Pleasing A Diverse Workforce

As a benefits advisor, youve seen employers move to voluntary benefits programsprograms set up so that employees pay most or all of the cost. Voluntary benefits are popular because of limits on employer resources and the fact that health care is eating up a higher percentage of the benefits budget. But adding voluntary benefits is also a cost-effective way to help employees cope with the diversity of the challenges they face outside of work.

If, for example, a clients workforce has a large population nearing retirement, financial planning programs or income annuity products could be attractive voluntary benefits.

College savings plans and long term care insurance plans might be attractive to employers who employ large numbers of middle-aged employees with children.

Chances are you already are selling voluntary risk-reduction products such as supplemental term life insurance, critical illness insurance and long term care insurance. But have you ever considered selling life insurance for dependents, income annuities, auto insurance, group legal coverage, banking services, mortgage loans, auto loans or estate planning services at the worksite?

Any of these products might meet the needs of a particular category of employees.

Most employees put little thought into the benefits decision-making process63% spend less than an hour making benefits decisions during open enrollment. That means that clear, effective communication programs are vital to producing meaningful voluntary program participation rates.

You should make sure that the voluntary program provider understands how to reach your clients mix of employees. Parents who are saving for retirement or middle-aged employees who are thinking about retirement might appreciate decision support tools. Web-savvy employees might prefer to get their benefits information through the Web, but employees who rarely use the Web for their work might prefer to use call centers. For other employees, getting communication materials in languages other than English might be important.

At larger employers, introducing a voluntary benefit outside open enrollment season can increase employee participation and satisfaction. When a voluntary benefit is offered during a time when no other benefit choices need to be made, employees are able to devote the time necessary to assess their needs and make an informed purchase decision. This is particularly helpful with more complex products such as long term care insurance where the decision-making process is longer and more involved.

Other voluntary benefits, such as group legal, can be structured to fit into an employers annual open enrollment. This approach works best, however, when employees have to enroll each year and do not simply default to their prior years coverage.

is a senior vice president, strategic planning, at MetLife, New York.

Reproduced from National Underwriter Edition, August 5, 2004. Copyright 2004 by The National Underwriter Company in the serial publication. All rights reserved.Copyright in this article as an independent work may be held by the author.