Benefits by millennials, enjoyed by everyone

Benefits of the future include more than the traditional medical, dental, vision and retirement offerings. The desire for more applies to all generations, but especially millennials, when it comes to choosing where they want to work.

By 2025, 75 percent of your employee population will consist of millennials. And, according to Gallup, millennial turnover could cost the U.S. $30.5 billion annually.

So, what benefits attract this newest — and soon to be largest — generation? You may already be offering, or considering offering, some of these benefits. And as an added bonus, they span nicely across all generations, not just millennials.

7 benefits your workforce wants

Improved family-focused benefits.

While the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) may seem like an ingrained part of American culture, it’s only been around since 1993. It requires most companies to allow their employees up to 12 weeks of unpaid family leave after the birth of their child, but many employers are going a step further. Some are now providing 20 weeks to a full year of paid leave.

Additionally, employers are offering money toward adoption, fertility treatments, and support with in-home or on-site childcare to enforce that they don’t just see their employees as workers, they see them as family.

Today, millennials are parents to 50 percent of kids and more than 1 million millennial women become mothers each year. With stats like these, it's important to consider benefits that support new parents.

Flexible work arrangements.

Four-day, 10-hour workweeks. Working remotely. Flexible hours or scheduling. These are just a few ways employers are giving their employees options to manage their work-life balance and reduce stress levels.

While this obviously doesn’t work for every industry or every role in your company, consider where these opportunities may arise. Studies have shown External Site four-day workweeks improve productivity by 40 percent and 77 percent of millennials say flexible hours would make them more productive.

And, working remotely gives employees the opportunity to work from home while the sink or furnace gets fixed, and tackle a slew of other time saving tasks — all while being productive for your company.

Onsite fitness centers or gym reimbursements.

Who isn’t under a time crunch these days? On-site fitness centers solve the problem of “not having time to work out” by eliminating travel times for employees, giving them the flexibility to work out when they want, as well as removing the cost barrier of joining a gym.

Don’t have the budget or physical space for an on-site fitness center? Consider gym reimbursements instead. This will be ideal for employees who want access to a large space and state-of-the-art equipment most employers aren’t able to provide.

You can also require a certain number of visits per week, month or year to receive the reimbursement, which will ensure positive return on your investment. No matter which option you choose, you can help your bottom line by having healthier employees, saving you in health insurance costs in the long-term.

Student loan repayment assistance.

According to the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), only four percent of companies offer a student loan repayment benefit. But there are currently more than 44 million borrowers owing a collective $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, with the average debt of $30,000.

Eighty-six percent of surveyed millennial employees would commit to a company for five years if it helped pay back their student loans. Employers offering this benefit could:

• Stabilize their work force.
• Offer opportunities for employees of all ages to upskill to further their careers.
• Reduce the mental and physical stress debt induces.
• Potentially lower the health care costs for their employees and themselves.

Healthy onsite snacks.

No matter our age, we all welcome convenience, especially if we’re bouncing from meeting to meeting or work in an industry where we have strict limits on break and lunch time. If there’s sugar-filled soda, candy bars and chips in our break rooms and vending machines, guess what?

Your employees will eat them.

Consider providing fruit, vegetables, nuts and other healthier snacks that will fuel your employees’ minds and bodies when hunger strikes.

Similar to the on-site gym dilemma, access and availability are key factors in making healthy decisions.

Financial planning resources.

According to a 2019 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey External Site, 59 percent of employees list finances as a top cause of stress.

And, with millennials having graduated from college fairly recently, they’re more likely to need assistance in navigating student (and other) debt, prioritizing bills, and improving spending, saving and investing habits.

According to SHRM, only 1 in 4 of businesses currently offer financial/investment advice, either online, one-on-one or in a large group setting. Something as simple as inviting a financial planner on-site a few times a year could go a long way to getting your millennial employees on the right track toward financial success.

Pet-friendly offices or pet insurance.

Yes, you read that right. Your employees — 15 percent of them — want their pets to come to work with them . And, if that’s not possible they’re seeking out companies who offer pet insurance.

The traditional family is being reinvented by the millennial generation and some are choosing to have “fur babies” instead of children. That’s why companies are beginning to offer pet-friendly policies.

Download your free e-book: Millennials in Your Workplace

Millennials are coming into the workplace full speed ahead. By 2025, millennials will make up 75 percent of the workforce. While this generation comes with open minds, a desire to succeed and grow, and insights into the latest technologies, the problem for employers is that 1 in 3 millennials have a health condition impacting their overall quality of life.

It doesn’t stop there. Only 68 percent of millennials have a primary care provider (PCP) compared to 91 percent of Generation X. When your employees aren’t healthy, health care costs will continue to rise and productivity will decrease, all of which impact your bottom line.

When you download your free copy of Millennials in Your Workplace Opens in a new window, you can take advantage of extensive research, in-house data and subject matter experts to create sustainable, long-term changes in your workplace today.

Questions? Contact your authorized Wellmark account representative, or email us at blueatwork@wellmark.com Send Email.