As more employers turn to robust total rewards strategies to attract and retain workers, deciding which benefits to offer can be a struggle. From child care assistance to tuition reimbursement to fertility benefits, figuring out which offerings will work best for employees — and pay off for the company — takes some work. 

But there are a few ways HR can tackle the benefits dilemma, according to benefits pros. 

1. Listen to employees

Understanding what employees want — and which benefits they will use — comes down to doing some legwork, according to Erika Duncan, a human capital consultant at UHY, an accounting and advisory firm. 

Duncan recommends employers regularly survey employees either through engagement surveys or focus groups to gauge participation and interest. Exit interviews, although a lagging indicator, also can provide insight. Beyond that, employers can turn to benchmarking data on salaries and benefits others in their industry offer. 

While wellness programs, such as smoking cessation programs, fitness classes and mental health workshops, generally track participation rates, when it comes to healthcare benefits, the data are more robust, Duncan said. Employers can analyze claims and reimbursement records and see exactly how offerings are being used and at what cost. 

“Using a combination of those methods is the best way to get a comprehensive understanding of both how your employees are engaging with the benefits, as well as how they're perceived,” Duncan said. 

Because employee needs are constantly evolving, employers need to continue to gather data to “refine and innovate their HR benefit strategies, ensuring they remain relevant and responsive,” a spokesperson for Forbes Advisor said. 

Forbes Advisor’s most recent report on Workplace Trends by Generation, released in August, identified flexible work options, mental health resources and upskilling opportunities as the top benefits U.S. workers reported wanting access to in 2023. 

2. Be flexible

While flexible time off and hybrid working arrangements aren’t considered traditional benefits, they are something employees are looking for and can be “paramount to a retention and recruitment strategy,” Duncan said. 

Employers also can get creative with their offerings. Some employers allow workers to bring their pets to work or offer pet insurance. Others provide student loan repayment and stipends that can be used for conferences, workshops and certifications. 

“That’s something that's a differentiator,” Duncan said about professional development opportunities. “If you're engaged in a program or a degree or a certification, you're probably not going to leave a company that's paid for it.”

For every $1 spent on leadership development, companies see a return on investment of $7, according to a recent report by leadership development platform BetterManager and research firm The Fossicker Group. Those savings come from increased revenue and sales, higher employee retention and lower recruiting costs, the report found. 

Not every benefit is going to work for every employee, but that doesn’t mean those benefits aren’t worthwhile, said Duncan, who sees broad offerings in the diversity, belonging and inclusion space. 

“Most companies from a cultural sense are trying to be sensitive to meeting employees where they're at,” Duncan said. 

For example, employers can recognize domestic partnerships in benefits coverage, offer fertility benefits, provide long-term coverage for workers with long COVID, expand telemedicine services and broaden the definition of family leave. 

An advantage of having a diverse offering is that few people are going to use every benefit, but different subsets of employees will find a benefit that works for them, she said. 

3. Provide access

When determining which benefits to offer, employers also should consider access. Enrollment in a program or the use of a benefit can come down to access, Duncan advised. 

“A lot of people don't think through how to make it accessible for all employees,” Duncan said. 

If a company has three shifts, only offering a service from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays won’t be accessible for all employees, she said. 

“There's a lot of room for creativity, not just in the benefits offered, but in the way in which we look at how to communicate and educate people about them,” Duncan said. “The biggest thing is to make sure the education is there for what’s offered.” 

Part of that can be rebranding what’s already offered. For example, many companies have a set dollar amount per employee allocated for professional development, but only managers might know, Duncan said. Instead, being transparent with employees about what is available and being flexible about how they spend that investment can pay off in recruitment and retention efforts, Duncan said. 

4. Measure effectiveness

Gauging the return on investment of benefits can be challenging, Duncan said. 

Apart from benchmarking and using compensation surveys, companies can retrospectively look at the effects of offering new benefits. But they can’t do it all at once, she said. 

