Employee Benefits Resource Community

By Stephen L. Pontecorvo, MetLife

Much of today’s workforce lacks adequate financial protection when it comes to securing their income. However, women in particular may be exposing themselves and their families to more financial risk if they don’t have appropriate income protection in place since they are more likely than men to be living paycheck to paycheck. MetLife’s 9th Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study found that approximately half of working women compared to about a one-third of working men say they are living paycheck to paycheck. What happens if that paycheck ceases temporarily or altogether if there isn’t a plan in place? As women comprise just less than half of the U.S. workforce, employers that embrace a more thoughtful approach to engaging working women can address the underinsurance challenge, and drive employee loyalty and productivity in the process. This can be accomplished by addressing their financial concerns with access to protection products and supporting educational tools.

When it comes to life insurance, even when taking into account salary differences, women are more underinsured than men. The MetLife Study finds that women on average insure only twice their income in life insurance coverage, versus men, who are covered for nearly three times their earnings. Furthermore, half of women who earn $50,000 or more in income believe that they don’t have as much coverage as they need, versus 39% of their male counterparts. The study also found that not only are women more concerned about the impact of their death on their family’s finances than men, but they are also more concerned than men regarding the financial impact of a disability or serious illness.

How Employers Can Help

Providing access to benefits options, including the opportunity to purchase supplemental protection is a key consideration since most women who have life insurance and disability insurance protection obtain it through the workplace. However, access alone is not enough. Many of the obstacles that prevent women from obtaining the proper financial protection can be eliminated by carefully considering messaging and communication preferences and by providing access to meaningful decision-support tools.

1. Dial up key messaging to address unique concerns of women
   Working women tend to gravitate to certain benefit messaging, such as those that highlight components beyond simply the financial aspect, including the peace of mind that comes from knowing their families will be protected. Targeted employee communications can help achieve better results by emphasizing critical messaging points, such as the key differences between various types of protection products.
2. Factor in communication preferences
   Working women are looking to their employer for benefits communications to help in their decisions. The MetLife study finds 43% of women would like access to benefits information online, 39% would like information tailored to their life events and 30% want more frequent communication.
3. Expand decision-support toolkit
   More and more employees are looking to the workplace for guidance on selecting financial products and services – and employers must do more than simply provide educational materials. They also need to provide benchmarks for the right amount and type of protection. With a variety of in-depth calculator and education tools provided by employers, working women can better understand their unique financial needs.

With women becoming an increasingly significant force in the workplace, it is important for employers to address their unique benefits needs. Employers that consider the preferences of their diverse workforce, including working women, will earn a competitive edge through goodwill from employees, greater employee retention, an improved level of benefits comprehension and appreciation, and overall job satisfaction.

Stephen Pontecorvo is vice president, MetLife.

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By Anne Sternheim, New York Times

Friendly Benefits Define Corporate Culture

Employer-sponsored family friendly programs designed to help employees achieve work-life balance can positively impact employee hiring, engagement, and retention.

“Family oriented benefits send a strong message to job candidates and the current workforce about the organization’s culture,” explains Rose Stanley, work-life certified professional and practice leader at WorldatWork.

While employers have had to adjust certain benefits due to recent economic conditions, many family friendly benefits have remained stable over the last few years according to 2011 Employee Benefits, Examining Employee Benefits Amidst Uncertainty, a research report by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

For example, some organizations offer health care and wellness benefits that focus on childbearing and fertility. In the SHRM study, 31 percent of companies surveyed offer fertility treatment coverage other than in-vitro fertilization while 25 percent offer in-vitro fertilization coverage. The number of organizations with these programs has remained steady.

“Assistance with fertility treatments is especially of value since many women deferred having children as they pursued careers,” notes Helen Darling, president, Business Group on Health.

Fewer organizations, however, now provide adoption-related benefits. According to the SHRM study, 16 percent of employers offer paid adoption leave, down from 20 percent in 2007. In addition, eight percent offer adoption assistance, also a drop from 20 percent in 2007.

Childcare-oriented benefits are highly valued among working parents. For example, 73 percent of companies surveyed in the SHRM study offer a dependent care flexible spending account while 33 percent allow employees to bring children to work in an emergency. These benefits have also remained stable.

Measuring Success

Measuring the impact of fertility and adoption benefits is difficult because the number of users is relatively small. However, companies can gauge employees’ feelings about such programs via periodic work-life balance surveys or during exit interviews.

