As human resource professionals begin preparing for the year ahead, it's never too early to learn about new products that can enhance a company's benefits package for the upcoming open enrollment period. With more health care responsibility falling on employees, value-added services that address the evolving and emerging needs of business owners and employees are in high demand.
It's smart to be proactive at the beginning of the year by researching services to create a more robust benefits package. Three must-have services to consider adding to your company's benefits offering are fraud protection, benefit management support and telehealth services, which are designed to aid in employees' overall physical, mental and financial well-being.
- Fraud protection services: Over the past few years, significant data breaches have affected millions of people and compromised personal and financial information. According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of data breaches hit a record high of 783 in 2014, and 424 took place in the first half of 2015.
These numbers have many people feeling vulnerable to identity theft, which is why adding fraud protection services to a benefits package is an important step to help protect employees' personal and financial information.
This additional service also can help bring peace of mind to employees and show them that their company cares about protecting their financial health.
- Benefit management support: With 1 in 3 Americans struggling to pay medical bills, benefit management support should be viewed as a core option for employees. This service offers administrative support to help negotiate employees' unpaid medical bills.
Employees concerned about how to pay for medical expenses should consider this option to help protect their financial future as well as protect themselves from other problems resulting from medical debt, including credit card debt, bankruptcy or obstacles accessing health care.
- Telehealth services: A recent Towers Watson survey found 37 percent of employers planned to offer workers telemedicine consultations in 2015, and another 34 percent planned to do so by 2017.
This growing interest in virtual doctor visits, which are done either by phone or online video with a highly qualified health care professional, provide employees with a low-cost and convenient option to evaluate common conditions and ailments and provide personalized treatment remotely.
Advantages of value-added services for employers
Employees aren't the only ones who will benefit from value-added services. By combining these services with current benefits options, employers have the potential to increase employee morale and job satisfaction, reduce job turnover and be seen as a more attractive employer.
Enhancing benefits offerings with value-added services can make companies more appealing to both current and potential employees. For instance, companies named to Fortune's list of Best Companies to Work For had two things in common:
- They looked for new benefits that yielded the most bang for a small amount of buck; and
- They aligned benefits to the needs of their particular employees versus taking a one-size-fits-all approach.
Better health care solutions
By incorporating better solutions into benefits packages, employers can meet the rising demands of employees. Being proactive can allow enough time to research the best value-added services to benefit your workforce and show that as an employer you highly value the overall well-being of employees.
About the Author
Matthew Owenby has more than 15 years of experience in the financial services/HR industry and is senior vice president, chief human resources officer at Aflac, a company with more than 9,500 employees.
He is responsible for providing strategic direction for the Human Resources function and executing global initiatives for the corporation. Visit aflac.com, call 1.888.861.0251 or send an email to addbenefits@aflac.com to learn more.This article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be a solicitation.
