3 ways to improve wellness benefits for employees

To stay competitive, business leaders task HR with devising fresh and innovative approaches to benefits, moving beyond conventional offerings. While this initiative appears to be mutually beneficial for both businesses and employees, a potential pitfall arises from a lack of awareness regarding the most pressing issues affecting employees. This oversight can result in a detrimental mismatch between employee needs and the benefits provided.

While HR leaders may feel inclined to start the process of researching and onboarding new wellness benefits by focusing on national trends and popular benefit lists, this can result in overlooked populations being left out of the discussion.

For example, divorce is still considered by many to be a taboo topic in the workplace. Moreover, life after a divorce is when employees and parents need the most support from their organization. Companies may not even know how many single, divorced, step or co-parents they have in their ranks.

Financial, lifestyle and non-traditional wellness benefits are quickly becoming popular ways to attract and retain top talent and have the potential to ultimately benefit both the employer and employee. Here are some of the ways leading employers can stay ahead of the curve, demonstrating a genuine understanding of and commitment to the well-being of their employees.

Recognize the groups in your workplace that are frequently overlooked

While conventional health care benefits remain essential for everyone, these packages have increasingly diversified to address the fiscal and physical requirements of various employee groups. In a similar fashion, HR leaders have changed tactics when it comes to rewards programs, expanding the boundaries and looking at benefits that can help with the mental, fiscal, and social health of employees. To determine the non-traditional benefits that can have an impact on your organization, it’s essential to examine the composition of your workforce. But how?

First, ask yourself, when it comes to employee segments who are we forgetting? Are there segments of employees that are valuable to your organization but often ignored? Simply asking how many employees are single and divorced parents could go a long way to demonstrating your support for them. Culture surveys are a great way to understand what non-obvious factors may be affecting your employees at work.

Although every business leader may wish to envision employees maintaining 100% focus at work, the reality is that personal life often encroaches on professional responsibilities. Asking employees where they can feel best supported can help uncover some common threads that additional benefits can help support.

It might be surprising to learn that a considerable number of employees are grappling with responsibilities such as caring for a family member, financial stressors or mental health challenges due to challenging personal situations. As employees feel increasingly supported at a personal level, you’ll see improvement in loyalty, decreased turnover and less absenteeism.

Offer benefits that employees can use daily

Traditional health care benefits remain a vital component of employee benefit packages; however, these benefits are not typically utilized on a daily basis by most employees. Even for those with dependents, whether they be a child or adult under their care, health care benefits are just one component of a comprehensive health package.

While offering something such as a personal finance course may seem like a small benefit, the ability for the benefit to impact your most valuable employees could deliver meaningful benefits to the organization. Even if it won’t be used by everyone, offering such a benefit to your most desirable employee segments has the potential to improve productivity and reduce absenteeism and turnover.

In addition, offering solutions that employees can use every day to directly impact their lives can immediately help to improve their well-being. Here are a few questions to consider asking when looking to understand the total impact of a benefit.

• Who are our most valuable employees, and how can we offer them personalized benefits to help them directly?
• What percentage of the company can use this benefit?
• How often would this benefit be used? Is it something people will only access on a monthly basis? On a quarterly?
• Will this benefit help my employees when they’re out of the office as well?
• What aspect of wellness does this benefit help with?
• What can I do as a leader to make sure everyone at the company is aware of our new and existing benefits?

By using these questions, HR leaders and executives can start constructing an objective framework to assess the meaning of “value” for their employees and how to build a diverse employee benefits package that contributes to the overall well-being of all parts of their workforce.

Recognize the ties between mental and financial wellness

In understanding what can be most beneficial, it’s important to understand how different aspects of an employee’s wellness are connected. Assisting employees in achieving greater financial security not only reduces their overall stress but also contributes to their happiness and well-being both in the workplace and at home.

It’s crucial to acknowledge that there are various approaches to supporting financial wellness beyond providing fiscal incentives. Every employee’s financial landscape is different, but many age groups may have similar needs. Some groups may find financial counseling to be the most impactful, while others may need help with selecting strategic investments for their future beyond the typical workplace retirement plan. For others, something more tactical such as an expense management platform may be the best value-add to help them save for retirement or manage their new financial landscape after a divorce.

Top 10 lists may offer insights into the benefits provided by Fortune 500 businesses, but those recommendations may not always align with the needs of the remaining 99% of businesses globally. By introspectively examining and understanding the composition of your employee base, you, as a business leader, will be guided to implement benefits that have the most significant impact.

This article was written by Lily Peterson from BenefitsPro and was legally licensed through the DiveMarketplace by Industry Dive. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@industrydive.com.