While quit rates have slowed over the last few years, employers are still nervous about their talent leaving them — so they're taking another look at their
Healthcare benefits company
"If you're not investing in people with the right benefits, then HR professionals know they will find themselves dealing with higher turnover," says Shoblin Uralil, co-founder and chief operating officer at Lively. "And that's the last thing in the world you want after layoffs."
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Uralil emphasizes that whether a company is trying to come back from a round of layoffs or they're actively hiring, upgrading their benefits is still a big priority. He notes that in the first few years of the pandemic, many benefit leaders felt pressured to add benefits in response to the Great Resignation and the intensifying mental health and caregiving challenges faced by workers. However, in their race to expand their benefits, benefit leaders may have been less strategic about implementation.
"Benefit managers were really focused on adding a number of ad hoc point solutions, but all of these benefits were thrown into the mix without any kind of comprehensive plan of utilization," says Uralil. "Now employers are trying to figure out how they can offer benefits that lead to high utilization based on what employees want today."
As many companies' budgets have taken a hit in the past two years, employers need to be strategic about their offerings. But surprisingly, for most employers, this doesn't equate to slashing benefits — Lively found that one in four employers plan on adding wellness benefits, bonuses and emergency savings accounts, while one in five want to add pet insurance, expanded PTO, professional development opportunities and lifestyle spending accounts. Uralil expects that flexible financial wellness benefits, like lifestyle spending and emergency savings accounts, will only grow in popularity in the next year.
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"The last several years have been a high inflationary period, so benefit decision-makers are thinking about ways of increasing compensation for employees," says Uralil. "Then, by providing a lot of flexibility to the benefit, [employers] can consolidate the way their dollars are spent. And what we're seeing is greater utilization of those benefits post-consolidation."
But employers aren't simply picking benefits and providers based on flexibility alone: Lively found that 55% of benefit leaders trust employee feedback when choosing benefit providers, and 42% stated that employee complaints would motivate them to change providers. Employee feedback even outscored costs when it comes to what factors drive employers to switch providers.
"[Lively] has entire sales teams that go out and speak with HR professionals at various companies," says Uralil. "The number one reason why we see opportunities is employee interest."
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In terms of utilization, benefit leaders are prioritizing ease of use when adding new benefits, which is also the top area where they feel their current benefits are falling short. It's not enough to have a mental health app; the platform has to be something employees will engage with on a weekly basis and genuinely benefit from, says Uralil. HR leaders will likely become more critical of what they add to their benefits suite than ever before, placing emphasis on data-driven evidence of efficacy.
Lively's findings underline that, once again, benefit leaders have their work cut out for them. But with a renewed focus on employee engagement, benefit offerings may begin to look more curated and integrated.
"Many HR representatives are thinking about how they can give what their employees are looking for today versus five years ago," says Uralil. "It's about being able to design something that is very flexible and meets the individual needs of their employees."
