Today’s workforce is increasingly diverse. And while many traditional benefit plans are built on the concept of life stages such as marriage, building a family, and retirement, it’s becoming more common for employees to choose different life paths. Nontraditional households, including single parents, LGBTQ+ parents, the sandwich generation, and grandparents raising grandchildren, are redefining family. With these dynamics at play, broadening the range of family-friendly benefits provided through employers, particularly health benefits, makes good business sense. But what constitutes a truly inclusive benefits package?
Point32Health and its family of companies set out to understand what the term “inclusive benefits” really means to employers and employees, to understand what each group identifies as inclusive benefits, and to uncover which benefits they view as most important in an original study conducted by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services. The group surveyed 1,000 U.S.-based employees with employer-provided health care benefits plan and 275 executives involved in their organization’s decisions about their U.S. workforce health care benefits.
Topline Results from the Survey
Both employers and employees agree on the importance of inclusive benefits–86% of employers and 75% of employees view offering inclusive health care benefits as “very or extremely important.” When asked what steps employees think their organization needed to take to make its health care benefits more inclusive, three of the top four answers were communication-related:
- Seek more direct input from employees about what we need from our benefits (38%).
- Communicate to employees about what benefits are available to us more frequently or more clearly (32%).
- Allow employees more choice in how benefits information is communicated to us (28%).
- Eighty-two percent of employees at organizations that ask for employees’ input on health care benefits agree with the statement “the health benefits decision makers at my organization understand what kind of health care benefits I need,” compared to only 60% of employees whose organizations make benefits decisions independently.
In addition to seeking direct input from their workforce, employees reported organizations should help make benefits more inclusive by:
- Introducing more affordable plans (38%).
- Communicating more frequently and clearly about what benefits are available to employees (32%).
While areas of discrepancies were exposed between employer and employee perceptions, the survey and the accompanying report underscore the importance for both audiences for inclusive benefits. These findings bring to light the need for employers to select the right benefits partners to meet their employee needs as a key step towards making their benefits packages more inclusive and equitable for all.
Read the full report here.
At Point32Health, we believe that all people should have access to high-quality care, no matter their race, age, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or level of ability. Equity and inclusivity are ingrained in our heritage. It’s in our 90 combined years of service to the New England communities we serve through our health plans, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Tufts Health Plan, and in our local partnerships and programs. Through collaboration and innovation, we work closely with and listen to diverse member populations, employers, and broker partners to identify specific needs and gaps and break down barriers to equitable care. Learn more at point32health.org.