Keeping Up with the Growth of Voluntary Employee Benefits

Over the last 20 years, the availability of voluntary benefits has grown from an anomaly to a strategy for the majority of employers. According Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc., 54 percent of all employers provided at least one voluntary benefit in 2006. Six years later, that percentage has grown to 77 percent. For Eastbridge, the definition of voluntary benefits only includes life and health benefits where the employee pays 100 percent of the premiums through payroll deduction and there is no direct contribution by the employer. In the 25 years Eastbridge has followed voluntary benefits trends, life and disability insurance remain the first and second most popular products.

But, people like Mike Zarrillo, Vice President of Voluntary Benefits and Business Development for AIG Benefit Solutions, believe an employer's voluntary benefits strategy can go beyond the Eastbridge classification. Zarrillo sees two other categories gaining in popularity in the workplace: value-added benefits such as legal services and pet, home and auto insurance; and "beyond-value-added benefits" that play on the concept of consumerism at work. He's watched some companies give employees access to home-protection products and even home appliance purchases that the employee buys via payroll deduction.

So, if you want to learn more about voluntary benefits and how they may manifest in your workplace, join us as we talk with Mike Zarrillo about the changing landscape of employee benefits.