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HR MAGAZINE | FALL 2022
Inching Forward on Benefits:
Meeting Employees’ Needs
Workers today want choices and flexibility in every
aspect of work, but employers are slow to provide the
right benefits quickly enough to meet those needs.
September 6, 2022
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W hen Tyson Miller’s stepfather passed away last year, he wasn’t
handling it well. “I haven’t dealt with much death,” says Miller, an
employee at Chegg, an education technology company with 1,700
employees headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif. “The HR rep connected
me to counselors via Ginger.io. I used it in a time of crisis, and it was
extremely helpful.”
Chegg’s mental health benefits offerings, including behavioral
coaching service Ginger.io and guided meditation app Headspace,
have made a difference in Miller’s life. “I’ve been leaning on those two
quite a bit in times of need,” he says.
Chegg’s chief people officer, Debra Thompson, says, “We provide
generous medical benefits, but we’ve also added mental health
benefits, such as addiction treatment from Quit Genius.”
Many other U.S. employers are also increasing the availability of
mental health benefits in response to a rising need for such services
among employees. According to the Society for Human Resource
Management’s (SHRM’s) 2022 Employee Benefits Survey, 91 percent
of organizations offer mental health coverage, up from 85 percent in
2021.
“The pandemic forced employers to look closely at the accepted
norms in benefits and compensation,” says Leslie Aument, SHRM-SCP,
head of people for Kojo Technologies, a construction materials
procurement platform with 95 employees in San Francisco.
While some companies seem to be catching on to what workers need,
others remain out of touch and slow to respond to developing trends.
According to SHRM’s 2021-2022 State of the Workplace Study, fielded
late last year, 84 percent of employers are grappling with labor
shortages, which begs the question: What do employees want?
Unfortunately for HR professionals, there is no easy answer. Still,
workers across all demographics consistently value benefits related to
three vital needs: physical health, mental health and work/life balance.
Physical Health
Benefits related to physical health top the list of what employees
want, regardless of age or career stage. But employers should avoid
implementing a one-size-fits-all benefits program.
“We need to provide employees with as much choice and flexibility as
possible,” Thompson says. “Employees want an employer that truly
cares about their holistic health—not just their medical, dental and
vision. Employees appreciate benefits that meet them where they are
in their life stage, [so HR should] find out what matters and figure out
how to offer it.”
That means including options. “The expectation of health coverage is
a given; however, individuals are looking for additional benefit
choices,” says Maree Whitlow, vice president of human resources for
the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption in Dublin, Ohio, a nonprofit
with 60 employees.
“It depends on where employees are in their own lives,” adds Christina
Balint, corporate HR manager at Universal Metal Products Inc., a
manufacturer with 287 employees in Wickliffe, Ohio. “Someone with a
family, for example, will have a greater desire for traditional PPOs
[preferred provider organizations], ancillary lines of coverage like
dental and vision, and possibly FSA [flexible spending account]
programs. Someone working beyond retirement age may be more
interested in long-term-care coverage and low-cost life insurance.”
Whitlow says the most popular benefit at the Dave Thomas Foundation
for Adoption is the company-sponsored health reimbursement
arrangement card. “This helps reduce out-of-pocket expenses for
employees by providing them with a pre-loaded debit card, which
covers 90 percent of the annual deductible of medical expenses,” she
says.One notable benefit that employers increased during the
pandemic and that now appears to be a permanent fixture is
telemedicine. According to SHRM’s Employee Benefits Survey, 73
percent of organizations offered telemedicine in 2019, but 93 percent
offer it in 2022.
“Telemedicine has entered the same sphere as sick leave in
prevalence,” says SHRM researcher Derrick Scheetz. “So many people
have utilized this resource, it has become an expected offering.”
To stand out from other organizations, employers may need to get
creative when it comes to offering physical health benefits. For
instance, in January, as a result of a request from Chegg’s women’s
employee resource group, the company began offering Carrot, a
fertility benefit. Says Emma McCulloch, senior director for corporate
communications at Chegg, “It isn’t a broad-spectrum benefit, but for
the few people who need it, it’s vitally important and life-changing.”
Mental Health
Pandemic-related measures such as videoconferencing, mask wearing,
vaccine mandates and COVID-19 testing can be wearisome.
Meanwhile, ongoing pandemic-related health risks have had a
dramatic impact on workers’ mental health. One in 4 workers reported
being highly stressed and workers under the age of 35 ranked mental
health as their top concern, according to Mercer’s 2021 study of
2,000 U.S.-based employees.
T.J. Regional Health provides broad support through benefits. “Our
employee assistance program [EAP] offers a wide variety of services,”
says Rachel Forrester, SHRM-SCP, total rewards manager for the rural
health care organization headquartered in Glasgow, Ky. Those
services include financial planning, child care and education services,
health and wellness seminars, and free counseling. “With the
pandemic, our EAP has had a drastic rise in participation,” she says.
Another emerging trend appears to be an increase in paid time off
apart from traditional sick days. About 20 percent of companies in
SHRM’s Employee Benefits Survey pay employees to take days off for
mental wellness. (This is the first year SHRM has asked about this
benefit.) For example, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption
“offers three personal days, which can be used at a moment’s notice
for mental health days,” Whitlow says.
Work/Life Balance
The labor shortage has left many employees with heavier burdens than
in previous years, and remnants of pandemic protocols continue to
cause exhaustion and confusion.
