Wait, what?
A new report from the Society for Human Resource Management’s (SHRM’s) finds health and wellness resources, which have been on the rise over the past several years, are now leveling off, at a time when more industry professionals are advocating for more 401(k) financial wellness given the success of health and wellness programs. However, some individual wellness resources are changing as employers determine which wellness benefits best fit their workforce.
The report, titled 2016 Employee Benefits Survey, also finds the percentage of organizations offering health savings accounts (HSAs) increased from 43 percent to 50 percent in the past year.
“Employers are responding to workers’—especially Millennials’—demands for better work/life balance with increased telecommuting, flextime and other accommodations,” the authors note. “Since 1996, the percentage of organizations offering telecommuting has increased threefold (from 20 to 60 percent), and the percentage offering telecommuting on an ad hoc basis has increased from 45 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2016.”
Additionally, while annual salary increases are a staple component of compensation plans, many employers have shifted toward monetary bonuses over the past five years to keep overall payroll costs stable. There have been increases for spot/bonus awards, sign-on bonuses for executives and non-executives and retention bonuses for nonexecutives. Also, more than one-half (56 percent) of organizations currently offer service anniversary awards, 51 percent offer nonexecutive bonus plans, and 44 percent offer executive incentive bonus plans.
“The biggest surprise was that, overall, while the number and types of benefits offerings that organizations offer has grown over the past 20 years, there have not been many major changes in terms of coverage of core employee benefits,” explained Evren Esen, director of survey programs at SHRM. “Benefits such as health care, retirement planning and employee assistance programs are offered to employees at the same level as in 1996.”
“The number of benefits employers are offering is consistent with recent years,” Esen added. “However, employers are always looking for new and innovative benefits that are cost-effective and best fit their workforce.”
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
1 comment
Comments are closed.