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Employee Benefits
Move to the Executive
Agenda
Employers expand the concept of benefits beyond
traditional offerings.
By Joanne SammerOctober 8, 2022

What's considered an effective rewards strategy has evolved in recent

years.

Companies used to brag about their health and retirement benefits, but
those have become table stakes. If an organization is going to be
competitive as an employer, it must go well beyond the traditional
benefits package.

Employers faced with a persistently tight labor market have been

looking for every advantage to attract, retain and engage workers. To
remain competitive, business leaders need to seriously consider what
current and prospective employees need and value. In the process,
they're likely to find that what qualifies as an "employee benefit" is
rapidly changing.

Verizon is one employer that's approaching benefits differently these

days. "Our focus is on integrating employee benefits with life to make
work easier and better for everyone," says Sam Hammock, CHRO of
the New York City-based telecom giant with about 120,000 employees.

Other organizations set a different base line. "Quality health care,

retirement, parental leave, maternity/paternity leave and generous
paid-time-off policies should be foundational in benefit packages,"
says Loubna Bribine, HR manager for SES-imagotag, an electronics
company headquartered in Nanterre, France. Once those benefits are
in place, she says, employers should think about what other benefits
they can offer to meet the needs of a variety of people and lifestyles at
the company.

An Expanding Perspective on Benefits

The importance of employee benefits is growing, and the C-suite is

paying attention. "Our executive team talks about benefits quarterly,"
Hammock says. This has not always been the case in many
organizations. Employee benefits discussions in the past have often
focused on the cost of health insurance. For their part, employees and
job candidates also tend to take employee benefits for granted and
focus instead on compensation.

"Unless an employer is in the top percentile for benefits, just offering

slightly more than median has been a hard to sell when salaries
dominate" employee and candidate concerns, says Stacey Carroll,
president and principal consultant with HR Experts on Call in Seattle.

Yet smart and targeted investments in employee benefits can yield

results, especially when the employees value the benefits. "Everyone
focuses on compensation, but there are other levers to pull that really
matter to employees," according to Hammock.

Verizon has made selective and targeted changes to employee

compensation, but it has also adopted a benefits strategy that
emphasizes maximizing choice. "We are building a range of benefits to
serve employees where they are in life," Hammock says.

To that end, Verizon now offers a stipend that employees can use to
purchase personalized benefits that meet their unique needs, such as
pet insurance, elder care assistance, yoga classes, telehealth and
other benefits.

At the same time, Verizon, like a growing number of employers, is

expanding the definition of "benefit" to include the tangible and
intangible elements of what an employer offers, including flexibility
regarding where and how employees get their work done.
"The power of giving employees the choice of where to work with
flexible work arrangements is key," Hammock says. "Some never want
to be in the office and some need the engagement and collaboration
that can happen in the office, but most of them just want to be trusted
to make that choice themselves."

Know Your Workforce

So how does an organization determine what benefits to offer and how

to allocate spending? It depends. But one thing is clear: The more
insight an employer has into its workforce, the more likely it can
develop meaningful benefits programs for those workers.

Health care staffing company IntelyCare has leveraged a deep

understanding of its workforce of about 50,000 health care
professionals into a customized approach to benefits. "Many of our
nurses are working additional shifts for a specific reason," such as
paying off debt or saving money for a home purchase, says David
Coppins, the Quincy, Mass.-based company's CEO and co-founder.

In response, the company customized many of its employee benefits to

support those goals. For example, the company offers savings plans
and access to advantageous interest rates on mortgage loans.
IntelyCare's newest and most popular benefit is the option for
employees to access their pay within 15 minutes of completing a shift.

"Even though not all of them have used it, 75 percent of the workforce
signed up for this benefit," Coppins says.

Recognition is another key part of this customized benefits strategy.

The company offers bonuses and opportunities to move up various
levels based on performance. "Each level offers something new," such
as financial incentives or access to better shifts, Coppins says. This is
coupled with consistent positive feedback on employee performance
whenever it is warranted. "This is a big change because nursing often
has somewhat adversarial relationships [between nurses and]
management, so we emphasize our respect for their work," he says.

Of course, offering these targeted benefits is only the starting point.

Coppins also makes sure these benefits investments are helping the
company achieve its goals. So far, the news is positive: Employee
retention levels have almost doubled, and there has been a 40 percent
increase in engagement, as measured by how many shifts individuals
are taking per month.

When in Doubt, Ask

With thousands of employees in every demographic group, Verizon's

employee benefits have to cover many bases. "We have young
professionals early in their careers, employees who are parents, and
long-tenured employees," Hammock says. "Our focus is on whether we
have the benefits that provide the choices" that can meet the needs of
this very diverse group.

To that end, Verizon conducts quarterly employee engagement surveys

and supplements those findings with feedback through other channels,
including focus groups. As is the case at many companies, employee
attrition at Verizon has been higher than normal since the pandemic,
and the company is looking for ways to increase retention.

‘Everyone focuses on compensation, but there are

other levers to pull that really matter to
 employees.’
Sam Hammock
For company leaders, the pandemic led to a broader perspective on
what mental health and wellness means for many workers. For
example, in addition to offering traditional mental health support like
employee assistance programs and access to therapy, Verizon
significantly expanded its support for caregivers. With people working
remotely, "sometimes mental health means that you just need to get
out of the house," Hammock says. "We provide backup care at any
time for employees with any kind of caregiving responsibilities."
Global companies may also need to act on employee feedback based
on geography. With offices in 15 countries, SES-imagotag recognizes
that benefits valued by employees in one region or office may not
appeal to employees in other locations. For example, when the
company's surveys indicated that employees in North America value
more downtime, the company acted to meet this need by closing all of
its offices in this region during the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday week.

