Employee Benefit and Well-Being Trends
The pandemic brought about a profound change in the way we live, work, and interact with each other. This change has impacted ideas on work/life balance and what we understand to be the true meaning of well-being.
It’s crucial to understand how these changes will impact employees, as well as how businesses can attract and retain the best talent by taking a more holistic view. Here we break down some findings from MetLife’s Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study.
Increased stress and burnout could lead to lower productivity, engagement and loyalty, as well as increased absenteeism.
A Holistic Approach to Employee Health
During the height of the pandemic, only 50% of employers believed that their benefits addressed the needs of employees during this time. Employee expectations have changed to include benefits that address their overall mental well-being and are available virtually.
Looking at employee well-being from a holistic perspective, it’s easy to see how the pandemic has impacted the mental, financial, physical, and social wellness of the workforce.
Perhaps of the adversely impacted of these elements is financial health. Many are concerned over job security and long-term retirement preparedness. The imposed social distancing and shelter-in-place order has negatively impacted the social health of nearly everyone in some way. Not only can COVID-19 directly impact the physical health of employees but indirectly by forcing gyms and other exercise facilities to close. The totality of the residual effects the pandemic has had on the financial, social, and physical health of employees places additional stress on their mental health as well.
Employee Well-Being & Business Impact
Employee wellness from a holistic viewpoint was already being embraced by many forward-thinking companies. The onset of the pandemic simply accelerated the need to address employee wellness and has made it a priority for employers who want to remain competitive in attracting and retaining top talent.
Employees who are healthy across all four aspects of well-being are more likely to be loyal, engaged and productive, compared to those who rank poorly for all aspects of health. What’s more, employees who rate their health poorly in one dimension are likely to rate their health poorly in others as well.
Awareness
Offering a benefit doesn’t do anyone any good if they aren’t aware of it. The unprecedented times we live in give employers an opportunity to drive greater adoption of wellness programs. Four simple steps can help raise employee awareness of the benefits made available to them and increase the overall well-being.
- Create an open discussion
- Make it part of the company culture
- Provide actionable tools and guidance
- Enlist leaders to help employees access and use resources
How Can We Help
- We can help your company recruit and retain talent by providing access to saving on product, services and experiences than need an love
- Our program is a simple, cost-free solution to add to your diverse benefits offerings
- We help boost employee engagement and awareness by providing marketing assets and support for all of your employee communications channels.
- We stay on top of what employees want and need during changing times and encompass all areas of holistic well-being
- We provide 40K corporations with access to an employee savings platform reaching over 50 million employees. We are not only the largest persk program in the country, we have also successfully worked with over 70% of the nations top employers to help expand their health and wellness programs.
*Statistics from MetLife’s 18th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study 2020 metlife.com/ebts2020