U.S. companies still see healthcare benefits as an integral part of their attraction and retention strategy and are recruiting staff in the effort to improve workforce health programs and control costs, a recent survey reveals.
Towers Perrin’s poll of close to 500 HR and benefits executives found that new approaches are being pursued in the effort to improve healthcare and rein in skyrocketing costs.
“Employers recognize that we can’t keep doing the same things and expect different results,” says Dave Guilmette, managing director with Towers Perrin’s health and welfare practice. “So we’re beginning to see leading companies taking steps to change the system from the inside out, focusing on new benefit designs, incentives for employees and providers, new technologies and new ways to measure and deliver the value of workforce health.”
Many respondents see the current economic crisis as an opportunity, with more than half (53%) trying or considering new benefit strategies they would not have considered otherwise. Almost three-quarters (70%) of employers are increasing communication to address employee concerns, and more than half (57%) said they are not cutting back on investments in benefits communication and education.
The survey also found that 50% of companies have introduced or will introduce or increase investments in wellness and health promotion in 2009 and 2010, and 41% have introduced or will introduce or increase investments in care/disease management programs.
Many employers are upping incentives to ensure that their employees will participate in the programs, with 32% of respondents planning to introduce or increase financial incentives for wellness or health-promotion activities in 2009 and 2010, while another 30% are considering this action. Conversely, employers are also getting tougher on employees who opt out, with 45% of respondents introducing or increasing penalties for non-participation in wellness or health-promotion activities.
“In previous economic downturns, investments in benefits communication and employee wellness were among the first to get cut from a benefits program,” says Guilmette. “The firm commitment to, and increasing investment in, employee wellness we’re seeing today shows that more employers are beginning to recognize the long-term financial benefit and business advantage they can achieve by improving the health of their employees.”
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