The top 10 workforce benefits trends to watch in 2024
As 2024 kicks off and employers are looking ahead, it’s important to stay on top of benefits trends that are shaping the workforce and influencing how employees across the US engage with their jobs.
Last year, Guardian’s Mind, Body, and Wallet™ 2023 report showed several concerning trends when it came to US workers’ overall well-being.1 Self-reported mental, physical, and financial health all saw a dramatic decline from the previous year — and from each year in the 12-year history of Guardian’s research.
A decline like this can create challenges for employees and employers alike, underscoring the need to promote overall employee wellness. As explored in Guardian’s recent webinar, “Well-being, Well-defined,” the start of 2024 presents an opportunity for employers to reassess their benefits strategies to help create a happier, healthier, more productive workforce.2
Here are the top trends you can count on hearing more about in the year ahead — and beyond.
Moving beyond offering benefits to marketing them
As employers are building out their benefits packages to help improve workplace well-being and compete for talent, more organizations are focusing on employee engagement and utilization of those benefits. “It’s hardly worth it to offer a world-class benefits package if workers don’t know about or appreciate it,” says Guardian’s Head of Enterprise Content Marketing, Gene Lanzoni. And traditional methods of communicating benefits aren’t going as far as they once did.
Employers are taking note of this, so a trend we expect to see continue in 2024 calls for scrapping the idea of just “communicating” benefits, but instead applying consumer and marketing best practices to enrollment strategies. This can begin with understanding your employee base and tailoring communications to how they prefer to consume information.
Supporting workforce financial wellness with supplemental health insurance
Supplemental health insurance is a frequently misunderstood product category that employers could focus on explaining and communicating about more often, especially since self-reported financial wellness is down from past years. Forty percent of full-time working Americans say they’re living paycheck to paycheck, and many dodge the doctor to avoid rising out-of-pocket medical costs. Products like hospital indemnity, accident, critical illness, and cancer insurance can help by covering expenses associated with qualifying illnesses or conditions.
“So many times,” says Shawn Ferguson, National SVP, Director of Voluntary Benefits and Product Development at Acrisure, “employers say, ‘my employees don’t make a lot of money; they really can’t afford this extra insurance.’ When in reality, employees are telling me, ‘I can’t afford this $5,000 deductible. God forbid something happens, take this $5 a week out of my check for an accident plan, and now I have my deductible taken care of.’”
Offering comprehensive dental benefits plans
A holistic view of workforce health may be an evolving trend based on a growing body of industry and academic research. We know that caring for one’s teeth and gums is about far more than just maintaining a nice smile. The mouth is a window into many other aspects of overall health, and there is a connection between good oral health and many chronic health conditions.
“The things that come into your mouth have complete, 100% downstream effects on everything that goes on inside your body,” says Guardian Dental and Vision Wellness Lead, Katie Mace. More than 60% of US adults have a chronic condition today, and 40% have two. Oral health plays a big bi-directional role in many of these conditions, from diabetes to rheumatoid arthritis.
“I’m optimistic,” says Mace, “that we get to have these conversations, knowing that peers across the industry are also having these conversations, because it means that the industry is evolving, and we are now talking about this mouth and body connection more."
Prioritizing workforce mental wellness
Mental health has been among the fastest growing disability claims categories over the past five years, with the cost to employers in lost productivity and related medical costs around $48 billion annually. Financial struggles also are contributing to increased stress and anxiety, rising substance use, and record-high suicide rates.
Thankfully, there are things that employers can do to help support co-workers who may be struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts. The ACE model, for example, provides an easy-to-use set of talking points to help workers have supportive conversations using “I” statements. Modeled around the framework of “ask,” “care,” and “encourage,” employers can learn how to check in with their employees, express concern about what they’re going through, and urge them to seek care with trained professionals through available clinical resources.
Giving working caregivers access to benefits that can help them
The mean number of hours per week that caregivers devote to caregiving has more than tripled since 2020, from nine hours on average to 26 in 2023. And those juggling caregiving responsibilities with work have lower well-being.
