COVID-19 has changed many things in America during the past two and a half years. Among them are changing worker attitudes relating to employee benefits, especially supplemental health insurance benefits.
As reported by Employee Benefit News (EBN) in November, 2021, and based on last year’s MetLife Annual Employee Benefits Trends Study, more than half (57%) of employees want benefits not currently being offered by their employers.
More challenging for business owners and benefits managers is a statistic from a survey by Workhuman, also mentioned in the EBN article. Nearly two-thirds of employees (63%) would quit if another employer offered them better benefits, but with less or equal pay.
In a tight labor market, if you offer your employees ways to customize their employee benefits, that can help you attract and retain top talent. It was reported in May 2022 that some 4.5 million Americans quit or changed jobs in March – matching previous highs.
Ancillary and Voluntary Products
Ancillary and Voluntary benefits are increasingly popular. BenefitsPRO said in an April 21, 2022, article that Voluntary benefits were upended by the pandemic, with Aon finding a 41% increase in voluntary benefits availability between 2021 and 2022.
What Is Ancillary Insurance?
Ancillary coverages include Dental, Vision, and Life as well as Accident, Critical Illness, Hospital Indemnity, Disability, and other secondary or health-supplemental coverage. Sometimes these are sponsored by an employer, sometimes they are entirely voluntary.
The 2022 BenefitsPRO/Eastbridge Consulting Group survey of Voluntary Benefits producers includes these key findings:
-Many brokers reported higher sales in 2021 as compared to 2020.
-Both quote and enrollment activity increased in this period.
-Familiar insurance choices continue to rank among the most popular.
-COVID-19 is still impacting business for brokers.
-Enrollment methods have changed – and likely will never go back to pre-pandemic ways.
-Participation rates were affected positively in 2021.
-Brokers are optimistic about clients’ and employees’ future receptivity toward voluntary during the next year.
Eastbridge says its broker survey found these were the top five products sold in 2021:
| Among Benefits Brokers | Among Voluntary Brokers |
| Dental | Accidental Injury |
| Accidental Injury | Critical Illness |
| Short-Term Disability | Hospital Indemnity/Supplemental Medical |
| Critical Illness | Short-Term Disability |
| Term Life | Universal Life/Whole Life |
Forty percent of brokers say, “COVID-19 is helping me in that people realize they need the benefits I offer”; however, 44% say, “Work-from-home is still prevalent and causing challenges for educating and enrolling employees.”
The results of MetLife’s 20th Annual U.S. Employee Benefit Trends Study 2022 found employees consider many Ancillary benefits to be “must have” or “nice to have.” Beyond Health Insurance, the most-desired insured benefits are:
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Disability Insurance
- Critical Illness
- Accident Insurance
- Hospital Indemnity
- Cancer Insurance
Word & Brown Products & Services
Word & Brown works with a variety of carriers and administrators to offer Ancillary coverages as well as Voluntary and Worksite products and services. You can see lists, organized by state and coverage type, on our website. Or, you can visit our Ancillary page. You can also learn more by talking with your Word & Brown representative.
If you’re not already doing business with Word & Brown, contact our headquarters and we’ll put you in touch with one of our sales experts in your region. We have representatives throughout California and Nevada. Call us today at 800-869-6989.
