As we enter the last full month of summer, many employers are already working to develop their benefits programs for 2025. Creating a benefits plan that pleases everyone, especially in a diverse workforce, can seem impossible. To be successful, it is vital to identify which types of benefits various employee groups require. The secret to a successful scheme is asking the right questions that engage employees and meet their needs.
What Are Targeted Questions?
Employers need to ask workers what benefits they want. Targeted questions should aim to extract specific needs or circumstances that provide insight into needs and preferences. This also helps HR learn where improvements can be made when devising benefit programs and enrollment processes.
How To Ask: Online Surveys, Focus Groups, and Meetings
Benefits discussions can be sensitive topics, so you must choose methods carefully. Online surveys work well because participants can remain anonymous, and the results are easy to track and analyze. On more general issues such as enrollment, focus groups and meetings can be an effective environment for employees to voice their ideas and learn about each other’s preferences.
8 Fundamental Questions To Help Shape Your Benefits Package
1. Healthcare Utilization
How often did you visit your primary care doctor this year?
The number of primary care visits may indicate the overall status of workforce health and uncover the need for better preventive care or health improvement programs. It’s also helpful to ask about visits to medical specialists to identify any gaps in insurance coverage.
2. Insurance Plan Preferences
Which insurance plans have you signed up for?
Do your employees tend to select High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) with a Health Savings Account? Or do they prefer plans with lower deductibles? This question can illuminate whether cost or coverage is the more significant issue. A good follow-up question is, “How well did your selected plan meet your needs?”
3. Future Healthcare Needs
What do you expect your health requirements to be next year?
This answer helps to determine what employees may need beyond essential primary care medical services. For example:
- Are employees starting families?
- Do their children need braces?
- Is someone looking at a major surgery?
- Does an aging parent require long-term care?
Answers like these can help you include appropriate types of benefit accounts. For example, Dependent Care Assistance Plans are great for employees with dependent children or parents who need care. Flexible Spending Accounts, Health Reimbursement Arrangements, and HSAs are excellent benefits for covering out-of-pocket healthcare costs.
4. Supplemental Benefits
Have you taken any of our supplementary benefits?
Once you’ve addressed core medical, dental, vision, and retirement offerings, benefits packages may include adoption assistance, life insurance, pet insurance, student loan repayment assistance, family leave, and more. This question will help identify which supplementary benefits are considered the most helpful. Employers may also ask about supplemental benefits, not in the program that employees would like.
5. Financial Challenges
What are your highest expenses beyond basic living expenses?
Employees’ wages should sufficiently cover daily living expenses. However, they may struggle to cover additional expenses like student loan debt or care for a special-needs dependent. By understanding these financial challenges, employers can identify high-impact opportunities to support workers in non-medical ways.
6. Plan Satisfaction
How would you rate our company’s current benefits plan?
List all your benefits and ask employees to rate them on a scale. Be sure to include an N/A option for employees who have yet to enroll. Also, provide space for employee comments or questions.
7. Benefits Comprehension
How well do you understand each benefit offered?
Many employees don’t take full advantage of benefit plans because they don’t understand them. Again, ask employees to rank their level of comprehension on a scale system, leaving space for comments and questions.
8. Enrollment Process Feedback
How did we perform during enrollment?
Many employees need help understanding open enrollment time frames, benefit choices, and other factors. After each enrollment period, ask questions like:
- Are you satisfied with the choices you made during open enrollment?
- Did you have time and information to make good decisions about your benefits?
- What did you find challenging about the enrollment process?
- What other information could we have provided to make open enrollment easier?
- Which benefits would you like to see added to next year’s plan?
Employers spend considerable expense creating an employee benefits package that simultaneously meets the needs of their employees and their business. Asking the right questions in advance can increase employee satisfaction and employer return on investment.