Helping Employees Make Smart Benefit Choices

What’s the Big Idea?

What’s the essential value of an employee benefit? Protection from a catastrophic loss is an important one. That loss could come in the form of a large hospital bill, for instance, and that is why health insurance is seen as a key benefit. Due to the shift from a “defined benefit” to a “defined contribution” model, employees have been given more choices to manage the types of benefits they would most like to receive.

And yet, increased choice brings along with it increased risk. For instance, who wouldn’t want paid time off? It has an immediate payoff, and in fact, a large number of employees who were surveyed in a recent Mercer study released today indicated paid time off ranked high for them.

The problem is, however, if employees choose options like paid time off at the expense of long-term benefits that will be much more valuable to themselves and their families over time, such as a retirement benefit or a health benefit. 

So says Dave Rahill, President of Health & Benefits at Mercer, who in the video below explores how companies can help employees make smarter benefit decisions. 

Watch the video here:

You can download and view Mercer’s global report here. 

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

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