Constant stress leads to burnout. In a McKinsey & Co. study from
earlier this year, 28 percent of employees said they felt burned out
“sometimes, often or always” and 32 percent said they felt “moderate
distress.” Respondents who experienced burnout symptoms were six
times more likely to report an intent to leave their jobs in the next
three to six months.
To cope with this stress, more employees seek to improve their
work/life balance. They want more parental leave, ample paid time off,
caregiving assistance, and flexible hours and work locations.
“Due to the pandemic, workplace flexibility has become a crucial
benefit for employees, as well as generous paid time off,” Whitlow
says.
Parental leave. “We’re seeing an uptick in the demand for more paid
time off and paid family leave,” Balint says.
However, many companies are pulling back on paid-parental-leave
policies. According to SHRM’s Employee Benefits Survey, the number
of organizations offering paid maternity leave dropped from 53 percent
in 2020 to 35 percent in 2022. Those offering paid paternity leave
dropped from 44 percent to 27 percent over the same period.
Thus, it seems as though the increase in parental leave during the
height of the pandemic may not be a permanent fixture.
Paid time off. Paid vacation time and sick leave are almost universal
and have held steady as benefits offerings for years. But this year, it
seems like more employees are using their vacation time now that
tourist destinations have reopened. HR professionals can support this
healthy behavior by reminding managers of the need to respect
employees’ time away from their phones and work responsibilities.
Employers have significantly increased paid time off in one area:
floating days for religious holidays that are not already federal
holidays, such as Rosh Hashana and Kwanzaa. “The number of
employers offering paid days off for religious holidays has been
increasing steadily,” says SHRM researcher Daniel Stunes.
Child care and elder care assistance. To meet the challenges of
work/life balance, employees are also seeking help with child care and
elder care demands.
“Employers can retain employees by offering additional support
benefits like onsite child care, backup care and elder care,” says Priya
Krishnan, chief client and experience officer at Bright Horizons, a child
care provider with 26,000 employees worldwide, based in Newton,
Mass. “High-quality, onsite child care and backup child care benefits
are at the core of what employees need to be successful.”
Remote work. Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently made headlines by
requiring all employees to work from a company office a minimum of
40 hours per week. Many other employers are also demanding workers
return to in-person workplaces and schedules, but employees are
rebelling—and many will walk away. According to Mercer’s Inside
Employees’ Minds study, 44 percent of employees want full-time
remote work while only 16 percent of employers plan to continue with
full-time remote work.
T.J. Regional Health is making remote work permanent for certain
jobs. “Before the pandemic, we had limited opportunities to work from
home. However, over the past two years, we’ve transitioned many
employees to remote work,” Forrester says. Now, approximately 80 of
the company’s 1,400 employees are working remotely. “We’ve received
positive feedback from both managers and employees regarding
productivity and job satisfaction,” Forrester says.
When job duties permit, most companies appear to have compromised
with a hybrid approach that combines in-office and at-home work.
SHRM’s Employee Benefits Survey found that 63 percent of employers
offer a hybrid model to workers whose jobs do not require face-to-face
tasks.
At the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, for example, “the hybrid
work environment captures the best of both worlds, allowing staff to
have the flexibility they crave while continuing to build engagement
and collaboration with co-workers,” Whitlow says. “Staff feel
empowered to have weekly flexibility with their remote-work
schedules.”
Kojo Technologies has chosen to be 100 percent remote for all
employees. “We have a strong bias for asynchronous work and high
trust in our remote environment,” Aument says. “This empowers our
employees to work when they want to get their work done. We aren’t
managing their time but [rather] their impact on our mission and their
team. This flexibility is a huge benefit, and our employees truly feel
they can take care of their life stuff when they need to, without having
to clear their every move with their manager.”
To reinforce social ties, the entire company gathers in person at least
once annually.
“Remote work is here to stay,” Scheetz says. “If you’re not embracing
that as much as you can, you’re already behind in terms of looking for
talent. It’s one of the premier pieces of taking care of your employees,
and it has taken on a new level of importance never seen before.”
Not only that, but remote work also widens your candidate pool.
“You’re going to limit your candidate pool if you can only look in the
immediate geographic vicinity,” Scheetz adds.
The Aftermath
“The pandemic created a period of upheaval for employees, but it has
also provided a moment of introspection, enabling them to take stock
of what matters most and driving a ‘Great Realization’ to make
dramatic career moves that align work with personal priorities,”
Krishnan says.
For some employees, that has meant leaving their jobs. For employers,
it has meant determining the areas where they were failing to meet
their employees’ needs.
“What we’re hearing now is employers clearly see the connection
between supporting their workforce and succeeding in the
marketplace,” Krishnan says. “They’re offering employees a variety of
benefits to support the diverse needs of their workforces so their
employees can thrive both personally and professionally.”
Forrester sees upside in the recent upheaval. “There have been plenty
of challenges throughout the Great Resignation,” she says, “but where
there are challenges, there are opportunities. These opportunities
allow us to be creative in what we offer to candidates and how we
keep our current employees engaged.”
In the war for talent, benefits can attract a greater quantity of highly
qualified applicants and prevent current employees from jumping ship.
“Benefits show employees we care about them as people, and they
must be diverse to meet the unique needs of every employee,” Whitlow
says.
And if you’re wondering what those needs are, ask existing employees.
They already know what they want.
Kathryn Tyler is a freelance writer and former HR generalist and
trainer in Wixom, Mich.
Visit shrm.org/benefits to experience SHRM’s 2022 employee benefits
survey interactive online tool
