Smart Benefits: Beyond Health Insurance - Lure Workers with Voluntary Benefits

Rob Calise, GoLocalProv Business/Health Expert

Smart Benefits: Beyond Health Insurance - Lure Workers with Voluntary Benefits

Fully or partially paid by workers, voluntary benefits can a cost-effective way to boost your offerings, especially if you’re cutting core health benefits or switching to higher-deductible plans. With these added coverages, you can provide a robust package that helps relieve employee stress by providing a safety net as well as attract applicants looking for companies with rich, diverse options.

But with the wide variety of supplemental benefits available and a relatively small percentage of employees accessing them (12 percent according to a recent EBRI survey), which ones will appeal to workers? Here are some of the top voluntary trends and how they can address employees’ evolving needs.

  • Heath: Employers continue to help employees address potential gaps in coverage and avoid astronomical medical bills with critical-illness insurance (the most commonly offered, according to Willis Towers Watson 2018 Emerging Trends: Voluntary Benefits and Services Survey), hospital indemnity plans, and accident insurance.
  • Lifestyle: A growing number of companies are striving to protect what matters most to employees and improve their lives by offering comprehensive packages with benefits like pet insurance, discount health programs, legal plans, and caregiver assistance.
  • Financial: Finances remain a top concern for employees so many companies are aiming to improve the financial wellness of their teams with a range of voluntary benefits intended to enhance workers’ financial security, including life insurance, long- and short-term disability, long-term care insurance, identity theft protection, and student loan repayment.

 

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Rob Calise is the Managing Director, Employee Benefits of The Hilb Group of New England, where he helps clients control the costs of employee benefits by focusing on consumer-driven strategies and on how to best utilize the tax savings tools the government provides. Rob serves as Chairman of the Board of United Benefit Advisors, and is a board member of the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of RI Broker Advisory Board, United HealthCare of New England Broker Advisory Board and Rhode Island Business Healthcare Advisors Council. He is also a member of the National Association of Health Underwriters (NAHU), American Health Insurance Association (AHIA) and the Employers Council on Flexible Compensation (ECFC), as well as various human resource associations. Rob is a graduate of Bryant University with a BS in Finance


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