“You ideally need to be laser focused on what you want to measure and then look for a way to do it, which is different from saying I'm going to measure all my benefits at one time,” Duncan said. “It needs to be a bit more methodical.”

For example, if an employer introduced a wellness program, it can see if use of the employee assistance program is down. Or if it started offering parental leave, HR can look to see if there was reduced absenteeism among workers, improved scheduling and higher retention rates. 

The company also can identify problems, then use benefits to solve them. If the employer experienced high turnover in one category — a demographic, a department or among those working for a certain leader — it can provide new benefits targeted to attract and retain those workers. 

“The cost of retention and recruitment is typically the offset,” Duncan said.

Despite rising costs, employers are trying to balance finding savings with talents’ needs, survey results from WTW, a global insurance broker and advisory firm, revealed. Sixty-nine percent of companies said they’re focused on managing healthcare plan costs, while 63% said they want to enhance mental health and wellbeing offerings, according to WTW’s 2023 Best Practices in Healthcare Survey.

To improve mental health services, employers are offering virtual care visits, working with employee resource groups to address population-specific mental health issues, providing mental health days, assessing the diversity of their mental health networks and performing mental health parity audits, per the report. 

“Aligning business priorities, from workforce transformation to healthcare costs to employee wellbeing, requires a constant evolution of benefit programs, culture and employee experience,” Regina Ihrke, senior director of health and benefits for WTW, said in a statement. “By doing so, companies can alleviate strains on attracting and retaining talent, enhance worker health and productivity, and gain competitive advantage.”

The WTW report said healthcare costs are expected to rise 6.4% in 2024, on top of an average increase this year of 6%.

To control costs, employers are looking for new vendors, putting health plans out to bid, restricting or eliminating out-of-network coverage for non-emergency care, focusing on prescription drug costs and offering virtual primary care, among other actions, per the report. 

Balancing cost containment and meeting employees’ needs “is not a simple challenge for employers to navigate,” Courtney Stubblefield, managing director of health and benefits at WTW, said in the statement. 

“As companies face steep healthcare cost increases, they are not losing sight of the importance of addressing employees’ needs,” Stubblefield said. “Each employer needs to find the unique portfolio of programs and solutions that will best control its costs while meeting the healthcare and specific needs of its organization.”

The average annual premiums for employer-sponsored and family health insurance plans increased 7% this year, and workers covered on average 17% of the premium for single coverage and 29% of the premium for family coverage, according to a recent survey conducted by KFF.

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Poor employee mental health has a financial impact on employers that goes beyond medical claims costs alone. While many organizations look only to the medical and medication spending on mental healthcare as an indicator of cost, in reality, there are a number of indirect cost sources for supporting employees with poor mental health.

By proactively supporting employees with mental healthcare that offers a spectrum of services — like on-demand guided care and behavioral health coaching to therapy, psychiatry, and work-life services — employers can find substantial cost savings while improving the health and happiness of their employees. 

The indirect costs of mental health for employers

1. Medical and prescription costs for comorbidities

Mental health issues and chronic conditions often coexist. For example, people with diabetes are 2-3x more likely to have depression than people without diabetes. These comorbidities are costly. A 2020 Milliman report found that average annual healthcare costs for those with mental health conditions are 2.8-6.2 times higher than those without a mental health condition.

To estimate medical and prescription costs for comorbidities, organizations can request a detailed claims analysis from their medical insurance plan that calculates the cost of claims where a mental health condition is the secondary diagnosis.

2. Increased future spend due to a lack of early intervention

We rarely take the same preventive measures for our mental health that we take for our physical health. As a result, small mental health challenges can escalate into large issues that require costly care, including inpatient care and ER visits. 

In the U.S., eliminating unnecessary emergency care use for mental illness could save about $4.6 billion annually.

3. Lost productivity

It’s not just absenteeism that increases with depression. According to the American Psychiatric Association, employees with unresolved depression experience a 35% reduction in productivity. This loss in productivity results in costs for companies.

How can you estimate productivity loss:?

