Talent infrastructure of the future

The pandemic has brought to fore the unquestionable interrelation between work and life, and has shown that most of the current talent care infrastructure is broken. In the aftermath, employee quit rates have gone through the roof. The Great Resignation wave only grew bigger when the US employers denied employee benefit facilities amidst the Covid-19 crisis. Employee burnout rates have worsened over the course of the pandemic. What was once a phenomenon that strictly affected millennials, started to become more pervasive and afflicted workers of all ages and types. As a result of the stress, the turnover rate from voluntary resignation is peaking as many employees are looking for better work and pay conditions.   

This wave of resignations has led to a severe talent crisis in companies. Several corporations have started to realize that they need to do much more for employee benefit than what they have been traditionally doing. To mitigate the situation, employers are trying to come up with creative ways to retain and pull in talent. Case in point being BharatPe, that was offering Superbikes or Premium gadgets to its new tech team joinees. The entire staff had also been wooed as employee appraisals were preponed. With more new entrants coming into the workforce, the perception and execution of the employee benefits industry is expected to see a dramatic change in the coming years. 

Reimagining the role of employee benefits

So far, employee benefits traditionally comprised a few major components like life insurance, medical insurance, maternity leave, disability insurance and retirement plans. However, as workspaces are becoming remote, HR teams are adapting to latest and emerging technology and employee management trends.  Amidst this shift, the employer-employee relationship dynamics is also evolving. Talent benefits are not only being revised, but are taking center stage. 

What is changing?

A recent survey conducted by Indeed suggests that 27% of the respondents have been struggling to find a work-life balance and end up working extra hours every day. Almost 33% burnouts were caused by financial stress and 25% due to health concerns. As a result, both employers and employees are looking at holistic work cultures that view the employee as a person rather than mere worker.

As a part of an overall work experience, employees today expect employers to take care of various aspects of their life, including health, finance, work-life flexibility, mental health, paid time-offs, vacation time, remote work convenience, employee discounts, vision insurance, child-care help, nutrition counseling etc. This has nudged organisations to adopt a holistic approach and make their benefits infrastructure more inclusive and attuned to the diverse employee requirements. 

How is it changing?

Considering that the pandemic is far from over, key aspects like medical and financial benefits are becoming the focus. Several companies today have already renewed and extended their medical insurance coverage to support both the employees and their dependents. To offer financial security to the sales workforce, incentive models have been redesigned, making sure that there are no undue incentive deductions. 

Companies on a pan-India level are implementing employee counseling programs to help them with psychological stress and anxieties due to covid and other related issues. NEC Corp., for instance, has introduced a five-day “rejuvenation leave” policy in addition to the regular holidays. Hershey has also given additional downtime, even for its factory floor workforce. Other organizations have modified perks to align with the work-from-home lifestyle of their white collar employees. 

Significant trends are emerging in the employee benefits space and the transformation to these new-age benefits are being propelled by technology. Let’s peek into some of the existing and upcoming benefits trends. 

Notable emerging spaces in the benefits infrastructure

1. EAPs (Employee Assistance Programs)

In today’s highly connected corporate world, employees have a tough time unplugging from work. Increased work pressure and lack of a proper downtime can eventually drain them. As a solution to this, several companies are installing employee assistance programs to enhance employee productivity, lower turnover rates and build an influential organizational culture.  

EAPs are consulting programs to help employees handle the problems that are impacting their job. Assistance may include a variety of things like performance boost, financial help, mental health issues, developing work relationships, help with elder care, substance abuse etc. These programs are based on three main features: 

• Accessibility (with live counselors)
• Availability (24/7 availability and program eligibility extending to family members)
• Confidentiality and Anonymity (helps employees stay anonymous, thus maintaining confidentiality which in turn becomes a driving factor for them to join these programs)

With EAPs the staff absenteeism reduces as they become more motivated to work, which then translates into better ROI for the company. 

2. Mental health solutions

In 2021, Indian startups with mental health and wellness focus received an all-time high investment, compared to the last decade. Due to the social taboo surrounding mental health, investors in India used to be skeptical about the scalability of these startups. However, the scenario is rapidly changing. Companies like Ultrahuman, Inner House and Whysa are counted among the top mental health management services in the country. The pandemic has clearly accelerated employee demands for technology driven mental health solutions, causing more mental wellness tech startups to emerge within the Indian startup ecosystem. 

Even though this sector is still at its nascent stage in India, with better investments, there is huge scope for introducing new models, apart from therapy. 

3. EWA for financial wellbeing

Earned wage access (EWA) is defined as instant or on-demand pay. It is a payroll scheme that allows employees to readily access their daily income as soon as they earn it. As employers are undertaking innovative solutions in response to employee needs, EWA has emerged as the most obvious choice to address financial distress. 

A majority of country’s employees face financial shortfalls between paychecks. Lack of instant access to liquidity during emergencies leaves susceptible to debt traps. Companies are empathizing with the fact that financial stress can lead to reduced productivity. That is why they are going one step further and ensuring the financial well being of their employees.

Platforms like Jify are designed to collaborate with the employers to help them implement EWA easily. Employers can leverage this by installing this integrated solution to merge with their existing payroll. 

Jify addresses multiple financial needs of employees:

• Access to Money: Through earned wage access
• Spends Management: Jify prepaid card helps employees save as they spend. Using this card they can spend smarter by creating budgets and tracking expenses - with that a cope to earn cashbacks, rewards and more benefits. 
• Building Wealth: A way to enhance financial awareness and educate the workforce to build financial wealth.

Visibility into everyday rewards encourages motivation and productivity at work.  Moreover, EWA reduces financial stress, the rate of staff turnover and helps employees establish trust in their organization. 

4. Off-beat benefits

Companies are also implementing benefits like student loan repayments which will hugely appeal to the country’s increasing millennial workforce. Some employers are also coming up with health insurance for pets, which was previously treated as a casualty form of insurance. 

Final Thoughts 

It is evident that we are headed towards a new era of employee benefits, across industries. Employers today have a major role to play in building financial security for their manpower. 

For the employer, the goal is not only to offer improved benefit plans to attract new talent, but to also provide value & motivation to the existing employees. In the future, we are going to witness a rapid emergence of “employee benefit centric startups” as more companies focus on better engaging their talent.