We know how badly COVID-19 has affected the whole world and due to this many businesses have changed their organizational structure. In addition to this, the employee benefits landscape has also remodeled, but do you know and many business entities are still looking out to expand their voluntary benefits into their existing plans to address their workforce needs.
It has been observed that many people are confused about the voluntary benefits and regular employee benefits packages. However, voluntary benefits are also known as worksite benefits programs and they are an effective way to attract and retain employees in your organization without any manual help. Apart from this, voluntary benefits are also helping in giving the best coverage plans as compared to traditional benefits systems that don’t really cover.
However, it has been seen that many organizations are already using benefits administration software, but still many employers are still unaware of the term voluntary benefits. Before proceeding ahead let’s start with voluntary benefits.
What Are Voluntary Benefits?
Voluntary benefits are also known as employee-paid benefits, supplemental insurance, or worksite benefits programs. These plans are offered by the employers to their employees where they can buy them to make additional plans in their existing employee benefits programs. Here, payment management for the voluntary benefits is quite flexible to support employees to satisfy their financial obligations such as fully employee (funded) and partially funded by both employee and employer.
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However, voluntary benefits fulfill four segments, they are as follow:
- Personal- This benefit covers the employee’s personal interest and their specific needs.
- Health- Here, this program helps employee well-being by decreasing the risk of health at a rational cost.
- Security- These benefits help vulnerable people and other survivors with keeping their identities safe and secure.
- Wealth Accumulation- Here, the benefits keep income and assets safe.
It is important to understand what is available under the voluntary benefits. Head to the next section to learn more.
What voluntary benefits are available?
Voluntary benefits own a broad range of insurance plans and mainly cover accident insurance, gym memberships, concierge services, retail or ticket discounts along dental insurance and disability insurance. However, we will classify the voluntary benefits into four segments.
- Security
Here security covers life insurance, Personal travel/ accident insurance, Identity theft protection. Life insurance helps in offering financial protection to the employee’s family in case of death and any other mishappening. The life insurance policy covers buying a home, child coverage, and marriage plans. However, identity theft protection doesn’t offer financial security but it helps in monitoring public records and also alerting employees in case of any security breaches in their personal details, attempted loans, and credit applications. On the other hand, travel accidental insurance helps in giving extra protection when employees are traveling and it covers accidental death or dismemberment policy also legal fees, and emergency medical.
- Health
- Personal
These voluntary benefits include the employee’s lifestyle requirements such as pet insurance, Discount merchandise, Automobiles. Apart from this employers will also take advantage of booking holidays, dry cleaning, finding tradesmen, shopping. On the other hand, personal voluntary benefits also cover insurance against claims and lawsuits.
- Wealth/Lifestyle
Here, disability insurance, financial counseling, the legal procedure comes under the wealth and lifestyle. Financial counseling focuses on retirement plans along with tax advice, credit card debt, saving & budgeting, and investment advice. The legal feature helps in common personal factors that include civil lawsuits, vehicle, family, and wills.
Why Are Employers Focusing On Voluntary Benefits?
Thus these are the four primary voluntary benefits that are available in the market to make sure you are accessing each and every benefit. However, it has been seen that many sectors are using HR tools along with HRIS Software for small business to streamline their organizational workflow.
However, many people wonder why they should consider voluntary benefits, and if you are one of them, you are at the right place. Here we are sharing the top reasons why you should consider these amazing plans for your employees.
Basically, when you are offering employee benefits programs, you are helping your employees with the needs and requirements they are looking for. This is the best way to ensure your employee’s care through various ways such as accidental insurance where you are offering them medical and other out-of-pocket charges. Insurance policies help your employees in offering complete financial protection as long as they are associated with you. In a tough time of critical illness, your employees get under the safety net when they are getting caught in any serious mishappening.
In addition to this, when an employer curates a well-designed benefit plan it helps in extending the employee’s financial stability. These are the coverage programs that are provided by the employer’s side but sometimes come in paid (solely or partially) based on payroll deferral. Many companies are offering suitable group plans that help employees with better coverage and cost according to the latest market trends. If your workforce is getting every possible benefit and assistance from you they will be more productive and agile. This will help your business to grow in the market. Not only this but many companies are also using employee benefits software to ensure overall success in the market as this amazing tool streamlines the complete workflow and also offers competitive advantages too.
However, it has also seen that HRIS software for small business is also setting its footprints to align the organizational functionalities. There is a quick tip, you are a startup owner or running a business on the small scale make sure you are using HRIS software as it will not only offer productivity but it also emphasizes overall workforce success.
Note- Voluntary benefits plans are the choice of beneficiaries that helps in your employee’s needs and they provide extra care for your workforce to select a benefit plan at their own cost. On the other hand, mandatory benefits programs are defined by the government law, thus they are mandated for every employee and employer.
Conclusion
We hope now you have understood why voluntary benefits are important for your business. A quick that we can offer you is to implement either an employee benefits software platform or HRIS software for small businesses and giant enterprises. However, if you want to retain top candidates who can help you in achieving your dream goal make sure you are fulfilling their needs at their best. If you will care for your employees, they will care for your business!
Author’s Bio: Scarlett works with the editorial team of Accomplish EP, a leading company offering online payroll software. Exploring the latest technologies, reading about them, and writing her views have always been her passion. She seeks new opportunities to express her opinions, explore technological advancements, and document the details. You can always find her enjoying books or articles about varied topics or jotting down her ideas in a notebook.
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