• Conduct a quarterly or bi-yearly employee pulse survey to understand how stress and mental health impacts daily working for your employee population. 
• Include questions asking employees how much they agree or disagree with statements like “My company enables me to balance work and personal life” or “My workload is sustainable.” 
• Analyze the rate of participation in “optional” meetings. Attendance in these meetings tends to fall off when employees are experiencing burnout. 

4. High turnover

According to a study published in the Harvard Business Review, half of millennials and 75% of Gen Zers have left a job due to mental health reasons. Training and onboarding new employees can be costly. Organizations can reduce these costs by supporting employee mental health proactively.

How can you estimate high turnover?

• Request an analysis from your HRIS vendor on year-over-year employee retention. 
• Analyze the results by tenure. If many employees are leaving faster than the normal retention rate in your industry,  your employees may be experiencing burnout. 
• Conduct exit surveys to understand whether burnout is contributing to employee turnover.

5. Talent attraction

A recent survey by the American Psychological Association found that 81% of individuals are looking for workplaces that support mental health. In a competitive job market, a lack of investment in mental health can mean losing top candidates. 

How can you estimate talent attraction?

• Review your applicant tracking system to assess the number of hires made where mental health benefits were a key factor to the decision.
• Conduct a survey among your recruiting team that asks how frequently mental health benefits are mentioned in initial conversations with candidates.
• Conduct exit surveys to understand why employees might be leaving for new jobs and whether benefits are an influential factor. 

Mental health costs are complex and can include many hidden, indirect costs alongside the direct costs of increased medical claims spending. Headspace's comprehensive care offering can address all key sources of cost.

The Headspace care model offsets unnecessary mental health spend and drives increased utilization by getting members to the right care for their needs. In addition to saving money in the long run, Headspace helps organizations save money upfront through cost-effective pricing that ensures predictable spending. 

Results from a published study showed that Headspace members engaging in care with a coach and/or clinician on average experienced an increase of 3 healthy and productive days, which can translate to >$1,000 in potential productivity savings per employee.

Interested in learning how your organization could see the return on investment from supporting employee mental health? Contact us here to learn more.

Benefits enrollment can be difficult for HR and employees alike. Much of the chaos and confusion surrounds how workers should approach the decision process, as well as the terms themselves. 

Do workers understand their benefits?

According to a 2023 MetLife report, data suggests nearly half of workers make benefits enrollment decisions alone. Healthcare literacy, the report suggested, is an integral part of worker wellbeing: 76% of workers who understood their benefits said they were happy and 82% said their benefits gave them a greater sense of stability.

When employees spend more time on learning about their benefits, they can make more informed decisions, researchers said. This reduces anxiety and improves overall employee wellbeing, they added.

Financial anxiety: How can benefits knowledge help reduce it?

Benefits education conversations are crucial in today’s economic climate, MetLife exec Jamie Madden told HR Dive.

“With only 55% of employees feeling financially healthy now — a fall from 64% in 2022, according to our data — this year’s open enrollment season will be particularly important for employees seeking added financial support,” the SVP of Workforce Engagement and Benefits Connectivity at MetLife said. These conversations are also important for employers, Madden added via email, so that they can better understand the connection between benefits and employee wellbeing.

“Financial solutions provide education and resources to help employees prepare for the future; disability insurance can help to protect an individual’s income during unexpected events or illness. Both benefits can help employees maintain a sense of financial stability and control, alleviating stress in stride,” Madden said. About 50% of workers, per MetLife’s data, said they wish they were more informed about their company’s total rewards.

The key is for employees to get in front of the process and “educate themselves on what their employer offers, and have conversations with HR, their manager, or someone they trust, to ensure they’re using this opportunity to better understand how benefits can be used to provide financial support,” she said. “It’s also up to employers to provide benefit communications to help their workforce understand how to maximize the value of their benefits for their own unique situations.”

What do employees want to know about?

