Employers View Workforce Well-Being as Key to Strategy

Despite continuing economic pressures, many employers expect to boost employee wellness benefits to salve the physical and mental toll the COVID-19 pandemic caused the workforce, a new survey from Fidelity Investments and Business Group on Health found.

The focus on employee wellness includes employers saying they will return many of the on-site programs taken away during the pandemic, including things like meditation classes and yoga, according to an annual Employer-Sponsored Health & Well-Being Survey, by Fidelity Investments and Business Group on Health.

“Employees today are looking to employers for support as they navigate work and life in a post-pandemic world,” Robert Kennedy, health and welfare practice leader at Fidelity Workplace consulting, said in a press release with the survey findings. “We are so encouraged to see employers around the globe continue to invest in and evolve their well-being programs, meeting employees exactly where they are and providing them with much-needed support.”

Companies of every size have taken an expanded view of workforce well-being, seeing it as a key part of their overall workforce strategy. Ninety percent of employers stated that the current economic environment would not lead to a reduction in their investment in well-being, and another 31% said they plan to increase investment in employee wellness.

Lifestyle Lift

Employers also plan to drive well-being increases through financial incentives and lifestyle spending accounts, which are employer-funded post-tax accounts providing employees with a fixed amount to spend on various well-being resources.

Overall, 73% of employers offer financial incentives to reward positive well-being actions in 2023, compared to 68% in 2022, the survey found. More than half of employers (52%) plan to deliver financial incentives using gift cards or other cash equivalents, with health reimbursement arrangement and health savings account funding as the next most common incentive at 40%, the data shows. On average, employers provided an incentive of $716 per employee, down from 13% last year; and for spouses/partners, the average incentive amount was $662 per employee, an increase of 3% from last year, the survey found.

In 2023, 8% of employers introduced LSA programs; another 35% said they would consider doing so next year, the survey finds. 

High-deductible health plans are often paired with health savings accounts as an additional workplace benefit for employees. Assets in health savings accounts continue to rise year-over-year, growing to reach a landmark $100 billion threshold last year, according to research from HSA consultant Devenir Group LLC.

Contributions to HSAs decreased because of the effect of the pandemic, the Employee Benefit Retirement Institute reported in 2021.

Respondents forecast additional growth of incentives in the next three to five years. About 43% of respondents plan to expand their investment and 35% will maintain their incentive funding through 2026-2028, the survey found.

Three-quarters of employers 74% of employers plan to expand resources for employees’ mental health; financial wellness and well-being, 53%; work and life balance, 52%; and physical health initiatives, 50%, the survey found.

“Employers are well-aware of the essential relationship between more sustainable workforces and robust well-being strategies,” Ellen Kelsay, president and CEO of Business Group on Health, states in the press release. “It’s exciting to watch major employers demonstrate their commitment to employees by growing their well-being initiatives.”

Addressing An ‘Epidemic’

Mental health is a key focus area for employers to boost well-being by addressing employees social needs, according to Fidelity and the Business Group. The survey found that 82% of employers plan to focus on social connectedness, up from 70%  in 2022; 79% plan to focus on community, up from 67% in 2022.

In terms of on-site wellness classes, 61% of employers expect yoga or meditation classes will return, up from 22% in 2022; 60% say fitness classes, up from 25% in 2022; 62% onsite health fairs, up from 6% in 2022; and 35% expect onsite counseling or therapy, up from 18% in 2022.

Creeping loneliness and growing social isolation stemming in part from the pandemic is getting further attention nationally.

Surgeon General Vivek Murthy published on May 3 a surgeon general advisory calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation and lack of connection in the United States.  

“The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity,” Murthy wrote in a letter from the surgeon general to introduce a research report entitled “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation.”   

The 14th Annual Employer-Sponsored Health & Well-being Survey from Fidelity Investments and Business Group on Health included responses from 184 employers of different sizes. The online survey was fielded in December 2022 and January 2023 among Business Group on Health members and clients of Fidelity Investments.