Shrm 2021 Employee Benefits Survey

A Renewed Focus On Employee Health And Wellness

While nearly all employee benefits are gaining more attention, health and wellness benefits remain a top priority for many organizations. The continuing rise in health concerns since the pandemic has many employers viewing health care as the most important benefit that companies can offer.

Nearly all respondents of the 2022 SHRM survey reported that their organization offers some type of health care plan to employees. According to the survey, 72 percent of businesses offer a fully insured health plan in which they pay out a fixed premium to the insurer which then covers medical claims.

Approximately 26 percent reported that their health plan featured a self-insured insurance arrangement. With this type of plan, the company pays medical claims themselves, typically through a third-party administrator. Self-insured plans can result in significant savings for organizations.

Some of the most popular types of health-related spending accounts were revealed to be health savings accounts and medical flexible spending accounts . The survey also showed that 63 percent of organizations that offer an HSA make employer contributions to these accounts.

What Should You Ask

Actionable insights should be the goal of any survey dont just aim to collect answers, but try to gather responses that will help you evoke change , and to strengthen the relationship between your organization and those carrying out that all-important work.

Surveys are wonderful when conducted correctly and can help you uncover the root cause of issues and dissatisfaction, as well as encouraging signs. You can learn more than simply, X is a problem. You can understand why its a problem, and hopefully, what you can do to solve it.

Another key element here is not only to ask people about whether they are satisfied with some specific benefits, – be it health care, pensions plans, or whatnot – but if they understand what is being offered if they use it, and how they think it stacks up to competitors or past employers.

Observe Last Years Trends And Benefits Priorities As Well

The benefits landscape tends to shift from year to year, and these changes impact how employers approach benefits internally.

For example, the 2022 SHRM survey reveals that employers benefits priorities are shifting now that the COVID-19 pandemic is receding. At the beginning of the pandemic, employers felt retirement plans were not as important as health, leave, and flexible work benefits.

When preparing your survey questions, make sure you evaluate last years and the current years benefits trends.

Now that the pandemic is retreating, employers rank retirement plans as the 2nd most important benefit, just behind health benefits.

So, when preparing your survey questions, make sure you evaluate last years and the current years benefits trends. For insight into last years trends, check out the Zenefits 2021 Benefits Benchmark Report.

Keep in mind, too, that you can conduct the surveys more frequently than once per year. For instance, you can do them twice per year, or whenever you need employee answers to inform your benefits process.

Read Also: How To Calculate Social Security Benefits Taxable Amount

Resources To Help Hr Meet The Changing Needs Of Organizations

Human resources professionals are continually challenged to do more with less. According to a survey of 2,000 organizations by the Society for Human Resources Management , the HR-to-employee ratio was 2.57 HR professionals per 100 employees in 2014.1 The report also revealed that the HR-to-employee ratio doesnt increase at the same rate as an organizations growth. In 2018, Bloomberg Law surveyed 700 employers and found that the HR-to-employee ratio was only 1.5 HR professionals per 100 employees.

Although SHRM hasnt yet conducted a post-COVID-19 survey on the HR-to-employee ratio, its clear that HR teams are continuing to shrink and being asked to do more with less when compared to other areas within organizations.

HR professionals have traditionally held a wide breadth of corporate responsibilities such as employee recruitment and retention, learning and development, payroll, compensation, benefits, labor relations, compliance, and health and safety.2 With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, HR professionals faced a new set of challenges. Whether implementing remote work procedures, interpreting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on creating safe work environments, planning return-to-work protocols or considering COVID-19 vaccination policies, responsibilities for HR professionals shifted monumentally.3

Dont Read Too Much Into Shrm Surveys Parental Leave Findings Analysts Say

What SHRM is reporting in their survey data is not happening, period, Mercers Rich Fuerstenberg told HR Dive in an interview.

As employers assess the toll the COVID-19 pandemic has inflicted on working parents and the families they support, parental leave benefits have become an important retention tool. The trend of employers increasing their leave offerings appeared to continue in 2021, according to a survey that year by Mercer, which found that 61% of respondents offered paid parental leave for birth parents and 60% did so for nonbirth parents, up from 40% and 41% respectively in 2018.

Now that the U.S. economy has entered a more precarious state, some have begun to question whether employers are prepared to reel in previously generous leave policies.

Perhaps the most significant finding to this point comes from the Society for Human Resource Management. In the 2022 version of its annual employee benefits survey, SHRM found that the share of organizations offering paid maternity leave, beyond legal requirements, dropped to 35% from 53% in 2020. Similarly, the share offering paid paternity leave dropped to 27% from 44% in 2020.

But the findings are contrary to what others have seen from employers, even during a period of recessionary fears.

Other reasons may boil down to either the survey methodology or sample size, but this is not certain, he added. SHRM did not respond to an HR Dive request for comment about the survey.