Workers say they need a variety of information about their benefits. According to benefits education firm Optavise, which recently published its 2023 Healthcare Literacy Report, workers are hungry for knowledge about:

• How to choose a plan (22%).
• How to choose where to get care (22%).
• Researching healthcare costs and why it matters (29%).
• How to review an explanation of benefits and audit a medical bill for errors (30%).
• How their deductible, copay/coinsurance and out-of-pocket maximum work, and what those costs mean for them (33%).
• How to avoid surprise medical bills (41%).

How can HR better communicate benefits packages to employees?

Beyond the desire to hear from middle management, workers have also voiced their medium preferences.

About 7 in 10 workers said online resources are “very or extremely helpful,” per Optavise’s report. Additionally, 8 in 10 workers said that one-on-one conversations are very or extremely helpful. (Both of these methods outpaced email as a method that workers found helpful). But HR will have to personalize education efforts for their workforces; asynchronous training, posters or virtual benefits fairs, for example, may be necessary for deskless workers.

Evidence shows that the burden of education shouldn’t rest solely on HR.

In a couple of studies, workers indicated that they want to learn about their benefits from their managers. This year’s MetLife report indicated that 33% of workers want to hear from their managers about workplace benefits. Experts say that sensitivity and compliance training can go a long way here — and that’s where HR comes in.

What else should HR keep in mind? (It starts with an “R”)

What does this mean for HR? Communication is imperative not just because it’s the right thing to do — it’s a retention strategy. 

Retention is everything right now as the U.S. has shifted from the “Great Resignation” (an employee’s market) to the “Big Stay” (an employer’s market, or maybe a meeting in the middle). And benefits can help get people to stay. 

HR experts have continually spoken about the value of benefits as a retention strategy; in turn, employers have expressed the desire to offer solid benefits. But what good are those benefits that HR has put in employee’s pockets if employees don’t know that they’re there?

Notably, 50% of workers told MetLife that a better grasp of their total rewards would make them more loyal to their employer. Beyond a moral imperative, the war for talent and the strains of a recession-esque economy may make benefits education a top priority for HR.

The number of 401(k) participants taking hardship distributions has increased 36% year over year, according to Bank of America.

Still, contributions remained steady and average balances are up, the bank said.

The data tells two stories, Lorna Sabbia, the organization’s head of retirement and personal wealth solutions, said in a statement: “one of balance growth, optimism from younger employees and maintaining contributions, contrasted with a trend of increased plan withdrawals.” It shows the employees are understandably prioritizing short-term expenses over long-term saving at the moment, she said.

Bank of America’s report comes as plan sponsors weigh a new option to offer workers in-plan emergency savings accounts.

With the Secure 2.0 Act, Congress made non-highly compensated employees eligible for such benefits, in plan years beginning after Dec. 31, 2023, consulting firm Mercer explained in a report. Withdrawals from the accounts will have fewer restrictions than those from 401(k)s.

The shift comes after workers made it clear they want additional financial support from employers — support that goes beyond a raise.

Employees seem to be seeking a sense of financial security and stability, research shows. Many of those responding to a recent survey said they lack enough money for retirement. And in another survey, respondents said employers could offer financial wellness benefits and education to help mitigate that issue.

HR pros say they’re doing just that. Nearly half of respondents to HR Dive’s annual survey said retirement benefits or contributions were part of their talent acquisition strategies. That offering saw the highest increase among a variety of total rewards package components; only 35% said retirement benefits or contributions were part of their recruiting strategy the previous year.

Employers will, of course, have to weigh costs. But one source previously told HR Dive that benefits that convey empathy, and that are truly meaningful, can help an employer differentiate itself in the job market.

Addressing mental health continues to be a challenge at work. According to a May report from the Conference Board, about a third of U.S. workers say their self-reported level of mental health is lower than six months ago. Despite this, according to an additional study from Amwell, 85% of workers don’t use the mental health benefits they are provided.

Deskless workers face significant hurdles in accessing their mental health benefits, even though they have the same challenges — and then some — as their desked co-workers. The nature of their work and sometimes schedules mean that it might be hard for them to find a regular time to set up appointments with a mental health professional, and for managers to see signs that a worker might be in need of help.

