HR Benefit Trends for 2024

8 Benefit Trends for 2024 from HR Executive

As employers look ahead to 2024, the labor market doesn’t appear to be easing much, meaning talent acquisition and retention won’t get any easier for HR leaders.

From mental health and financial wellness to covering menopause benefits and weight loss drugs, both familiar and emerging benefits will remain critical to HR strategy, says Julie Stich, vice president of content at the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

HR Executive lays out 8 benefit trends that HR is going to be focusing on in 2024:

• Caregiving benefits

• Menopause benefits

• Weight Loss drug coverage

• Personalized benefits

• Precision medicine

• Family forming benefits

• Mental health benefits

• Financial Wellness benefits

“If you’ve got people who are productive and they’re skilled and bring the skills you need and want, you’ll want to keep them—and benefits is one way to do that,” Stich tells HRE.

Inflation-Driven Cost Control Strategies

In Goldman Sachs annual analysis, they lay out benefit and compensation trends from 2023. The primary focus of their findings highlights the importance of Inflation Driven Cost Control in this past year, and provides strategies to combat this challenge.

One of the top strategies from companies that Goldman Sachs identified is prioritizing caregiving and family planning benefits. These family centric benefits are no longer seen as just a “nice to have”, and are instrumental in attracting and retaining talent.

This study shows that child- and elder-care assistance benefits are the top-growing programs (up 177%) at corporate partners in the last three years. These benefits include sitters, nannies, tutors, elder-care resources and college coaching.

Caregiving leave is also expanding into other areas of life such as parental leave, sabbatical leave, and bereavement leave.

Caregivers Are Facing Unprecedented Challenges, Impacting Their Wellbeing

A 2023 study by Guardian Life Insurance Company shows that caregivers self-report significantly lower mental, physical, and financial well-being scores than their non-caregiver counterparts.

Not only are more working Americans taking on caregiving duties, they are also dedicating more time to caregiving—up to three times more. In 2023, for example, caregivers spent an average of 26 hours per week providing care, up from an average of nine hours in 2020.”

“When looking at mental health specifically, 77% of caregivers say they have poor mental health, with 40% noting that their caregiving responsibilities negatively impact their stress levels. In fact, caregivers are 52% more likely to experience anxiety, depression, or other mental health conditions as compared to non-caregivers.” Additionally, only ¼ report being in good physical health, and 40% state their caregiving responsibilities threaten their financial security.

Mental Health Crisis Among Caregivers

In a recent New York Life survey, nearly half of surveyed workers helped a loved one live with a mental health challenge in the last year.  Of this group, a significant number say their loved one is struggling with their mental health more often this year than in the previous year, and most say they've helped a member of their household with anxiety in the past year. This data suggests that mental health is likely to remain a primary caregiving driver.

Nearly half of caregivers (46%) say they aren’t performing their best. While at work, they report feeling distracted and overwhelmed, lacking motivation, and having difficulty thinking.

A Family Care Benefit eases stress and promotes positive mental health by solving childcare and eldercare challenges. Reach out if you’d like to receive ROI data.

Employees Concerned Over Care for Older Adults

Rising Care Costs Push Older Adults Towards Financial Hardship

With the U.S. lacking a coherent long-term care system, employees are struggling to help cover their parents or in-laws expenses as the population of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase by over 50% by 2050 (Kaiser Family Fund & New York Times “Dying Broke” Series, 2023).

The escalating costs of in-home care, assisted living, and nursing homes are pushing millions of Americans, particularly the baby boomer generation, toward potential financial ruin.

As both the age of adults in the U.S., and the cost of care rise exponentially, many families are left without a solution. “We just don’t value elders the way that other countries and other cultures do,” said Rachel Werner, executive director of the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics at the University of Pennsylvania. “We don’t have a financing and insurance system for long-term care,” she said. “There isn’t the political will to spend that much money.”

While Medicaid remains the primary safety net for long-term care, qualifying for it can be challenging, and the labor shortages in caregiving exacerbate the problem.

Ways & Wane saved one employee over $40,000 last year as he cared for his mother. We helped him qualify for utility assistance, 20 hours per week of in-home caregiver assistance and saved him attorney fees on advance directives. A Family Care Benefit reduces financial stress with real savings, allowing employees to focus on their work.

Ways & Wane solves family care challenges for busy professionals

Offered as an employer-paid benefit, Ways & Wane solves eldercare and childcare challenges, no matter where employees live. [email protected]