How can we maintain the cost of benefits and still provide employees with an added value over their existing salary and compensation plans? This is one of the questions HR and corporations are asking. With the cost of healthcare continuing to rise, corporations are facing the increasing challenge of offering benefits at an affordable cost.

A recent survey of large companies by the National Business Group on Health found that employers estimate their health-care-benefit costs will increase by an average of 8.9% in 2011, compared with an average increase of 6.9% in 2010. According to HR and outsourcing consulting firm Hewitt Associates, the average total health care premium per employee for large companies will be $9,821 in 2011, up from $9,028 in 2010 and double what they paid in 2001.

Because of trends like this, many employers are looking to less expensive benefits alternatives, including flexible savings accounts (FSAs) and non-insurance voluntary benefits, to boost benefits offerings.

Non-insurance voluntary benefits are designed to augment core benefits by addressing the personal needs of a company’s employees at a low cost to the employer. At BeneTrac, we are seeing companies offer a range of benefits options in this category through their BeneTrac site, including auto and home insurance, 529 college savings plans, deferred compensation, estate planning, fitness programs, lunch programs, medical opt-outs, pet care, profit sharing, stock options, uniforms, and more. When offered these types of benefits, employees generally perceive that their company has performed due diligence to select the appropriate providers and has leveraged its buying power to get a better deal.

In providing voluntary benefits, human resources professionals can address companies’ needs to lower costs, offer a variety of plans, and provide greater value to help retain employees.

Human resources professionals can provide added value at their corporations by performing employee audits to determine non-insurance voluntary benefits that might make the biggest impact. In assessing the needs of the employee base, HR can often determine new and more cost-effective alternatives, and provide creative options to employers’ traditional plans. HR professionals should determine the answers to questions such as: Would employees collectively benefit from a selected program? Or, would they prefer to have greater options in selecting specific benefits that meet their needs?

When the non-insurance voluntary benefits provided hold a high level of perceived value on the part of workers, organizations can maintain a higher level of employee satisfaction. Gym memberships, FSAs and other benefits can demonstrate a higher sense of concern for employee health and well-being.

With these new plans as an option, in addition to traditional offerings, many HR professionals will look to onsite enrollers to help make benefits options easier for employees to understand and manage. Younger employees, such as those in Generation X and Y, however, will also want the ability to learn about plans online and access information 24/7 from their home. Technology is also becoming increasingly more important in helping to manage information surrounding more complex offerings.

With increasing costs and growing uncertainty in the benefits market, offerings continue to evolve. The changing benefits landscape requires HR professionals and employers to provide employees with more choices and greater access to information, necessitating more sophisticated technology and relationships with trusted advisors to manage information. The most successful HR professionals are actively pursuing options for organizations, and using their knowledge and access to information to look for new opportunities to address changing needs.

Art Brooks is with BeneTrac, a Paychex company and provider of powerful, web-based electronic enrollment and employee benefits administration software used to manage benefit information. He can be reached at abrooks@benetrac.com