Jul 07, 2021
Employee loyalty is strongly tied to how employees believe their companies handled COVID-19, according to Guardian Life’s 10th Annual Workplace Benefits Study. Handling it well includes things like flexibility as well as good employee communications and support. Nearly half of employees who say that their company handled it well want to stay at their company for more than a decade compared to just 28% of those who say their company handled it poorly. The survey also revealed changes in the benefits landscape.
Benefits Tech Gets a Boost
The widespread move to remote work meant the open enrollment looked different for most companies in 2020, prompting many more employers to adopt benefits administration and enrollment technology. More than a third of employers say the pandemic accelerated their use of benefits technology. The pandemic also spurred more employers to integrate their HR technology.
Since integrating HR functions can improve productivity and streamline costs, it’s not surprising that 39% of employers also adopted digital HR systems and increased HR technology spending. Younger companies lead the way in benefits technology adoption.
Seventy-two percent of employees who were satisfied satisfaction with their benefits experience enrolled via a digital method. Thirty percent of employees enrolled via a paper-based method, and only 18% say their employer’s benefits processes are fully digitized.
Benefits Adoption Has Increased
Nearly half of employers say COVID-19 made them more aware of employees’ well-being, but 56% didn’t make any changes to their benefits offerings.
The employers that made changes to their benefits are as follows:
- 72% with 500 to 999 employees
- 50% with 5,000+ employees
- 76% in business 5–9 years
- 38% in business 20–29 years
Employers added these coverages:
- 55% medical insurance
- 36% life and hospital indemnity insurance
There was also a slight uptick in certain voluntary benefits
Life Insurance Got a Boost
Only 30% of workers changed their coverage. Eleven percent increased life insurance coverage and 7% enrolled in life insurance for the first time in 2020.
Younger workers and racial minorities were more likely to change benefits coverage due to COVID-19. Nearly half of African Americans and Hispanics say they’re living paycheck to paycheck compared to 38% of white Americans. Therefore, they likely rely more on benefits for financial stability.
Employers Offered More Flexibility
Seventy-five percent of employers changed their unpaid leave policies to paid. There was also a significant uptick in companies offering flexible schedules: 58% of employers say that flexibility is important for employee well-being versus 48% in 2019.
A Focus on Mental Health
More than a third of employers say the pandemic has hurt employee well-being and morale. Twenty-eight percent of employees say the pandemic has caused them increased anxiety, depression, or other mental health issues. Generation Z and younger and Young Millennial workers were more than twice as likely to say that COVID-19 affected their emotional health than did Baby Boomers. Fifty-six percent of employers say that expanding mental health resources is a priority. As yet, only 16% have added mental health benefits due to the pandemic.
