Do Your Benefits Appeal to The Growing Millennial Workforce?
Generational issues in benefits may be on the rise.
That shouldn’t be surprising, given that 75% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials by 2025. It’s only natural that employers should begin targeting the future supermajority of their workforce with benefits that appeal directly to them, especially since an equal percentage of employers (75%) are concerned about retention rates with millennials, according to a Wells Fargo Employee Benefits Trend Study.
Among the benefits employers are beginning to deploy to accommodate millennials: technology tools, telehealth options, a healthy workplace environment, and financial wellness support.
That latter benefit is becoming particularly common and important. CNBC has reported that 41% of millennials haven’t started saving for retirement and they earn 20% less on average compared to Baby Boomers when they were the same age.
Perhaps that’s why 30% of employees say they lay awake at night worrying about money, according to MetLife’s 15th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study. The objective behind such financial wellness benefits, is not just to attract employees and increase their satisfaction but also to help employees make better financial decisions.
Employees seem to like financial wellness benefits, when offered. They agree that such benefits:
- Helps them gain peace of mind, 74%
- Helps them relieve financial anxiety, 70%
- Impacts their productivity at work, 51%
- Impacts their ability to focus at work, 51%
- Impacts their number of work absences due to financial errands, 43%
These benefits are not just for the employees’ benefit, though.
Two-thirds of employers agree that employees are less productive at work when worried about financial problems (an increase of 7 points in just the past two years). Moreover, 51% of employees are more likely to accept a job with a new employer if financial planning programs are offered. Similarly, 53% of employees will be more loyal to their current employer when such a benefit is offered. In other words, these benefits tangibly affect recruitment and retention.
Most employers turn to brokers or professional advisers for help with these benefits. There are complex questions that have to be considered when designing financial wellness programs. How will you measure success and effectiveness? Will they be mandatory or voluntary? How in-depth will they go (e.g., will they drill down to individual coaching sessions)? These are critical issues to consider.
CoAdvantage, one of the nation’s largest Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs), helps small to mid-sized companies with HR administration, benefits, payroll, and compliance. To learn more about our ability to create a strategic HR function in your business that drives business growth potential, contact us today.