improve employee retention and productivity, it’s time to take notice.

Offering health and dental insurance, retirement plans, and paid vacation time have always been employee benefit staples. However, as businesses, employees, and technology change, the employee benefits industry adapts along with them. The common resources today are known—health and fitness benefits, financial advice, family leave benefits, elder care assistance—but it’s the trends within them that are changing.

From gamification to financial wellness, knowing the employee benefits you need to offer in 2017 and beyond is a recipe for increased morale and productivity.

1. Gamification

IIncreasing morale and engagement in an increasingly disengaged world takes effort. Luckily, gamification is one way to battle employee disengagement. Gamification—or taking typical elements of game-playing (contests, point scoring, rules of play, etc.) and applying them to real world situations—is a new, proven HR method to look out for.

Gamification is known to increase engagement and create healthy competition among teams by using behavior-motivating techniques like ones in Monopoly or Bingo to non-game environments. For example, Fitbit Group Health is a corporate wellness program that uses gamification to motivate employees and increase employee wellness. Through this gamification, Fitbit Group Health is transforming wellness into a competition—a competition that’s increasing employee utilization levels, employee morale, and engagement.

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4 Things Your Employee Benefits Program Needs to Have in 2018 and Beyond

As a part of their corporate wellness program, Fitbit devices are provided to employees which track steps taken, stairs climbed, hours slept, and so on. Through the “Communities” on the Fitbit dashboard where employees connect to coworkers, users can see who the running leaders are in activity each week, turning wellness into a competition. Many companies even offer prizes when employees reach specific goals, further encouraging employee wellness.

Incorporating gamification into employee benefits is not only fun for employees, but it improves workplace culture and employee productivity. This trend is one to incorporate, and soon.

2. Financial Wellness

The traditional 401(k) benefits, unfortunately, aren’t standing up to employee demands anymore. The new corporate financial wellness wave has arrived, and it’s helping employees reach optimal financial health while improving productivity and workplace culture. In the past, traditional financial employee benefits provided retirement plans, but it’s left out issues such as regulating spending habits, how to increase savings, managing debt payments, and so on. Because of this, the financial wellness wave introduces an all encompassing approach.

Financial wellness has grown upon the fact that physical health and financial health are closely related. In fact, financial stress results in many unfortunate physical side effects:

• Heart disease/attack

• High blood pressure

• Gastrointestinal problems

• Weight gain/loss

• Substance abuse

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Financial wellness programs address the underlying issues behind financial stress (i.e. forgetting to pay bills on time or not budgeting correctly) that create physical and mental stressors and distract from the workplace. Through the use of step-by-step plans, motivating and inspiring content, and ongoing, accessible support, financial wellness programs are increasing employee success and financial health.

3. Family Leave Benefits

Now is the time to increase paid leave if your company is looking to keep your top talent. Many Silicon Valley companies are leading the way in drastically increasing paid leave. Amazon has increased paid leave to 20 weeks for all new parents. Adobe increased their paid leave to 26 weeks, and ZestFInance increased their paid leave to six months. Netflix implements the longest paid leave by offering parents up to a year off after the birth of a child.

When employees feels they’re not taken care of—especially when they need family leave benefits—this decreases employee loyalty and increases turnover rates. If employees do leave, the costs associated with searching for talent, along with the work it takes to interview and train new hires, all outweigh the costs to invest in paid leave. Increasingly so, companies are beginning to see the consequences that come with not offering extended paid leave:

• High turnover rates

• Decreased morale

• Decreased productivity

• Increased absenteeism

• Low employee loyalty

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And while most companies worry about how long-term paid leave will affect their business, research shows this isn’t a problem. A study done by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the majority of California business owners didn’t find any affect on their company’s performance or profitability. So it’s clear, the benefits outweigh the costs. As more companies offer increased paid leave, the top talent will gravitate towards companies who invest in employee well-being.

4. Eldercare Resources

The need for high-quality eldercare resources in employee benefits is growing every day. For companies who employee Gen X’ers (35+ years old adults), you’re responsible for catering to the “sandwich generation”—middle aged workers who are “sandwiched” between caring for their children and elderly parents simultaneously. These employees are juggling job responsibilities, parenting minors, catering to their personal lives, and caring for their elderly parents. Naturally, one or more area of responsibilities will suffer, and it’s often work obligations.

However, identifying what a high-quality eldercare assistance program is key in providing the best benefits for employees. To accommodate for the increased elderly population in 2017 and beyond, the perfect eldercare assistance program should offer these features:

• Connection to vetted professional

• Simple integration and implementation

• Use of clear language

• User-friendly navigation

• Cost-effective pricing

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With 10,000 people turning 65 every day for the next 13 years, it’s clear as to how necessary eldercare resources are in an efficient employee benefits programs. The truth is, working caregivers don’t have the manpower to handle their dual-roles and continue to perform at their best level. The more companies offer eldercare resources in 2017 and beyond, the more employee are engaged in the workplace and in turn, productivity levels increase.

When it comes to eldercare resources, finding a company that is an expert in the elder care industry is key. At Senior Providers Network, we offer an integrated employee benefit that’s cost competitive and user-friendly. For less than a McDonald’s coffee per employee, we cover all their senior care needs for an entire year. We work closely with companies to improve employee productivity, facilitate senior care needs, and increase potential ROI.

So, the wide range of employee benefits are growing, and each year they become more and more personalized and advanced. To support your employees and increase business efficiency in your company, these four things are integral parts of an effective employee benefits program.

Ready to learn more? Sign up for a short personal demo to see how easy it is to use the Senior Providers Network platform.