“Even though employers have increased mental health benefits, a lot of front-line workers don’t know about them or don’t how to access them,” said Sandra Moran, chief marketing officer at Workforce Software.

Here’s what HR can do.

Connect deskless workers with benefits already provided

The challenge isn’t so much that deskless workers don’t receive mental health benefits. It’s that they may face pain points in accessing them.

“Even though the employer offers a wellness benefit, a front-line worker’s ability to get in a predictable schedule is a major barrier,” said Moran. In a recent study, Workforce Software found that 55% of employees have weekly changes in their schedules.

Finding a therapist who is taking new patients and accepts a worker’s insurance is also becoming more difficult. Fewer than half of people with a mental illness were able to access timely care in the U.S. in 2021, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

If a worker’s hours change every week it can be near impossible for them to schedule an appointment when they find the right practitioner, said Moran.

Deskless workers may also be harder for managers to keep in the know about benefits offered or spot when someone might be in need of help, said Deb Muller, CEO and founder of HR Acuity. “Whether in a retail environment or climbing poles, you as a leader are not watching them every second,” she said. “The signs of mental health [issues] might not be as easy to recognize.”

Help bridge the gap

One way to help these workers access benefits is to stop putting up barriers to scheduling appointments, said Moran. That means offering more predictable schedules, so that workers can set up therapy sessions and keep them.

Knowing your workforce can help employers create schedules that suit worker needs. For example, said Moran, if a significant portion of a company’s deskless workers are women, who typically carry a heavier burden for child care, then offering things like three-day-a-week mini shifts can ease some of those outside stressors and allow workers to schedule for themselves — and benefit other people who have caretaking duties as well.

Managers of deskless workers, especially those who are deskless themselves, should also be trained to spot signs that a worker may need mental health services, said Muller. “Give managers the tools they need to check in, and understand how to check in,” she said. Managers can also be trained to “open a dialogue about their well-being that might be uncomfortable, but we are training those managers to have those conversations.”

Companies can also use anonymous surveys to get feedback on mental health initiatives, she added, which can help employers understand barriers workers face in accessing care without those workers feeling they may face negative consequences for speaking up.

Employers can set up text-based services for workers to submit feedback, or place QR codes in places like the bathroom or break room, which would lead workers to links providing them more information on services, or to submit feedback, Muller said.

While the pandemic has taken a major toll in people’s lives, it did teach employers that they can make major changes, quickly, to help workers as much as possible, which should be applied to addressing the mental health needs of deskless workers now. “If the pandemic taught us anything, it’s that we can make those changes,” Muller said. “Things can be turned on their heads and we can make drastic changes and it can work.”

As companies continue to work on DEI initiatives and goals, one area of focus has been family-inclusive benefits for LGBTQ+ workers. Even if inequities weren’t baked into benefits on purpose, simple things like referring to parental leave as “maternity leave” can shut employees out.

“Some organizations weren’t paying attention or just weren’t realizing there were systemic barriers, even within their benefits, and are taking a look at employee benefits and making sure all their benefits cater to the diverse needs of their employees,” said Monica Marquez, co-founder and chief learning officer at HR technology company Beyond Barriers.

Here’s how.

Create family inclusive benefits

Family inclusive benefits mean covering all families — not only those helmed by one cis gendered, heterosexual man and one cis gendered, heterosexual woman.

When benefits stuck with that definition of family, LGBTQIA workers “were wanting to start families but there were no ways for them to do it” given the financial burden of different paths they could take, said Marquez. “But heterosexual couples were getting assistance for benefits, for gestational surrogacy and adoption.”

Some of those disparities righted themselves when gay marriage became legal in the U.S. in 2015. But that doesn’t mean benefits are equitable everywhere, especially with family building benefits.