When it comes to caregivers in the workplace, many hesitate to discuss their caregiving responsibilities with their employers for fear of negative attention, and unfortunately their fears are not unfounded. Caregivers are twice as likely to have experienced a layoff than non-caregivers, and 1 in 5 say that their responsibilities have limited their career growth and job opportunities.
Fortunately, there are several ways employers can help support their caregiver employees. Some of these include offering more remote and flexible work arrangements, giving caregivers the ability to set their own schedules, and providing access to resources for mental health, stress management, financial planning, caregiver training and preparedness, and even time management strategies.
The rise in paid leave laws prompts companies to expand their policies
In the past 10 years, the paid leave trend has been growing steadily, fueled by states passing paid family and medical leave laws that allow for employees to take the time they need for parental bonding, caring for loved ones, or taking care of their own health condition while receiving pay.
Multi-state employers may have felt the pressure more than others, as they have to keep up with new regulations from state to state and, for the most part, ensure benefits equality among their employees, regardless of where they live. As such, many multi-state employers are choosing to opt out of those state plans and pursue private plans where available. In doing so, many employers are moving toward broader paid leave policies to be more inclusive.
Integrating benefits for a coordinated employee experience
Workers often need to use their benefits at stressful and disorienting periods of their lives, when they’ve had an accident, been hospitalized, or received a life-changing diagnosis. Employers can help make it easier for workers to access the benefits they have when they need them to help limit confusion and red tape. A connected, coordinated benefits strategy can help employees access their benefits without having to file several separate claims.
“I’m a cancer survivor,” says Kelly McDevitt, President of The Integrated Benefits Institute (IBI). “I was not thinking about what my benefits were. I was thinking about talking to my family and my doctor about what I needed to do next. So having resources through your employer that can guide you on that journey when you do get to the place where you're ready to ask questions about your coverage and what kind of support you have, that’s where integration really comes together.”
API integrations revolutionizing the employee benefits experience
Benefits technology is rising in popularity. With wider availability of API integrations that allow for real-time connectivity between insurance companies, benefits administration platforms, and employers, benefits-related processes can go from taking weeks and days to minutes and seconds.
“This is how benefits should work,” says Guardian’s Benefits Technology Strategy and Execution Director, Jeffrey Klas. “The value chain is there for everybody involved — the broker, the employer, and the employee — and we’re really excited for where the industry is going in general.”
By keeping these benefits trends top of mind, employers can help promote engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, and wellness among their employees in the upcoming year.
Making small-business benefits richer
In 2023, small-business employers cited attracting and retaining talent as their top two business challenges. Nearly 60% of small business owners say worker shortages are affecting their ability to operate at full capacity, so many are beefing up their benefits to boost employee loyalty, satisfaction, and overall well-being.
Small businesses have made progress in offering more types of benefits to their workers, such as life insurance, short-term disability (STD), and supplemental health products like accident and critical illness insurance, but gaps remain. To help address those gaps, small business owners and professionals can use surveys to get a read on the needs and preferences of their employees. Beyond that, they can also ensure they and their senior leaders are covered under their own benefits plans.
Adapting to the needs of Generation Z workers
Generation Z is the newest generation to the workforce — and they are struggling particularly hard right now, especially when it comes to their mental health. Only 19% of Gen Z workers report good emotional health, compared to 50% of baby boomers, and 55% of Gen Z workers say they feel stressed about their mental health.
Because of the uncertainties that they’ve had to deal with at a relatively young age (e.g., the COVID-19 pandemic), many Gen Z workers are looking for stability at work, seeking a clear path toward career advancement. At the same time, they value work-life balance, mental well-being, and workplace cultures that align with their value systems. Work environments that are strong in their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives appeal to Gen Z, and they want to see healthy and supportive work cultures that help foster their sense of purpose and respect their boundaries.