Roughly one quarter (23%) of employers - and 44% of large companies with 25,000 or more employees - are interested in offering targeted benefits communications based on employee life stage and/or demographics, according to MetLife´s recently released Employee Benefits Trend Study. Among certain life stages - e.g., Singles - more than 80% of employees believe their companies need to provide better benefits education to enable workers to select the best benefits options. Today, most employees feel unprepared to make benefits decisions for themselves and/or their families. Only one-third (38%) of the employees surveyed by MetLife report understanding which benefits offerings best meet their life-stage needs. Among Singles and Young Families, the percentages drop to 31% and 34% respectively.
"As employees shoulder more responsibility for selecting and funding their own benefits, they need information and decision support tools at their fingertips to make informed decisions. Because employees experience many trigger events throughout their careers, they require education and tools at each major life stage to ensure that the information they are receiving is pertinent to them," notes Ben Colvin, vice president, Institutional Marketing at MetLife. "To maximize their employees´ understanding of - and appreciation for - their benefits program, employers should provide targeted benefits education and advice based on employee life stage.
Steps can be taken to proactively remind employees about key trigger events - getting married, buying a home, having a child - which create a need to reevaluate insurance coverage and savings contributions. Open enrollment and benefits communication channels may also need to be customized based on life stage," Colvin added.
As the Burden Shifts, So Does Demand for Advice
Exacerbating the need for benefits education and advice is employees´ growing dependence on the workplace as a channel for purchasing protection, investment and advisory-related products. Currently 40% of all employees purchase more financial and protection products (e.g., life insurance, dental insurance, banking products, etc.) through the workplace than outside of work. By life stage, Singles (41%) and Young Families (40%) are somewhat more likely than Baby Boomers (38%) and Pre-retirees (25%) to purchase the majority of their financial products at work.
As employees´ appetite for workplace products continues to grow, their confidence in making the right decisions for themselves and/or their families on their own -- without expert advice and/or decision support tools -- is low. Only 29% of Singles and 37% of Young Families, for example, feel confident in their ability to make the right financial decisions. Not surprisingly, then, a large percentage (37%) of employees say they would like their companies to provide access to a financial planner. Nearly half (43%) would also like access to 401(k) planning advice.
"Increasingly, employees across all life stages - but especially Singles and Young Families - are viewing the workplace as the site of choice for purchasing investment and protection products," notes Colvin. "As this trend continues, expect employers to recognize that the ´one-size-fitsmost´ approach may no longer be an effective way to communicate to their employees."
Under-communication Yields Under-appreciation
Despite employee desire for planning and advice, many employers do not see education/advice as a top priority. When asked about their most important benefits objectives, employers listed "controlling health/welfare benefits costs" (53%) as their number one priority. Only 14% identified "helping employees make better benefits decisions" as very important.
As a result, only 28% of employers believe that their benefits communications programs effectively educate employees about benefits choices. And, more than two-thirds (67%) of employers believe their workers don´t understand the value/cost of the insurance benefits that they provide.
"As the competition for top talent continues to escalate, employers need to underscore the value of the benefits they are offering," notes Colvin. "Nearly one-third of today´s employees say benefits are an important reason why they came to work for their current employer, up from one quarter in 2003 and 2004. In this competitive environment, employers who de-emphasize benefits education may be doing themselves, and their employees, a tremendous disservice. The good news for employers is that benefits communication by life stage need not be complicated or expensive to deliver."
The MetLife Employee Benefits Trend Study was conducted during late 2005 and consists of two distinct surveys, one which polls employees and the other, employers. The employee survey, fielded by NOP World in September, polled 885 full-time employees (age 21 and older) at companies with at least two employees, and an additional 328 employees who work part-time and/or are currently on maternity leave. The employer survey polled a total of 1,514 HR/Benefits executives from companies with at least two employees, and was fielded in September by GfK NOP.
For a copy of the study, visit http: ww.whymetlife.com/trends1 MetLife, a subsidiary of MetLife, Inc. (NYSE: MET) is a leading provider of insurance and other financial services to millions of individual and institutional customers throughout the United States. Through its subsidiaries and affiliates, MetLife, Inc. offers life insurance, annuities, automobile and homeowner´s insurance and retail banking services to individuals, as well as group insurance, reinsurance and retirement and savings products and services to corporations and other institutions. Outside the U.S., the MetLife companies have direct insurance operations in Asia Pacific, Latin America and Europe. For more information, please visit www.metlife.com.