When these benefits were covered, oftentimes there’d be a need to meet a traditional clinical definition of interfertility, said Roger Shedlin, MD, CEO and president of WINFertility, a family-building benefits provider, like six months or a year of unprotected sex without a pregnancy. “That’s not applicable to this community.”

In the last five years, Marquez has seen more organizations “really thinking about FMLA and parental leave, shifting even the language from maternity leave to parental leave so that fathers could also take time off to care and bond with a child,” said Marquez.

The definition of “family” is also being reconsidered — by both employers and state legislatures. The California Family Rights Act grants workers the right to take up to 12 weeks of leave to take care of a family member. Starting on January 1, “family member” did not have to be a direct blood relative.

That shift breaks out of the heteronormative definition of family, a California attorney told HR Dive in October. Oftentimes the people in an individual’s care network is not necessarily their parent or child; this shift reflects the reality of care networks, she said.

Create equitable benefits

The ideal package of family inclusive benefits for one company may not be the same for another. For example, the legal costs associated with building a LGBTQ+ family will be higher in some states, so that benefit might be appropriate if your organization is located there, where it wouldn’t be somewhere else.

Marquez said benefits managers can either tap into an LGBTQ+ employee resource group, or to create a specific focus group for the purpose of reevaluating benefits. Ask: “What would be some things that would be helpful that maybe we haven’t thought about?” Encourage stakeholders to think broadly into areas like parental leave, medical and mental health benefits. For example, "you may think you have the most inclusive prescription coverage, but you find out when you ask your LGBTQIA employee resource group that certain drugs aren’t being covered,” she said.

Shedlin said employers should also consider the additional stress that LGBTQ+ families often face when trying to build families “because of added cost and added complexity” in the process, whatever path they choose. That might mean employers add additional access to behavioral health specialists, nurse advocates, network navigation support and informational video libraries. Having the right network of providers who are comfortable and educated about working with LGBTQ+ individuals can make a big difference, he added.

In the wake of the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that ended the protections of Roe v. Wade, many employers announced changes to their benefits or made known their support of reproductive healthcare — and those that did so saw an 8% increase in clicks on job postings compared to similar jobs at companies that did not, according to analysis by Indeed and Glassdoor.

The data, generally, speaks to how gender and politics affect employers, particularly regarding retention and recruiting, according to the analysis.

Employers that had more women in their workforce or more Democratic-leaning workers were more likely to announce new reproductive health benefits in response to the ruling. Companies with employees in “trigger states” that banned abortion as soon as Dobbs was announced also were more likely to announce new benefits than employers without — but “only to a point,” Indeed said in its post on the report.

“The higher a given company’s share of employees working in trigger states was, the less likely that company was to make a public announcement of new or enhanced reproductive health benefits,” Indeed said. “We interpret this as evidence that these announcements were less about a benefit that companies expected many employees to take up, and more about signaling company culture.”

Companies that did announce tended to see more job posting clicks, particularly in female-dominated jobs in states where abortion rights were heavily curtailed, Indeed and Glassdoor said. But curiously, satisfaction with management among remaining employees went down — particularly in male-dominated jobs, in both left- and right-leaning states. 

Glassdoor’s blog post about the analysis revealed that "woke" shows up 325% more often in the ‘Cons' section of reviews for companies that announced such benefits compared with those for non-announcing companies. 

Such a deterioration could be for any number of reasons, the report said, but one aspect could be the perceived value of such benefits seeming more limited, compared to broad-based raises or other such compensation.

However, general compensation also rose among firms that made announcements post-Dobbs, even on top of the costs of new benefits, the analysis noted. “This wage increase is separate from, and cannot explain, the increased job seeker interest in postings from announcing firms,” Indeed said in its post on the analysis.

Those increases were also larger at companies that had deeper declines in management ratings, which could indicate that employers that heard backlash from their workers may have offered raises to offset dissatisfaction.

“Politics and gender in the workplace clearly matter, and their intersections impact hiring new employees, retaining current ones and setting company culture,” the report said. “Our research suggests that when workers learn about firm culture from outside the firm—for example, from social media or a press release—it can profoundly influence their job search. Current workers also respond to public statements of firm culture.”