Also Check: What Are The 3 Main Types Of Social Security Benefits

Whats Ahead For Human Resources In 2022

As we head toward the new year, HR professionals are expected to work with C-suite executives on strategic initiatives while maintaining responsibility for administrative corporate tasks. A joint survey of HR professionals by Future Workplace, Lyra Health and the Boston University Questrom School of Business Human Resources Policy Institute showed that the top 5 priorities for HR departments are:4

What Are You Looking For In A Survey

The NCA Compensation and Benefits Surveys include all of this and more!

• Security Clearance Pay Differentials?
• Comprehensive Compensation and Benefits Policies and Practices?
• Detailed Pay Data For Over 540 Jobs?
• On-line, Searchable Access to Compensation Data?
• Detailed Sections on Healthcare, Retirement and Fringe Benefits?
• Government Contactor Information

Also Check: Ga State Health Benefit Plan For Retirees 2022

Resources To Help Hr Professionals

Employees and their dependents often seek out the HR department to ask questions about their benefits or for assistance with a claims issue. These types of tasks take up time that HR professionals could devote to more strategic initiatives.

USI Insurance Services realized that companies would be better served with a resource devoted to assisting employees and their dependents. To meet this need, we created the USI Benefit Resource Center , a dedicated call center for clients staffed by 40 employee benefit specialists from across the U.S. providing service from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. local time. BRC specialists are prepared to:

• Answer benefits questions for all lines of coverage
• Assist with eligibility and claims issues with insurance carriers
• Provide claim appeals information and assistance

In addition to the BRC, USI also created the USI mobile app, which provides employees and dependents with:

• 24/7 access to benefits guides
• Summary of benefits and coverage documents
• Carrier contact information

The app can be customized to include videos on how an organizations benefits work, as well as digital images of insurance ID cards.

HR professionals work closely with their USI account teams throughout the year to manage benefits and to implement changes to enhance coverage and control benefits costs. To help HR teams keep track of the various deliverables and deadlines they manage, USI creates custom service calendars.

Best Questions To Ask

As we mentioned in our post on employee engagement surveys, how you phrase questions is equally as important as the topic. But what exactly do I mean by this? Well…

Remember you dont have to use these examples word for word if you dont feel they are applicable to your situation. Feel free to adjust them as needed.

Don’t Miss: Out Of The Box Employee Benefits

Employee Benefits Survey Questions

Here are some examples of employee benefits survey questions you might consider asking in your next survey.

• How satisfied are you with your current PTO amount?
• Are you currently enrolled in our health plan coverage?
• Are you satisfied with the health plan coverage we offer?
• Do you feel the maximum deductible is too high?
• Are you satisfied with your health plan provider options?
• Are other members of your family enrolled in our company’s health plan?
• How do our company benefits compare to other companies you have worked at?
• Which of our employee benefits do you like most?
• Which of our employee benefits do you like least?
• On a scale of 1-10, how important are free office snacks to you?
• What other types of benefits would you like to receive? Why?
• Do you understand all of the benefits we offer?
• On a scale of 1-10, please rank how important each benefit is to you.

Whos Offering What Benefits

The Society for Human Resource Management released its 2014 Employee Benefits Survey at its recent Annual Conference and Exposition in Orlando. The findings are helpful for determining what benefits are commonly offered and which ones you might want to consider.

The survey, sent to a random sample of SHRM members, had 510 respondents, which was a 13% response rate.

Ninety-eight percent of employers offer some type of healthcare coverage to full-time employees, and the most common offering is a preferred provider plan, says the survey.

Employers are reallocating benefits dollars as the country comes back from the recession. Not many organizations are going back to prerecession benefits, says Evren Esen, SHRMs director of Survey Programs. As healthcare costs rise, employers are maintaining the healthcare insurance at the expense of other coverage, he adds.

For example, says Esen, education assistance for undergraduates has seen a dip in the number of organizations offering it.

Don’t Miss: Social Security Benefits Sign Up

The Benefits Employers Viewed As Most Valuable

The 2022 Employee Benefits Survey revealed what benefits are viewed as most important to businesses. The following percentages represent respondents who saw these benefits as very or extremely important:

• Health-Related Benefits: 88 percent
• Retirement Savings and Planning Benefits: 82 percent
• Leave Benefits: 82 percent
• Family Care Benefits: 70 percent
• Flexible Work Benefits: 70 percent
• Professional and Career Development Benefits: 65 percent
• Wellness Benefits: 46 percent

There has also been a noticeable increase in telehealth and mental health care services since the pandemic. While many core benefits have returned to pre-pandemic levels, areas like telehealth and mental health have seen a lasting incline. The survey showed that 93 percent of organizations now offer employees access to telehealth as a benefit. This is an increase of 20 percentage points since it was last reported in 2019 by the SHRM.

Helping Employees Become Exceptional Benefit Consumers

Date:

Speaker: Chrissy Magnotta, Katz/Pierz

Topic: Helping Employees Become Exceptional Benefit Consumers

As employers, we understand that employee health benefits are a costly but crucial part of attracting and retaining talent. More importantly, employees and their families must have access to the appropriate care. Navigating the healthcare landscape and understanding how to best utilize your insurance plan has become a frustrating and cumbersome task. But it doesnt have to be. This presentation will walk you through how to best communicate, engage and educate your employees so they can become better healthcare consumers.

