2020 Employee Benefit Trends: Financial Wellness Tops the List
As we enter the fourth and final quarter of 2019, employee benefit trends for 2020 are emerging. Various media outlets and human resource analysts are forecasting the most desirable benefits that employers should add in 2020 if you want to keep your organization on the cutting edge of benefit offerings. It’s important to pay careful attention to these benefit trends if you want to attract and retain the brightest and the best talent. The front-runners for 2020 are pet perks, flexible work schedules, and financial wellness programs.
The HR Playbook by Paycor found that companies can reduce turnover by 138% when they offer the right mix of benefits. It’s time to start analyzing your organization’s employee benefits for 2020.
Pet-Friendly Employee Benefits
Many companies are open to employees bringing their pets to work, and many even have office pets. Caring for pets can be expensive, which has led to pet health insurance growing in popularity. Many employees that comprise the younger generations (like Millennials) want to treat their pets like family but don’t always have the means when they’re just starting their careers.
The number of consumers with pet insurance grew 17 percent in 2017 and it’s been on the rise ever since. This also led to a 23% increase in premium volumes, according to the North American Pet Health Insurance Association.
Many financial wellness programs include various insurance benefit offerings like pet insurance, auto insurance, health insurance, etc. as they’re able to provide volume discounts to companies which is then passed along to employees.
Financial Wellness Programs
Our economic financial crisis is not improving. According to PwC, 59% of workers report feeling stressed about their finances. 75% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck and 49% are struggling to cover everyday expenses. Financial wellness programs afford organizations the ability to help their employees through financial challenges, with little to no administration for the employer.
A true, holistic financial wellness program will help alleviate 401(k) loan requests and payday advance requests by offering cost-effective credit alternatives. Employees don’t want to resort to these high-cost credit options, but often they don’t have any other solutions.
Student Loan Repayment Services
That’s why financial wellness benefit programs are so crucial for employees. On top of daily financial struggles, Americans have a combined student loan debt to the tune of $1.5 trillion. It’s no wonder that student loan services continue to top the list of desired benefits.
A recent survey reports that 33% of employees rank student debt services as a must-have benefit; that jumps to 55% percent of employees within the Millennial generation. If you haven’t been paying attention to the student loan crisis, you can read more about it here. Financial planning resources (27%) and identity theft protection (28%) also topped the list of coveted benefits. You should be able to find all these services included in a comprehensive financial wellness program, a program like FinFit.
Not only will a financial wellness program educate employees and give them access to resources to improve their financial situations, the ROI for employers is huge. As far as benefit offerings are concerned, financial wellness programs are a fraction of the cost of traditional benefits.
Flexible Scheduling Benefits
Flexible scheduling is another benefit that is on the rise. This is a fairly easy benefit for employers to add that offers high perceived value and little to no hard cost. According to SHRM, more than two-thirds (70%) of organizations now offer telecommunication, either on a full-time, part-time, or ad-hoc basis, up from 62% last year.
It is highly desirable for employees, giving them more control over their time. It also makes them feel valued as an employee because it establishes a level of trust between employer and employee. More than 10 percent of employees quit because of a poor work-life balance. This could be due to their work schedule, commute, lack of flexibility, inability to travel, etc. If flexible scheduling isn’t as important to you, think of those employees for whom it may have a big impact: new parents, caretakers, students, employees with ongoing health issues, and employees with long commutes.
If you’re interested in adding employee benefits that will set your business apart from your competition, retain talented employees, and attract new ones, contact FinFit or request a demo here.