Employee well-being will continue to be a top HR issue in 2023. Employers understand the need for customized benefit plans to address individual employees’ most important issues. Companies are offering better, more varied benefits.
While there are countless considerations about the impact of health benefit decisions on employers and employees, there are some critical factors worth looking at before finalizing your 2023 benefits packages.
1. Beef up Benefits
Many of our clients are updating and increasing their health benefit options for 2023. A recent Mercer poll reveals that 66% of small to large businesses are looking to enhance their benefits, and 20% of large companies focus on hourly and low-wage workers. Lower-salary employees are more likely to elect HDHPs due to lower monthly costs. Still, they show lower rates of utilization and spending on preventive measures, such as outpatient visits and prescription drugs. Therefore, they have higher rates of utilization of preventable and avoidable emergency visits, and inpatient stays, which increases absenteeism, morale, and stress.
2. Strengthen Retention
Typically, employees are the most significant financial investment for your company via the cost of salaries and benefits; the cost of replacing an employee is between 50% and 75% of their annual salary when considering recruiting, hiring costs, training, and loss of productivity.
The benefits you offer employees are one of the most important components of a successful company. According to a Glassdoor study, 80% of employees would choose additional benefits over a pay raise; that same study found that 60% of people consider benefits and perks to be a major factor in a job offer.
3. Doctors and Diversity
As workplaces diversify, inclusive health care benefits are a competitive advantage. With a new understanding of the health disparities within diverse populations, employers are just getting started with efforts to address the problem and make a difference. When it comes to closing gaps for racial and ethnic groups, the two most common initiatives currently in place are advanced search functions to help plan members find acceptable health care providers and multilingual communications.
Benefit gaps and disparities for people with disabilities can be overlooked in diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) considerations. About half of employee-sponsored health plans cover hearing aids and cochlear implants or cover body support devices and prostheses.
Patience and Patients
When we work with your company to customize and administer your benefits, we look at the utilization and effectiveness of each benefit enhancement in terms of outcomes and employee engagement. Conversely, a benefit with high utilization but low effectiveness should be evaluated in terms of being an employee perk. If utilization and efficacy are both low, it’s probably time to update your offering. Reach out to us now for your 2023 planning.
