Customizing Employee Benefits: the Power of Choice
Customizing Benefits for a Brighter Holiday Season
The holiday season is often a time of reflection and planning—a perfect opportunity for businesses to evaluate their benefits offerings and ensure they meet the diverse needs of their workforce. Employees today expect more than just a standard set of benefits. They’re looking for options that align with their unique circumstances, and businesses that provide these custom benefits gain a competitive edge in the war for talent.
Why Customization Matters
Studies show that 80% of employees say benefits play a crucial role in their decision to accept or stay with a job. However, one-third of employees feel their benefits don’t meet their needs. This disconnect can result in reduced engagement, higher turnover, and lower overall satisfaction.
With today’s workforce spanning multiple generations and diverse lifestyles, benefits must evolve to meet varied needs. For example:
- Younger employees may prioritize mental health resources and student loan assistance.
- Older employees often value caregiving support and retirement planning tools.
Customizing employee benefits to reflect these priorities fosters a sense of understanding and support, boosting morale and productivity.
New Benefits simplifies customization with over 40 non-insured offerings from trusted, rigorously vetted vendors. Whether it’s financial wellness programs, fertility advocacy, caregiver solutions, or pet care discounts, tailoring benefits to align with employees’ needs has never been easier.
Navigating the Annual Renewal Shift
At renewal time, nearly 99% of employers face some form of benefits adjustment. This might include:
- Adding new carriers due to budget constraints
- Shifting costs to employees through higher deductibles or premiums
- Introducing voluntary or supplemental benefits to fill coverage gaps
These changes can confuse and stress employees, especially when grappling with rising healthcare costs. In 2024, healthcare expenses for the average family rose by 7%, with trends indicating continued increases into 2025. These financial pressures can be alleviated by offering voluntary or supplemental benefits that address coverage gaps and reduce out-of-pocket costs.
For example, non-insured solutions like telemedicine or virtual primary care, health advocacy, and ID Theft & Monitoring provide tangible relief while demonstrating care for employees’ well-being. According to our Broker Pulse Survey, 60% of brokers’ clients added at least one non-insured benefit last year to address gaps effectively.
Choosing the Right Vendors
Customizing employee benefits isn’t just about expanding offerings—it’s about selecting the right vendors to deliver them effectively. New Benefits collaborates with a carefully vetted network of partners to ensure quality, reliability, and flexibility. With employees’ diverse needs, no one-size-fits-all package can address every situation. Offering multiple vendor options allows employers to provide personalized solutions tailored to individual employee circumstances—all while minimizing administrative burdens.
Tools like Alight Navigator and Health Advocate Solutions further enhance these customized packages, delivering invaluable support during transitions and benefits adjustments. These solutions offer:
- Personalized Guidance: Helping employees understand new carriers or plan changes.
- Expert Assistance: Navigating claims, finding top-rated providers, reviewing medical bills for errors, comparing treatment costs, and more.
- Stress Reduction: Simplifying the benefits landscape by offering clarity, responding quickly to inquiries, explaining care options, and assisting with appointment scheduling.
By integrating these solutions, brokers can help their clients mitigate employee frustration and ensure smoother transitions during renewal season.
Streamlining with New Benefits
New Benefits integrates carriers and aggregates benefits into a centralized platform, simplifying access and enhancing the employee experience. With tools like My Benefits Work and the New Benefits platform, employees can effortlessly find, understand, and use their benefits, ensuring consistent engagement throughout the year.
Here’s how it works:
- Telemedicine services like Teladoc or Galileo save employees time and money by providing virtual consultations on everything from everyday health concerns to ongoing conditions.
- Financial wellness tools help employees manage debt, plan for retirement or college, and navigate financial challenges.
- Virtual behavioral health support offers on-demand counseling for stress, anxiety, and other life challenges.
Through features like My Wallet and My Insurance, employees can store and access all their benefit details in one secure, convenient location. By centralizing benefit access, education, and communication, New Benefits ensures employees stay informed and make the most of their resources. This streamlined approach not only enhances satisfaction and engagement but also reduces administrative complexity for employers, setting the foundation for a successful and productive year.
A Holiday Gift That Lasts All Year
The holiday season is a time of giving, and benefits customization is a gift that keeps giving. Here’s why:
- Increased engagement: Employees who feel supported are 4.6x more likely to be engaged at work.
- Lower turnover: Offering benefits that meet employee needs can reduce turnover by up to 50%.
- Improved well-being: Customized non-insured benefits address physical, mental, and financial health, helping employees thrive.
Real-World Example: A Health-Conscious Workforce
Imagine a mid-sized company with a predominantly millennial workforce, a demographic that values work-life balance, mental health support, and overall well-being. To address these priorities, the company enhanced its benefits package by adding non-insured solutions such as telemedicine, mental health resources, and pet care benefits—directly aligning with employee needs.
Within months, benefit utilization increased by 25%, and employee satisfaction scores rose, reflecting the positive impact on morale and engagement. These offerings weren’t just perks; they demonstrated the company’s commitment to holistic well-being. Telemedicine provided convenient and affordable healthcare access, virtual mental health resources offered essential accessible support, and pet care benefits recognized the significance of pets in employees’ lives.
This tailored approach created a healthier, more engaged workforce, improving retention and productivity while solidifying the company’s reputation as an employer that truly values its team.
Moving Forward
Customization isn’t a trend—it’s the future of benefits. Brokers who embrace this shift can offer their clients solutions that address coverage gaps, reduce costs, and increase employee satisfaction.
As you wrap up 2024 and look toward 2025, let New Benefits help you create tailored solutions that resonate with today’s workforce. You can empower your clients to become employers of choice with options that meet diverse needs and tools to streamline the process.
Let’s make the holidays—and every season—brighter with the power of choice.
