The Cost of Not Educating Employees About Benefits

If you aren’t educating your employees about their benefits options, it’s almost like not offering benefits at all. When employees don’t understand their benefits options, they may be less likely to participate, which can affect their financial wellbeing and satisfaction as your employee.

Employee benefits typically take up a large portion of company budgets, so you want your employees to use the valuable benefits you have provided.

Employees Don’t Fully Understand Their Benefits

Only 59% of employees who use their company’s health insurance can identify the elements involved in the full cost of healthcare.¹ When creating a benefits package, your goal is to find the perfect balance of employer contribution, premiums, and supplemental products to ensure you and your employees benefit financially. However, if your employees don’t understand how these elements fit together, they could be missing out on significant savings, or worse, make the wrong choices for their families.

For example, at first glance, a High Deductible Health Plan (HDHP) may not seem like the best option to an employee because of the high deductible amount. As the employer, you may understand that premiums are typically higher because they can save costs in other ways. Without extensive education, your employees may feel confused and possibly frustrated that their perceived out of pocket is higher.

Here are some examples on how to educate your employees on the benefits of HDHPs:

Benefits Education Affects Retention

The top three drivers of job satisfaction cited are respectful treatment of employees, compensation, and benefits. 60% of employees rated benefits as a very important contributor to job satisfaction.² When employees understand their benefits, they are more likely to participate, which then contributes to job satisfaction.

Employers are finding that voluntary benefits are now essential to attracting and keeping employees.³ Especially with the rise of HDHPs, supplemental products are important to help fill coverage gaps and can help enhance your overall benefits package. Roughly half of employees who aren’t currently enrolled in critical illness, hospital indemnity or accidental injury coverage say they would do so after learning more about their benefits from their employer.⁴ Educating your employees on these benefits can help them realize their value.

Employees Want Education

You may assume that employees want to make decisions on their own, but they want help making these important decisions. Fifty-five percent of employees whose companies offer health insurance say they would like help from their employer when choosing a health plan.⁵ Before your enrollment, plan to offer multiple ways to learn so that your employees have options. Some examples of effective education strategies may include one-on-one reviews, educational videos, and group meetings.

You don’t have to conquer this alone. American Fidelity is here to help you create and execute a to help you retain employees.

This blog is up to date as of June 2020 and has not been updated for changes in the law, administration or current events.