Did employee benefit literacy improve in 2022? Short answer: No. Longer answer: HR can drive success through their program using a personalized approach. 

Year after year, one of the most consistent takeaways from our Benefits Insights Report is that employees are confused about their benefits. In 2022, that remained the case. 85% of employees said they’re confused about their benefits. 

Benefits confusion undoubtedly contributes to more than 60% of employees being “over-insured.” A costly issue for employees and employers alike.

But don’t mistake employees’ confusion for disinterest in learning to make their benefits work better for themselves and their families. Employees are willing to do their part for a better experience. Our data shows that when personalization is in play, such as decision support and email communications, employees are more likely to elect right-fit-for-them benefits and make better use of their total rewards throughout the year.  

Start your employees on the right foot with decision support. 

While it only takes employees 15 minutes to enroll each year, their choices significantly impact both their bottom line and their employers. To help employees avoid being “over-insured,” consider offering decision support to help guide them toward the optimal plan based on their financial, health, and emotional needs. 

Right-fit plan options will look different for each employee based on their needs, but those options tend to also be the most cost-effective options available to them through their employer. Businessolver data shows that employees are three times more likely to elect a cost-effective health plan and savings vehicle when they have decision support at enrollment. 

Beyond helping employees enroll in the right-fit plan for themselves, decision support also drives participation in ancillary and voluntary benefits. Empathetic benefits like accident, critical illness, and others often go underutilized, but the data shows that decision support helps employees make use of some of your most important offerings. 

• Of the 71% of Businessolver clients who offer Accident insurance, those without decision support saw only 21% enroll. Clients with decision support saw that number double, with 43% of employees enrolling. 

• 46% of Businessolver clients offered a health savings account (HSA). Clients without decision support saw 23% of employees enroll, whereas clients with decision support saw 35% of employees enroll. 

Keep pace with year-round, personalized engagement. 

We’ve established how to support employees during the 15-minute enrollment window, but supporting employees year-round is a different challenge requiring new solutions. For starters, today’s employees expect consumer experiences that reflect what they see in their everyday lives. They want an integrated, online experience that’s personalized and built for them to self-service. 

Artificial intelligence is one way to help employees’ self-service. Sofia, Benefitsolver’s personal benefits assistant, took 2.1 million chats in 2022, totaling 90% of all inbound chat support requests. With Sofia, members have no wait time and instant answers. When members reach out, we respond quickly with the correct information. 

But when they’re not reaching out with questions, we can still help them activate benefits and point solutions available to them in a moment of need. Naturally, employees are more likely to engage with a benefit when they see it at a relevant time. With what we call “impressions” or reminders, we can reach employees with the right message at the right time. 

After just one year of tracking impression-to-activation behavior, Businessolver data shows a 17% unique engagement rate (meaning click or call) when employees are served up personalized information within their benefits experience (e.g., reminding eligible employees about relevant point solutions such as telemedicine and ancillary benefits like hospital indemnity). 

Check out the Benefits Insights Report to learn more about benefit strategies in 2023 and better understand what employees want from their benefits.