Enrollment concerns: Financial resiliency in danger, too
Results from the Unum employer survey, September 16, 2020
Not only is the pandemic increasing the risk of mental health issues, it’s also making people more financially fragile. Millions of households have lost income, and “due to the flexibility offered by the federal CARES Act, people have taken a significant amount of money out of their 401(k) plans, endangering their retirements,” according to Rob Hecker, Unum’s Vice President of Global Total Rewards.
In this environment, benefits that help protect people from the financial costs of illness, injury or loss of life are more important than ever. Unfortunately, the pandemic is making benefits enrollment harder, too. According to a new study by Eastbridge Consulting, nearly nine in ten (87%) benefit enrollers said their top concern is that the pandemic will reduce enrollment opportunities.1
With so many people absent from their normal workplaces, the normal enrollment methods — like benefit fairs, in-person group meetings and live one-to-one benefits counseling — simply won’t work this year.
Employers we recently surveyed were planning to meet this challenge with a variety of socially distanced approaches, such as virtual group meetings (76%), online educational materials (52%), and virtual one-on-one meetings with a benefits counselor (42%). If these methods are successful, some experts feel they will become the new normal, with things like in-person benefit fairs fading away.
What type of benefits enrollment, if any, are you planning to hold for your employees in the next six months?
76%
Virtual group meetings
52%
Online educational materials
42%
Virtual one-on-one benefit meetings
33%
Printed educational materials
28%
In-person group meetings
26%
Virtual benefits fair
21%
In-person one-on-one benefits meetings
9%
In-person benefits fair
Still, what’s most important is how benefits are communicated. Employers play a key role in educating employees about all the ways benefits can protect them.
The decision to purchase benefits is the most important financial decision
an employee makes in a typical year.
Richard Shaffer
Senior Vice President of Field
and Market Development at Colonial Life
Quick links
- Executive summary
- Part one
School disruptions: Parents who aren’t at work— even when they are - Part two
A breakdown in mental health
Additional resources
- Recorded webinar
How the pandemic is reshaping the workplace and benefits - Article
Automatic for the people — protecting more employees with auto-enrollment - Podcast
Virtual enrollment in a COVID-19 environment
New: Unum Behavioral Health
A better way to keep your employees healthy and productive
“The decision to purchase benefits is the most important financial decision an employee makes in a typical year,” according to Richard Shaffer of Colonial Life, a subsidiary of Unum Group. “Most benefits are only available at work, so that’s where education has to happen.”
“Now is a great time for employers to be honing their benefits messages,” says Hecker. In this vein, it’s encouraging that nearly half (47%) of employers we surveyed were planning to change how they communicated benefits to their employees during enrollment this year. But it’s disquieting that more than a third (37%) said they planned no such changes. “We are hoping employers will really lean in this year,” says Shaffer, “to help drive education and understanding.” Technology like online schedulers and virtual platforms can help employers engage workers safely wherever they are and at any time.
Figures do not add to 100% due to rounding.
“It’s important for employers to make sure employees get the chance to pause and reflect about each benefit they’re being offered,” Shaffer adds. Active enrollment can provide this opportunity for reflection, by requiring employees to indicate whether they do or do not want a benefit, instead of just receiving last years’ benefits if they don’t say otherwise.
A little more than a third of employers we surveyed (36%) plan to hold an active benefits enrollment for employees in the next six months. About one-quarter (28%) plan to use a combination active/passive enrollment process, and 23% plan to use a passive enrollment process. (Automatic enrollment can also help nudge employees to enroll in the benefits they need.)
Explore the report
- Report executive summary
- In part one: Modified school schedules will stress parents and employers.
- In part two: A mental health crisis is on the horizon.
1 Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc., Enroller Perspectives on the COVID-19 Pandemic and Voluntary, Aug. 2020.
About the survey
We surveyed 409 employers from August 12 to August 20, 2020, with roughly 100 responses coming from employers in each of four employee-size categories: 1 to 99, 100 to 499, 500 to 1,999 and 2,000+. Respondents were limited to persons involved in employee benefits decision-making or administration at U.S.-based organizations representing a wide variety of industries. We are actively keeping a pulse on the market and employers’ concerns amid the pandemic’s disruptions and have been releasing bi-monthly reports since April 2020.
Figure 2: Do you plan changes to benefit communications?
Q. As the COVID-19 pandemic persists and employees continue to work from home, do you plan to change the way you communicate with your employees about the benefits available to them? [Back to figure]
| Yes | 47% |
| No | 37% |
| Don't know/unsure | 15% |