This decision also meshed with the company's strategic needs. As a

supplier of electronic shelving systems for the retail industry, this
break is a good time for employees "to spend time with their loved
ones so they can come back rested and ready for the holiday season,"
Bribine says.

SES-imagotag's survey data also showed that employees want to have

a positive impact on their communities. Therefore, to support
community involvement, the company matches up to $500 in
charitable contributions and introduced two paid volunteer days per
year. "We also provide local opportunities to employees who are
looking to volunteer but don't know where to begin," Bribine says.
New programs and benefits strategies adopted by employers during the pandemic provided a
glimpse of what's possible in employee benefits. To remain competitive, employers know they
have to provide employees with core health care and retirement plans. The opportunity to stand
out among employers comes from offering other, targeted benefits.

Out of necessity, employers continue to invest in new employee benefits programs to support
workers and help them address the challenges they face in their personal and professional lives.
Although specific wants and needs will differ for each employee, these benefits have become
must-haves for workers considering new job opportunities over the past two years:
Building a Dashboard

Maintaining a strong workforce in health care is difficult even in the

best of times. Due to the pandemic, the past few years have not been
the best of times.

For Paul Dann, executive director of NFI North Inc., a nonprofit health
care agency based in Contoocook, N.H., meeting that challenge meant
determining why people were quitting—and finding ways to address
those issues.

The agency, which has 400 employees and serves patients in Maine
and New Hampshire, developed a dashboard to measure longevity by
position and to identify when people were most likely to seek another
opportunity. "We found that people are most likely to leave during the
second and third years," Dann says. The key reasons turned out to be
the relationship with their manager, not understanding the value of
employee benefits and unhappiness with pay levels.

The agency was able to quickly address the compensation issue by

increasing the starting hourly rate and offering hiring and retention
bonuses. It took longer to increase management training and
leadership development to start to improve relationships. That left the
last issue—employee benefits.

The agency began by communicating about the value of its retirement

plan and the 5 percent of pay the agency contributes on employees'
behalf. Then, it looked for new programs that would appeal to
employees. That required adopting a much broader definition of
employee benefits. For example, at employees' request, the agency
created a shared sick-leave bank to which employees can donate
some of their sick leave and from which they can draw time off if
needed.

However, the main focus was helping employees build a stronger

work/life balance by giving them more control over when and where
they work. As a health care agency, NFI North had given little thought
to remote work. However, after analyzing specific jobs, the agency
found that at least some of the work could be done remotely.

"We outfitted everyone whose position allows for remote work with the
necessary technology so that they can work remotely up to three
times a week," Dann says. At the same time, the agency gave
employees the option to compress their normal, full-time hours into a
four-day week instead of five as long as they spend at least two of
those days in the office. "Although it seems simple, this represented a
real paradigm shift for us," Dann says.

Lasting Value

As more employers are learning, a greatly expanded definition of

employee benefits is required.

"Right now, benefits are the most important thing employees look for
in addition to culture and work purpose," says Nick Shah, founder and
CEO of Peterson Technology Partners in Park Ridge, Ill. "Most people
are looking for the whole package—a company culture of learning,
growth with flexible work conditions and cutting-edge, cool work to do
—that will keep them motivated in the long term."

‘Employers need to rethink everything about

rewards.’
Stacey Carroll
Senior executives who seize this opportunity to redefine employee
benefits can generate lasting value for their organizations.

"Employers need to rethink everything about rewards, including where

and how people work and how they build and develop a career," HR
Experts on Call's Carroll says. "Employees want a new model that's
flexible and personal."

It's important to start the conversation about what this type of

approach to benefits would look like, not only now but in the future.
HR cannot do this alone. Carroll notes that organizations are most
effective when these conversations include perspectives from people
outside of HR. Organizations that are least effective are not having
this conversation at all.

Joanne Sammer is a New Jersey-based business and financial writer.

Explore Further

SHRM provides advice and resources to help business leaders make

the most of their benefits investments.

Meeting Employees' Needs on Benefits

Workers today want choices and flexibility in every aspect of work, but
employers have been slow to provide the right benefits to meet those
needs.

SHRM 2022 Employee Benefits Survey

In SHRM research, health care, retirement savings and leave benefits
emerged as the top-ranked benefits employers feel they can offer.

SHRM HR Q&A: What Benefits Can Employers Offer to Improve

Retention?
In times of record employee turnover as workers resign in search of
greener pastures, revisiting employee benefits offerings might help
retain top talent.

Rethinking Employee Benefits for Permanently Remote Workers

Employers should review benefits strategies for a far-flung workforce,
since having a significant number of "work-from-anywhere" workers
introduces new challenges for employee benefits.

SHRM Resource Hub Page: Turnover and Retention

Smart employers use employee turnover information to help assess
the health of their organizations and the effectiveness of their talent
strategies. But turnover data is more than just a number—it should
encompass the reasons employees stay or leave, both to reduce
unwanted exits and to better inform retention strategies.
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