Identify business goals and ideal success factors around employee health, well-being and organizational culture. Hold stakeholder meetings with executives and employees, and analyze benefit usage data.

Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight

This article review assignment should contain an explanation of the article and an analysis and evaluation of its strengths and weaknesses.

D
Stay Competitive with Benefits or
Risk Employee Flight
SHRM symposium shared tips on designing benefits programs to meet strategic objectives
By Stephen Miller, CEBS
Aug 8, 2017
oes your company offer the benefits that most employees want? If not, you may be wasting money and finding it
hard to hire and retain valued employees.
“If you’re there for your employees, they’ll be there for you,” said Shonna Waters, vice president of research at the Society for
Human Resource Management (SHRM) at SHRM’s Rewarding Work: Spotlight on Benefits Strategy symposium, held Aug. 7 in
Cleveland.
Every employer should ask whether the cost of their benefits (/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/Pages/employersbenefits-costs-rise.aspx) is money

well-spent, she told the nearly 300 attendees.
(https://cdn.shrm.org/image/upload/v1/Benefits/benefit-costs-full_cvpypc)
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation (Dec. 2016). Click on graphic to view in a
separate window.
Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight Page 1 of 5
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/shrm-symposium-stay-co… 9/17/2017A point to keep in mind: “Much of the media’s

coverage of employee benefits is dominated by Silicon Valley—the high-tech
industries and the companies that are pushing the edge of benefits,” Waters said. “We hear a lot in the news about
organizations such as Netflix and Amazon that are offering extremely generous and even ‘unlimited’ parental leave policies
(www.shrm.org/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/paid-parental-leave-expands.aspx), [but] the data actually
shows that a minority of U.S. organizations are offering any paid maternity leave and even fewer are offering paid paternity
leave.”
Employers should keep their focus not necessarily on what the big, cutting-edge companies are doing “but what your peers
are doing,” she advised, because those are the employers with whom you’re competing for talent.
Waters further cited SHRM’s 2017 Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement (/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/researchand-surveys/pages/2017-job-

satisfaction-and-engagement-doors-of-opportunity-are-open.aspx) survey report, which showed
that the top three benefits employees value are health care, leave and flexible work schedules. However, the report also
pointed to large gaps between the percentage of employees who view these benefits as “very important” and the
percentage that said they are “very satisfied” with that benefit.
Importance-Satisfaction Gap
Benefit Employees who view as
“very important”
Employee who are
“very satisfied”
Health care 63% 31%
Leave 59% 38%
Flexibility 54% 34%
(https://cdn.shrm.org/image/upload/v1/Benefits/satisfaction-gap-full_lwhicz)
Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight Page 2 of 5
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/shrm-symposium-stay-co… 9/17/2017Source: Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement

(/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/pages/2017-
job-satisfaction-and-engagement-doors-of-opportunity-are-open.aspx) survey report (SHRM, 2017). Cick on graphic to view in
a separate window.
The findings point to the need to help employees better understand the value of their
benefits package, as well as the need to evaluate whether the company has the right
benefits offerings to begin with, Waters said. That requires understanding employee
needs.
While only 4 percent of employers provide student loan repayment as a benefit (/ResourcesAndTools/hrtopics/benefits/pages/student-loan-assistance-

benefit.aspx), many younger employees have said they would prefer that their
employers contribute to loan repayment first rather than to their 401(k) account, she pointed out.
Waters advised:
◾ Get smart about the competition. Review your benefits mix at least annually and use market data for comparison
with your competitors’ offerings.
◾ Take an employee-centered approach. Ask employees what benefits they value and whether they know about all
their benefits offerings and how to use them, and note variations in how different demographic groups reply. Along
with traditional employee surveys, use focus groups, stay interviews and social media polling. Let employees know
that their responses will help in designing their benefits package.
People tend to support what they help to create, “so include them in the process,” recommended Rosie Ward, CEO and cofounder of Minneapolis-based

consultancy Salveo Partners, in another symposium presentation.
[SHRM members-only toolkit: Designing and Managing Flexible Benefits (Cafeteria) Plans (/resourcesandtools/tools-

andsamples/toolkits/pages/managingflexiblebenefitsplans.aspx)]
Strategic Benefits Planning
“Spending on employee benefits accounts for the second to fifth largest expense for most organizations,” said Stephen
Ligus, vice president at Hylant, an insurance and risk management firm headquartered in Toledo, Ohio. Benefit spending by
employers on health care alone over the past 10 years has grown on average 4.93 percent per year, he noted, citing
Mercer’s National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. A typical large employer spent nearly $12,000 per employee
on health care in 2016, up from $8,000 in 2007.
Ligus advised HR professionals to conduct a strategic benefits review every two to three years, leading to an action plan that
keeps the benefits package competitive with peers and responsive to employee needs. The key steps are:
◾ Discovery. Identify business goals and ideal success factors around employee health, well-being and organizational
culture. Hold stakeholder meetings with executives and employees, and analyze benefit usage data.
Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight Page 3 of 5
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/shrm-symposium-stay-co… 9/17/2017◾ Roadmap. Build a strategic plan using SMART

(measurable, achievable, results-focused and time- bound) goals.
Include appropriate vendor partnerships and create a timeline.
◾ Implementation. Put the strategy into practice with ongoing program maintenance.
◾ Stewardship. Evaluate and refine the plan over time, seeking stakeholder feedback.
How Employees View Their Benefits Can Keep Them Onboard or Drive Them Away
The benefits that employees cite as keeping them on the job when viewed a
cause them to leave.
(https://cdn.shrm.org/image/upload/v1/Benefits/leave-stay-full_vsfcr5)
Source: Employee Job Satisfaction and Engagement (/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/research-and-surveys/pages/2017
satisfaction-and-engagement-doors-of-opportunity-are-open.aspx) survey report (SHRM, 2017).
Cick on graphic to view in a separate window.
Communication Tips
Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight Page 4 of 5
https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/benefits/pages/shrm-symposium-stay-co… 9/17/2017Contact Us (www.shrm.org/about-shrm/Pages/Contact-

Us.aspx) | 800.283.SHRM (7476)
© 2017 SHRM. All Rights Reserved
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Karl Ahlrichs, SHRM-SCP, a consultant at Gregory & Appel in Indianapolis, also spoke to symposium attendees about
communications challenges.
“Meet your employees where they are,” he advised. Some prefer hearing about benefits by sitting together at meetings,
while others want to watch a video presentation.
Optimize materials for viewing on a desktop computer and mobile devices, he said, and “if some want a benefit statement
mailed to their home, then mail it to their home.”
Create a benefits blog, allow comments and provide answers, he suggested. Create short, simple video reminders by using
your smartphone: “Hey, Karl from benefits here. The open enrollment deadline is in five days, so click this link if you’d like to
receive benefits next year.
“We’re getting better at communication,” he noted. “We’re starting to figure this out.”
A related SHRM symposium—Rewarding Work: Spotlight on Compensation & Performance Management, was held Aug. 8
in Cleveland. For highlights, see the SHRM Online article “Employers Try Better Ways to Measure and Reward
Performance (/ResourcesAndTools/hr-topics/compensation/Pages/better-ways-measure-reward-performance.aspx).”
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Stay Competitive with Benefits or Risk Employee Flight Page 5 of 5
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