In the lexicon of phrases that inspire fear and loathing in workers’ hearts, “benefits enrollment” may certainly be there. 

Studies show that not only is there a gap in employee understanding of benefits, but workers may be pursuing or receiving more information on the subject ineffectively. 

According to a MetLife study on employee benefits trends, 44% of workers didn’t consult anyone when they enrolled in benefits last year. As one might suspect, the study showed this group was less likely to understand their benefits packages, more prone to financial anxiety and more worried about unexpected health issues arising.

Workers also reported wanting more time to “make the right choices,” MetLife researchers said. About a third of respondents owned up to procrastinating. In turn, the report confirmed that the employees that took the time to understand their employer’s offerings felt more informed, less anxious and more satisfied with their choices. 

Where do managers come in?

MetLife’s study found that 33% of workers prefer to hear from their managers regarding benefits education. Kim Buckey, the VP of client services at benefits company Optavise, understands why: “Particularly if you've ever had a bad experience with your benefits, the insurance company is ‘the enemy,’” Buckey said. She nodded to a lack of trust in insurance companies (which insurers globally indicate as a consumer issue).

“I think most people prefer to hear from their companies. The face of the company for most employees is their direct manager,” Buckey said.

Still, data shows that 40% of managers don’t feel confident being a role model for their direct reports regarding benefits selection. 

“Empowering managers with the training they need to serve as advisors and shepherd their direct reports throughout the election process will not only help to improve the overall employee experience, but it also aids in retention efforts,” MetLife researchers offered. The majority of respondents told MetLife that having a more supportive manager made them more loyal to their company.

Why manager training is non-negotiable here

Some managers agreed that they face barriers to educating workers on their benefits: 44% cited a lack of time, 39% said a lack of resources and 38% noted a lack of training in MetLife’s study.

“To help facilitate these conversations, employers should focus on arming people managers with the tools they need to help inform and educate their direct reports about benefits,” said Jamie Madden, SVP of Workforce Engagement and Benefits Connectivity at MetLife, in email.

She noted that employers have generally overlooked the role managers play in shaping employee experience. 

“Empowering managers with the right tools and training to serve as informed benefits advisors can go a long way in improving employees’ benefit comprehension, and ultimately enhancing the employee experience,” she said. 

Speaking about training specifically, Buckey suggested HR train managers on compliance right along with empathy and tact. 

“You've got to be careful because with HIPAA regulations, you don't want to have too personal [a] conversation about benefits,” Buckey said. “But as a manager, you want to provide either some basic information or some direction as to where to get the information.” 

One of her clients recently rolled out an enhancement to their company’s mental health offerings; “They did a special manager training on what’s new here, some resources to share with direct reports, and what you should and shouldn’t say.”

Buckey’s rule of thumb: If a manager is discussing benefits and a worker starts volunteering personal health information, a manager shouldn’t necessarily engage in a conversation about that. “Most managers want to help their employees, but that could also leave them open to problems later on,” Buckey said, adding, especially if there's ever an issue with an employee.

Instead, managers can guide or redirect the conversation by asking neutral questions, such as:

• “How much healthcare did you use in the previous year? Do you think that is going to change?”
• “If you were recently diagnosed with a condition, how much healthcare do you think you’re going to need in the coming year?”
• “Are you more comfortable paying more out of your paycheck each month, or at the point of sale when you see a doctor or need a prescription?”

How managers can best deliver benefits info

About 70% of workers find online resources helpful, but more than 80% of workers find one-on-one conversations helpful, too, an Optavise report showed. These methods outpaced worker preference for email, social media and webinars, for example. 

Additionally, the report noted the distinct challenges of overseeing and managing deskless employees — particularly in the education, manufacturing and retail industries. Beyond posters in a break room, Buckey recommended managers make use of messaging platforms like Slack or Teams to educate employees. 

“Short and sweet little blurbs of information are really well received,” Buckey said.