A new survey suggests advisors working group benefits are in for a rough ride over the next few years
The Employee Benefit Research Institute has found in its Voluntary Workplace Benefits Survey that millennials are the least interested demographic when it comes to workplace benefits and more interested in receiving those benefits in cold hard cash.
“Millennials are the largest age group to emerge since the Baby-Boom generation, and employers will have to make adjustments to how they engage them,” said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program and co-author of the report. “Employers that have depended on employee benefits as a primary tool to recruit and retain workers may need to rethink the role that employee benefits play with Millennials.”
Millennials are less interested than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers in considering employee benefits as part of a prospective employer’s job offer preferring benefits such as more paid time off work, etc. Interestingly, and perhaps why millennials feel this way, the survey found that younger employees are less aware of the benefits they do possess at their current employer.
Ignorance is bliss? Not so fast.
“Millennials are more likely than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to report that they prefer to take the money spent on employee benefits other than health insurance and they are more likely than Baby Boomers to be open to taking the money spent on health insurance and decide for themselves whether to purchase those benefits and how much to purchase,” the EBRI survey suggested.
The survey, which involved 1,500 U.S. workers between the ages of 21 and 64 in June 2015, found that less than one-third of millennials found benefits to be extremely important compared to 41% of boomers and 39% of Gen Xers.
Millennials generally are less trusting of traditional institutions and this belief is a big reason why many of them want more pay and paid time off than other less tangible benefits.
While this was a U.S. study the findings in Canada would likely be quite similar and bad news for group benefit specialists.
“Millennials are the largest age group to emerge since the Baby-Boom generation, and employers will have to make adjustments to how they engage them,” said Paul Fronstin, director of EBRI’s Health Research and Education Program and co-author of the report. “Employers that have depended on employee benefits as a primary tool to recruit and retain workers may need to rethink the role that employee benefits play with Millennials.”
Millennials are less interested than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers in considering employee benefits as part of a prospective employer’s job offer preferring benefits such as more paid time off work, etc. Interestingly, and perhaps why millennials feel this way, the survey found that younger employees are less aware of the benefits they do possess at their current employer.
Ignorance is bliss? Not so fast.
“Millennials are more likely than Baby Boomers and Gen Xers to report that they prefer to take the money spent on employee benefits other than health insurance and they are more likely than Baby Boomers to be open to taking the money spent on health insurance and decide for themselves whether to purchase those benefits and how much to purchase,” the EBRI survey suggested.
The survey, which involved 1,500 U.S. workers between the ages of 21 and 64 in June 2015, found that less than one-third of millennials found benefits to be extremely important compared to 41% of boomers and 39% of Gen Xers.
Millennials generally are less trusting of traditional institutions and this belief is a big reason why many of them want more pay and paid time off than other less tangible benefits.
While this was a U.S. study the findings in Canada would likely be quite similar and bad news for group benefit specialists.
