As employer-provided benefits continue to become a bigger portion of labor costs, organizations are increasing employee cost sharing as well as providing employee health education, wellness initiatives and financial education/advice. According to the Employee Benefits Accountability and Consumerism 2011 survey by WorldatWork, 45% of surveyed organizations report that turning employees into educated consumers of benefits is a very high priority for their organization's top management with more senior leaders now acting as advocates.
"It's interesting to note that, although the top human resources executive is still the primary champion of employee benefits consumerism, we saw an uptick in respondents reporting that the CEO, president or another member of the senior leadership team is their primary advocate," says Lenny Sanicola, a WorldatWork benefits professional. "What this tells me is that benefits and especially health care is increasingly being recognized as directly impacting bottom-line profits."
Thirty-eight percent of employers say they have seen desired changes in employee behavior as a result of their organizations' efforts to make employees better consumers of health care benefit programs. And, on top of it, more companies (47% in 2011 vs. 27% in 2006) are offering consumer-driven health plan options as a way to manage costs and a greater number are offering health savings account-based plans as their preferred choice.
On the retirement side, the number of organizations offering financial education and financial advice increased in the past five years, from 22% in 2006 to 36% in 2011.
"With the recent economic downturn, it is surprising that there are not more employers embracing this opportunity to offer financial education to their employees," Sanicola says. "Those that do have seen increases in employee contributions to 401(k) plans as well as more active participation in making investment decisions."