On the other hand, there is evidence that underscores the positive impact of childcare oriented benefits. “Employers with benefits that help families with children build goodwill among their employees who feel their companies care about them,” reports Julie Stich, CEBS, senior information/research specialist at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

Companies that offer such childcare benefits report enhanced recruitment and retention, reduced absenteeism, improved productivity, and the ability to achieve and maintain employer of choice status according to a 2010 report by Bright Horizons Family Solutions.

Valued By All

While not everyone uses such programs, non-users view family friendly benefits as advantageous. “These programs make good strategic sense. People want to be treated fairly and they want their co workers to be so as well,” says Helen Darling of NBGH.

In addition, both women and men appreciate such programs. “Today, women and men want many of the same things,” explains Rose Stanley of WorldatWork. “Family friendly programs that create harmony for workers on the job and at home enable employees to feel more satisfied, engaged, and productive.”

Anne Sternheim was hired by The New York Times marketing department to provide material for this newsletter.

The opinions expressed in the New York Times and Human Resource Executive articles are the opinions of those publications and do not reflect the opinions of MetLife or its affiliates.

By Tom Starner, Human Resource Executive

More and more, professionals feel challenged by the collective pressures of a demanding work life, a hectic personal life and a desire to find fulfillment in both arenas. As a result, a growing number of them are seeking work opportunities that will offer some level of flexibility.

According to Allison O’Kelly, founder and CEO of Mom Corps, a national flexible staffing firm founded on the premise of alternative work arrangements, it’s no longer solely about moms who need to pick up their kids after school.

“Professionals in all demographics—Boomers and Millennials, men and women, parents and new graduates—have preference for work/life alignment,” says O’Kelly.

Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc., a workforce management solutions provider, believes employers have come a long way since the “back-room deals” between employee and manager of 15 or 20 years ago, deals that might have been extended on a temporary basis only to extraordinary performers.

“It’s incredible that we still feel the need to justify flexible working environments—for men or women,” says Maroney, adding that the ubiquity of broadband communications and mobile devices renders location irrelevant for many workers – especially those with global responsibilities.

“Organizations that want to recruit and retain the most valuable employees will find it increasingly difficult to do so if they don’t offer flexible work options,” she says, noting that this applies to both large and small employers.

Organizations that fail to offer at least some element of flexibility are going to be at a serious disadvantage, predicts Mom Corps’ O’Kelly, since finding another job that matches an employee’s lifestyle is no longer an insurmountable obstacle.

“While still far behind societal shifts in its proliferation, workplace flexibility is gaining tremendous momentum,” she says.

Working with Harris Interactive, Mom Corps recently commissioned a national study that revealed more than two in five working adults (42 percent) are willing to give up some percentage of their salary for more flexibility at work (including working remotely).

O’Kelly offers these tips on implementing flexible work options:

• Ask employees their opinions —If you do, you’ll likely find they aren’t asking for much. Learn what works best for them to accomplish their work goals. Lead the dialogue with questions about maintaining high productivity levels, challenges they face with work/life balance and effective ways to work as a team.
• Define regular office hours for both in the office and off-site—For off-site days, identify when each team member is available by phone or email. Set core hours when the entire staff works at the office for a set amount of time on a specific day.
• Review company compensation models and policies—Ensure that they don’t unfairly and inadvertently penalize employees who participate. Adjust evaluations and performance critiques to acknowledge part-time, job share or telecommuting schedules so that these practices do not negatively affect an employee’s career trajectory.
• Don’t just offer the program to employees … encourage it! —When you are talking about a culture or mind-set shift, no one wants to be the first person taking the leap. Feature employee flex-work success stories on internal communications channels. To demonstrate there won’t be an unspoken consequence (or “scarlet F”) associated with those taking advantage of the program, senior leadership and managers need to participate in some capacity, whether they have a need for it or not.
• Promote flexible work programs externally as well as internally —Apply for “best places to work” and “top family-friendly companies” distinctions offered by media outlets and professional organizations across the country. Top professionals are placing these organizations at the head of their target list of employers. Your company’s reputation will precede you as you look to fill your leadership ranks.

Tom Starner is a freelance writer with Human Resource Executive^®.

Copyright 2011^© Human Resource Executive^®

The opinions expressed in the New York Times and Human Resource Executive articles are the opinions of those publications and do not reflect the opinions of MetLife or its affiliates.