Learning objectives

• How to develop a revolving communication strategy to reach employees and their families.
• Learn how to leverage technology best practices.
• Review of potential vendor partners and solutions to help engage.
• Provide important and relatable topics that have an impact.

Read Also: Ssa Retirement Benefits Application Form

How Are Employers Deciding Which Benefits To Offer

Employers decisions about what benefits to offer tend to be based on three analyses, says Esen.

• What is important to our employees?
• What benefits do the greatest number of employees use?
• What package of benefits will have the biggest impact?

If the return on investment on a particular benefit is low, those benefit dollars may be reallocated, he adds.

Managing an HR Department of One was recently recognized as one of SHRMStores Great 8 best-selling products. Find out what all the buzz is about.

The Importance Of Employee Benefits Satisfaction Surveys

Employees often have unique preferences and needs regarding benefits. For example, some may prioritize flexibility and parental leave over career development opportunities.

Others may value retirement plans more than health insurance, particularly if they are eligible for health coverage under their spouses plan. Even if they value the same categories of benefits, the order of importance may differ.

Moreover, some employees may be fully or mostly pleased with their benefits, others may be thoroughly dissatisfied, and some may be somewhat satisfied.

Theres also more to employee benefits than the benefits themselves. For instance, how you communicate benefits to your employees can impact their satisfaction level.

All of these variables can be addressed in an employee benefits satisfaction survey. The survey can provide substantial insight into:

• Each employees benefits preferences and needs
• How each employee rates the quality of benefits received
• Additional benefits you should offer or consider
• How your benefits stack up against your competitors
• The effectiveness of your benefits administration and communication processes
• The performance of your benefits vendors
• Areas of improvement

The survey comes in the form of a questionnaire, and is usually done on an annual basis.

Also Check: Taxability Of Social Security Benefits

Human Resources: Doing More With Less

Going forward, organizations will continue to ask HR teams to do more with fewer resources. A 2021 Gartner HR Budget and Staffing Survey reported that 34% of HR leaders plan to decrease their HR function budgets.5 As a result, HR professionals will likely lean more on their benefits brokers and technology vendors to help manage their workloads. Unfortunately, most brokers and technology vendors are not equipped to provide such dedicated support to organizations.

Comprehensive Resources For Successful Hr Professionals

The National Capital Area Compensation Survey has provided essential compensation data for Washington-Baltimore Area HR professional on jobs in every major industry for over 30 years. The Compensation Survey report also provides a detailed policies and practices section covering pay increase budgets, bonuses, turnover, security clearances, federal employees and many more. The National Capital Area Benefits Survey is the region’s most robust source of reliable data on health care, retirement, welfare and work-life benefits. Use these valuable resources in your organization to improve pay structures, administer compensation programs, and to prepare proposals for pay, benefit, and policy practices.

Don’t Miss: Social Security Spousal Benefits After Death

Use An Employee Benefits Survey Template Or Create Your Own Today

If you want to find out how your employees really feel about your employee benefits, SurveyPlanet is here to help. We make it easy to create a beautiful and easy-to-use survey to send to your employees. Create your own survey or save time and use one of our employee benefits survey templates. Start collecting the answers you need to improve your workplace today. All users gain access to unlimited surveys, unlimited questions and unlimited responses. Create a free account or take advantage of our Pro features when you upgrade. for SurveyPlanet today.

Supporting And Embracing Hybrid Work Environments

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a rise in hybrid work. The survey revealed that 63 percent of employers offered all or most of their employees the opportunity for hybrid work, which combines in-person and remote work.

The flexibility to work remotely at least part of the time has seen great success among many organizations that favor this type of arrangement. Hybrid work has also garnered attention from job applicants and was found to be a motivator for existing employees.

SHRMâs annual survey also showed that 62 percent of organizations offered their employees a reimbursement or subsidy for any work equipment or at-home office supplies that they needed to complete their job duties. On average, employers paid about $891 to employees to cover these types of costs.

Nearly all employers, at 95 percent, covered costs related to work technology, such as computers, keyboards, monitors, and headsets. About 68 percent said they covered costs relating to general office supplies, such as notepads and pens. In addition, 24 percent said they covered the costs of office chairs for employees working from home.

Read Also: Medicare Supplement Plan F Benefits

What You Can Accomplish With Employee Benefits Surveys

Employee benefits surveys are beneficial for saving money and keeping your employees happy. First, start by finding out if your employees like their current benefits. Whether your company offers just health benefits or everything from flexible spending accounts to gym membership reimbursements, itâs important to know which benefits employees enjoy, which they donât use, which they want and which they want to see improvements made to. Using our unique tools like question branching, you can glean in-depth insight into specific aspects of each employee benefit. An employee benefits survey will tell you everything you need to know about how to structure employee benefits.

Once you gather responses to your employee benefits survey questions, you can make improvements to your current benefits. When your employees are happier with their benefits, it helps them feel appreciated and more motivated. Below are some examples of employee benefits survey questions you can ask in your next survey.