Employers are spending more on health and wellness benefits while decreasing the amount of spending on other types of benefits. According to the Society of Human Resource Management's (SHRM) 2014 Employee Benefits report, 28% of employers have increased the benefits they have offered to employees in the last year. Employers are finding it crucial to maintain or increase key benefits in areas where costs are rising - which has mainly been healthcare and wellness. And decrease benefits like undergraduate tuition, personal car use for business purposes reimbursements, and long-term care insurance.
Five-year trends have shown that healthcare costs have shifted away from the employer and more onto the employee. With that shift, more companies are offering health savings' accounts (HSAs) and contributing to them as well. This year 45% of employers will be offering HSAs, up from 33% in 2010, and 32% of companies will be contributing to HSAs, which more than doubles company contribution up from 15% in 2010.
Employers are spending more on preventative healthcare efforts such as incentive programs for completing health and wellness programs, smoking cessation, and premium discounts for health-risk assessments. These preventative programs can take up to 5 years before the employer can see a difference, but every health and wellness program has shown a return on investment.
Read the full 2014 Society for Human Resource Management's employee benefits report here!
