According to The Growing Importance of the Workplace, a recent study of healthcare benefits provided by employers, 80 percent of workers believe the workplace is an important source of personal insurance.
When enrolling in benefits and insurance programs, employees reportedly spend the most time looking at healthcare benefits, and significantly less time on disability or long-term care coverage.
According to the group which conducted the survey, employees may not spend enough time considering their long-term financial needs and using resources such as calculators and online tools to make informed choices. Nearly 70 percent indicated they made little effort annually when choosing their benefits.
The most-used methods of communicating benefit choices to employees were workplace emails, meetings during the work day and mail to employees' homes. Researchers noted workers are attempting to balance long-term planning with more immediate financial needs, which may be growing more difficult due to the increasing expense of coverage.
The study also found more than 80 percent of respondents signed up for healthcare coverage and two-thirds secured disability insurance, although less than one quarter purchased long-term care benefits.
