In 2024, employees desire benefits that have a positive influence on their lives, such as wellness, dependent care, and premium healthcare. In today’s job market, benefits are just as essential for potential workers as salaries because work increasingly reflects individual identities. Employees yearn for work-life equivalence and will search for careers supporting their way of life for useful purposes. This write-up takes us through some of the preferred benefits sought after by employees from their employers in 2024.

Health Care Coverage

Nowadays, employers provide more optional health benefits, such as mental health coverage, contraception, vision, and laser eye surgery than ever before. Employees need to be insured now not only when they retire. They require comprehensive health plans that support them at present and into future times. By offering strong medical, dental, and optical packages companies can recruit top candidates with ease.

Wellness and Preventive Care

To reduce healthcare costs, many companies now offer wellness and preventive care benefits. This includes incentives for healthy behaviors like exercising, losing weight, or quitting smoking. Some companies bring in fitness trainers and host workplace wellness seminars. Others offer employee assistance programs with counseling services. Preventive care like annual check-ups and cancer screenings are fully covered. These benefits keep employees healthy and productive.

Retirement Savings Plans

Employees of all ages want strong retirement plans today. Depending on the structure, employees can make pre-tax deductions from their paychecks into 401K or 403B plans. With people living longer, retirement savings is a big priority. Employers that provide generous matching contributions attract ambitious employees who want to maximize retirement funds.

Paid Time Off

While employers want more productivity, employees highly value paid time off. Most want a minimum of 2 weeks vacation plus sick days and holidays. Parental leave policies are also important for retaining talent. Workers want time to recharge, handle personal needs, and spend time with family. Flexible paid leave policies lead to happier, loyal employees.

Flexible Scheduling

The 9-to-5 office job is fading as employees seek more flexible schedules. Options like telecommuting, compressed workweeks, job sharing, and flex hours allow employees to better manage work and personal responsibilities. Parents value flexibility to attend school events and care for kids. Flexibility also helps employees avoid long commutes during rush hour.

Professional Development

While fewer companies today offer paid training and education, it’s still desired by many employees. Tuition reimbursement, skills training, and leadership programs show that an employer is invested in an employee’s career growth. Employees want opportunities to gain new skills to advance their careers.

Relocation Assistance

Relocation packages are less common but still sought after, since moving is expensive. Employers may offer a lump sum payment or reimburse actual moving costs. Some also provide temporary housing. Relocation assistance makes it easier for employees to accept out-of-state assignments or transfers.

Performance Bonuses

While wages are lower, bonuses help attract and retain top performers. Signing bonuses for sought-after candidates and year-end bonuses for current employees give workers additional incentives and validation. Even small bonuses show employees their efforts are valued.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, in 2024, it is seen that even up to now employees still want traditional benefits like health insurance and retirement plans. However, they also expect creative perks that support work-life balance, wellness, and professional growth. Benefits packages are tailored by smart employers to invest in their employees therefore taking care of their lifestyle needs. Hiring and retaining skilled talent hinges on competitive, thoughtful benefits.

Benefits are becoming more important to employees today than in the past. Employees in 2022 more than ever want benefits that positively affect their life including wellness, dependent care and top-level health care.

In recent years work benefits have become just as important as compensation to people working on a new career. Job seekers are wanting daily life balanced with work life with respect to a variety of benefits. Feature below is a list of most sought-after benefits by employees in today’s 2022 workplace.

Flexible Work Schedules

In 2022 employees are seeking increased flexible work schedules. In the past for decades employees allowed employers to oversee their time and demand a lot. Today’s employees are demanding that employers not be the overpowering influence on day to day like the past decades were for workers. Today balance is everything to employees.

Health Care Coverage Benefits

Companies now more than ever are providing optional benefits like mental health coverage, contraception, vision, and laser vision surgery. Employees are seeking benefit coverage that impact their lives now not benefits when supplied when they retire.

Preventive Health and Wellness Benefits

Today’s corporations and companies are reducing employer paid health care costs by providing benefits focusing on wellness and prevention.

401K, 403B’s, Stock Purchase Plans

Today’s employees in all age brackets are seeking employers offering strong retirement plans. Depending on how a corporation is structured impacts the level of pre-tax savings employees can deduct from each paycheck. Employees are goal driven when to retirement savings.

Benefits When Taking Time Off

Despite that fact that employees are looking for employers offering time-off benefits, employers are reducing paid personal time. Employers want more work and less time off and employees are seeking the opposite in 2022.

Career Training and Education

Despite that fact fewer companies offering paid career development, it is still a benefit many employees want in 2022 from their employers.

Company Travel Benefits

With the advent of online meetings provided by many technology companies, company travel for work is happening less and less. However, companies that do require travel are expected to cover expenses incurred by employees such as lodging, airfare and transportation.

Relocation Reimbursement or Payment

Employers are paying less and less when it comes to relocation costs in 2022. This benefit is still sought after by employees because no one wants to pay for a move or the cost of transportation to a new location due to a job transfer or new job.

Pay or Additional Salary Bonuses

Employers are offering lower wages today, but is a fact bonuses, such as end of year bonuses and signing bonuses, for top-notch employment prospects are still a great tool for keeping and hiring great employees in 2022.

Employee Perk Benefits

Employers are now providing less perks than in years past, it is a fact. But employees still desire these perks such as daycare, dry cleaning and company paid sports teams.

Employers seeking top employees and retention of current employee need to be aware of what benefits are super important and which ones can be dropped. It is intriguing to see what employee benefits will be in the years and decades to come after the craziness of the pandemic going back to when it started in March of 2020.

The new year is a time when we all start strategizing for success and reflecting on last year’s accomplishments. This also means trying to anticipate what will matter in 2022.

