As we enter the halfway point in the year following the year of the pandemic, by now most of us are familiar with the term “return to work.” Many businesses have brought their employees back to the workplace, while some have adopted a more hybrid model of maintaining some people on-site and allowing others to remain remote work employees.
Even though we have begun to return to a pre-COVID way of life, the way of 2021 is not the same as that of 2019. According to writer, Amy Quarton, “Trying to make the workplace what it used to be before the pandemic is not only impractical and untenable for many reasons, it is just as (if not more) disruptive than the initial work-from-home transition.”
Post-Pandemic Employee Benefits Trends
The way employees view benefits has changed. Some benefits that were high priority a year and a half ago are no longer as important as they once were, while benefits that may have seemed unnecessary or less important have made their way to the top of the priority list for many employees.
Reporter, Kristen Beckman states, “This shift in the work environment is an ideal time for employers to begin thinking about how they want to work with employees to help them recover financially and emotionally from the disruptions and stress of the pandemic.”
With this new perspective on benefits in mind, here are a few that will have an impact on how employee benefits evolve moving forward.
Employee Financial Health Benefits
For most employees, the financial impact brought by the pandemic was heavy. While some were fortunate enough to have retirement or emergency savings to fall back on, they likely had to use a good portion of those funds to maintain their lives. According to Beckman, “The resulting financial instability can cause a strain on employees that can impact productivity especially at a time when they are transitioning back to work.”
Here’s what we are seeing as a result:
- Increasing numbers of providers are offering education and coaching, budgeting and savings tools, and financial advising and planning.
- Various emergency savings programs are now offered by payroll vendors, retirement plan providers, and others, but no matter the vendor, the key feature is easy employee access to those funds.
- Typically administered through a third party, student loan repayment assistance benefits are enabling employers to make regular contributions directly to workers’ student loan servicer.
More Benefits Options
For several employees, there was a realization of just how flexible the workplace could be when businesses were forced to begin working remotely. Flexibility in the workplace and having more options provides the employee to have more control of their daily life and the work/life balance.
Here’s what we are seeing as a result:
- Flexible work hours ”will likely be made widely available and be in high demand as physical workplaces reopen,” writes Quarton, and many new scheduling tools have been launched to help employers maintain social distancing.
- The most helpful option for addressing mental health is to offer better insurance coverage for mental health care. Other options include adding more visits via EAPs and providing apps for meditation, mindfulness, and stress relief.
- Help with caretaking includes reimbursements for or assistance finding daycare, elder care, after-school care, remote tutoring, remote safety monitoring, and more.
- Vendors have brought telehealth capabilities not just to computers but to phones, and virtual appointments are remaining an option, post-pandemic.
Tech at the Center
Many have become far more comfortable interacting virtually whether it be through zoom meetings, virtual schooling, and even online court appearances. And while occasional technical difficulties can be problematic, reliance on tech is becoming more and more acceptable and even preferred for many tasks.
Here’s what we are seeing as a result:
- Going virtual can be made interesting and informative with the use of interactive tools such as webinars, virtual booths, and live chats. David Karlin writes that being able to access virtual open enrollment at home “allows family members, like spouses, to be easily included in the decision-making process.”
- “The range of digital health apps, platforms, services, and new products spawned or accelerated by the pandemic can hardly be mapped,” according to writer Dan Cook. Hundreds of employee benefits apps and tools are readily available, with new ones launching weekly for benefits and health monitoring and management, provider and pharmacy searches, 401(k) funds monitoring, wellness tracking, and more.
While some trends will come and others go, one thing we know for sure is that as we continue to define what normal looks like, employers and the benefits they offer to their employees will certainly have a pivotal role.