Online administration capabilities are important when selecting a voluntary carrier across all employer sizes and industries, finds Eastbridge Consulting Group

AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (July 13, 2021)

Carrier-provided online administration capabilities continue to be very important to employers of all sizes and industries, according to the report MarketVision™— The Employer Viewpoint: Breaking Out Employer Demographics for the Voluntary/Worksite. The percentage of employers that think having online administration is not important is overall very low: the weighted average across all employer sizes is only 4%. There was little variation across all employer segments, which ranged from 1% to 8%. By industry, none of the Health Care employers surveyed say online administration is not important. However, online administrative services for voluntary are more of an influencer than a deal-breaker for employers in the Personal Services, Construction, Manufacturing, Finance/Insurance/Real Estate, and Health Care industries. Other findings from the report include:

• The larger the employer, the more likely it currently offers one or more of the following benefits: telemedicine, financial wellness education and tools, purchasing program, student loan programs, and genetic/DNA testing. Smaller employers are just as likely as large employers to plan to add one or more of the these benefits to their benefit offering in the next one to two years.
• While the majority (63%) of the smallest employers (10-49 employees) use multiple voluntary carriers, they do so at a much lower rate than all other employer sizes: 37% of employers with 10–49 employees use only one carrier, compared to 13% of employers with 2,500–9,999 employees and 11% of employers with 10,000+ employees.
• Price and value of the products offered are most important to employers when choosing a voluntary carrier in the Education and Finance/Insurance/Real Estate industries, while ease of administration is the top reason for Health Care and Retail/Wholesale Trade employers.

Other topics in the report that are segmented by employer size and industry include:

• Reasons and preferences for offering voluntary products. 
• Enrollment, education and communication methods and preferences. 
• Administration preferences and use of benefit administration systems. 

Eastbridge’s biannual MarketVision™—The Employer Viewpoint study tracks the needs, wants and expectations of one of the market’s key stakeholder groups: employers. This segmentation analysis report delves into the 2020 MarketVision™ report findings to identify how employer benefit offerings, needs and attitudes vary by employer size and industry.

Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. is a marketing advisory firm serving companies focused on the voluntary/worksite benefits market in the United States and Canada.