This will most likely mean planning ahead by looking at current trends, predicting which technologies or tactics might become major players in the year ahead, and an understanding about what employees may want in their benefit packages.

We’ve broken down some key trends and predictions so you can prepare accordingly:

Embracing Digital Transformation

Surprisingly, 63% of employers are still using non-integrated multiple HR tech systems.

HR systems have evolved from simply managing enrolments to a truly simplified and automated benefits shopping experience with integrated decision support and personalization. With Ben’s new software, employees can easily find the information they need in one place – saving time that would otherwise be spent scrolling through different screens or looking for specific data.

More and more organizations will be modernizing their benefits technology this year to ensure it has the best features and integrations, with not only HCM or payroll platforms but also carriers. Around 50% of companies plan on spending more money on HR tech by 2022 due to the challenges they face today. A modernized ben admin solution isn’t just “a nice-to have”, but rather an essential need instead!

HR professionals need new, modernized tools that will fully support their tasks. These benefits-as-a-service (BaaS) solutions offer an all-inclusive employee experience with real time integrations into company systems. Add in APIs for data access on the fly, thereby cutting down significantly on paperwork while still providing seamless coverage from one device or platform.

The future of benefits is now in a world where employees and employers can more easily connect with each other than ever before. The modernization efforts will not only affect those at the reins, but also technology providers who want to stay competitive by providing their own unique services or integrations through APIs (application programming interfaces). This process takes time – it might be worth looking into if your current provider isn’t working on this by 2022 when they could potentially get left behind!

The Big Data Trend Is Not Only Here; It’s Here to Stay

The future of data visualization is here! With so much information at our fingertips, it can be overwhelming to know what metrics are important and how they relate to the business. We predict that this ongoing trend will lead us towards new tools for visualizing employee or benefit related Big Data in 2022, bringing more ease when making decisions based off these findings.

HR leaders recognize there’s value with all types of info available, but reporting takes time. Between organizing then analyzing – which leads them into deciding upon an action – oftentimes without enough knowledge about specific details.

The use of data visualization tools is a great way to automate the process and present information in digestible form. Outside of reporting, big data has also driven many AI/ML innovations that can reduce costs for decision support as well as other inefficient practices within organizations.

What Effect Has the Great Resignation Had On HR?

HR teams are taking on an even greater load of work as they attempt to retain talent in the face of continuing mass resignations. HR teams are struggling to keep up with the recent wave of resignations.

In October 2021, there were 5.9 million total separations -including quits, layoffs and discharges. Coupled with this, they are spread even more thinly with having to handle an influx of new hires and administration work.

The Great Resignation continues its devastating effect on all aspects of the workforce, especially HR. To relieve the extra burden that HR staff must work with, many companies are turning to outsourcing for help. With best-in-class benefits administration service providers running things smoothly and efficiently on behalf of your company, you can focus on more pressing matters such as strategy development or engagement initiatives. It becomes possible for these leaders in human resources management to put out increased fires rather then get bogged down day after day with tedious tasks.

Enter:  Generation Z

With the Great Resignation shaking up the U.S., there have been significant changes to employee populations. Millennials and GenZers are leaving at staggering rates with an average increase of more than 20% between 2020 and 2021. As these newer generations join in on workforce duties, they too will need mentors who can guide them through their first few years.

We have been experiencing a shift in the workforce, with more and more companies recognizing that they need to offer benefits other than just pay.

Job seekers are realizing this too – as Generation Z will make up 27% of all employees by 2025 according to World Economic Forum data. With so many young people entering industries like retail or service-based jobs where wages might not be very high at first, ensuring your staff have worthwhile benefits makes good business sense.

Not surprisingly, 94% of large employers believe that voluntary benefits will be more important to their total rewards strategy going forward, because they create a sense security and help decrease burnout while increasing productivity. For those who don’t offer any type or amount on-hand, having strong carrier partnerships is key for providing a seamless experience across your entire workforce.

Combating The Rising Cost of Benefits

The cost of benefits is rising, and it’s a concern for many employers. Recent studies found that there had been a 4% rise in these costs in 2021, and similar rises were expected moving forward. It’s further noted that 60% of companies say they were experiencing major issues with increasing costs.

 What can companies do to ensure they are meeting their employee’s needs, while also managing the increased costs?

With the price of healthcare rising every year, it is no surprise that employers will be investing heavily in strategies and tools to help them reduce their costs in 2022. Key trends include consumerism, real-time dependent verification and tools that help employees enrol upfront in best-fit, low-cost plans. Costs can also be reduced with dependent verification audits as these prevent companies from cover those who do not qualify.  As AI/ML continues in it’s popularity rise, the tools to automate and simplify the process will also increase. In short, dependent verification tools save both time and money, but also minimize risk and improve compliance too.

Employees Want to Be Active Healthcare Consumers

As the workforce population continues to change, employees are becoming more involved in their healthcare decisions. Healthcare consumerism means that your staff will be able to make empowered choices for themselves if they understand what benefits exist and how best use them.

Moving forward, we expect this trend of increased employee engagement through benefits education and guidance on lifestyle changes to continue.

HR leaders are going to have find ways of getting creative with their benefit education efforts. They should choose a ben admin provider that offers robust customer experience call centers, because this could help them connect employees with the information, they need without burdening HR.  It would also give decision support in benefits shopping experiences through personal recommendations, without adding to the HR workload.

The Broker Rule Is Changing with The Industry

The evolving nature of the broker role is evident in that it now includes strategic services. Brokers will likely spend more time advising their clients, taking on a leadership position with employers who need help navigating changing regulations and an increasingly complex benefits landscape. According to recent research, “broker/benefits advisor provides valuable support and advice beyond simply presenting our benefit options,” so this trend should continue into 2022.