Employee benefits trends and prevalence

The Society for Human Resource management, sponsored by Colonial Life, recently released a report on employee benefits in American companies. This information is important to consider for employee benefits administration professionals - recruitment and retention efforts may suffer if a company fails to offer benefits workers may have come to expect. Additionally, an understanding of current industry trends is important for every profession.

An idea of which employee benefits tend to be standard can help a company excel in retention and hiring of top talent, whether as permanent or temporary workers. Human resources administration often involves choosing and running particular benefit programs for precisely this reason.

The report's findings include:

• More than half of companies surveyed offered flex time. Half offered it during core business hours, while 26 percent also extended the opportunity to employees outside of these hours.
• Fifty-eight percent of employers were open to their employees telecommuting.
• Over the past few years, the number of employers that offer wellness-related benefits to their workers in addition to traditional health insurance has increased.
• Seventy-seven percent of employers offer an employee assistance program that provides confidential mental health counseling.