Voluntary Employee Benefits
What are Voluntary Benefits?
Voluntary benefits offer valuable coverage for health and wellbeing, financial wellbeing and personal protection.
Voluntary benefits can help offset out-of-pocket medical costs, fill in the gaps in the event of death or
disability, or protect from identity theft or legal vulnerability. They are an effective way to support the varying needs of your employees by reducing the financial and emotional burden that can be caused by various life events.
A well-rounded benefit package cannot be
complete without additional health, life, disability and financial portfolio products. Aon’s Consumer Benefit Solutions provides
employees convenient access to purchase valuable coverage through a trusted source while improving the employer's
overall healthcare strategy.
Why are Voluntary Benefits Important?
Aon's Voluntary Benefits Solution offers key risk protection products to provide employees with financial relief, support, and management of unexpected events.
By offering employees personalized voluntary benefits solutions to complement core benefits, employers can provide employees and their families the reassurance they need during times of hardship. Voluntary benefits can help alleviate the financial burden of an unexpected event that can negatively impact an employee’s health and wellbeing, while also ensuring they can access adequate care and support, providing them peace of mind.
A foundational driver for employee satisfaction is pay and benefits. As competition for talent increases, competitive benefits become a main factor for attracting and retaining talent. Voluntary benefits have become an integral component of an employer’s benefits package. They improve the employee benefit offering with no direct cost, help employees offset increasing healthcare costs, give employees the ability to customize their protection, and financially assist employees with direct and indirect medical expenses. All of these result in improvements in employee recruitment and retention.
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Health and Wellbeing
AccidentCash benefit paid for covered accidents or injuries to help pay out-of-pocket expenses.
Critical IllnessAdditional coverage for medical emergencies like heart attacks, strokes, or cancer.
Hospital IndemnityPays for accident and sickness upon confinement in a hospital—includes pregnancy.
Caregiver AssistanceEquipping family caregivers with the resources they need.
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Financial Wellbeing
DisabilityProvides income if you become disabled and unable to work due to a covered injury or illness.
Life InsuranceGuaranteed benefit after death, combined with long term care benefits.
Student Loan AssistanceExpert-created plan to tackle student loans.
Purchasing ProgramShop online and pay overtime through payroll deduction—no credit checks, credit card debt or interest.
Discount ProgramsOnline access to exclusive discounts on goods and services.
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Personal Protection
Identity TheftProactive monitoring to help stop fraud at its earliest sign and enables quick restoration.
Legal InsuranceExpert legal advice and support, relieving emotional and financial distress.
Auto/Home & RentersCompare plans and rates with additional savings through bundling and other discounts.
Pet InsuranceDiscounted plans that help cover the costs for injuries, illnesses and preventative care.
64%
of companies surveyed offer paid voluntary supplemental health plans to support financial wellbeing, while an additional 11 percent are considering adding this.
Source: Aon’s 2024 U.S. Health Survey
How Aon Can Help
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Better Benefits Strategy
Aon’s proprietary value-based plan analysis weighs price, plan design and population health when recommending which products to implement. We compare a variety of factors to accurately assess your plan’s competitiveness and identify areas for improved coverage and cost.
Aon’s best-in-class selection of products, providers and services will effectively align with and support your organization’s human resources and employee benefits strategies and goals. -
Better Broking
As the market leader in the voluntary benefits space, Aon is constantly first to market with innovative, industry-shaping ideas and solutions. Aon has a Structured Portfolio Solutions (SPS) panel for voluntary benefits product portfolios that is unique to the industry. Carriers are thoroughly vetted and have committed to market-leading coverage enhancements, terms, and conditions, thereby offering greater value exclusively for Aon clients and their participating employees. Aon’s streamlined broking process provides clients with an efficient analysis of available carriers and coverage options.
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Better Year-Round Support
Aon’s Everyday Premium Administration platform makes it easy for our clients to offer a suite of voluntary benefits by managing the ongoing administration and premium reconciliation. Our one-call concierge solution supports employee education on voluntary plans, assists with enrollments, answers any questions, makes changes to existing policies and assists with claims processing.
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Better Education and Enrollment
In addition to providing desired supplemental benefit options to employees, Aon can help employers implement effective education and enrollment strategies for all employee benefits to serve diverse, multi-generational employee populations – ensuring employees make confident benefit decisions. This will in turn support recruitment and retention across the workforce.
68%
of employers say they offer voluntary or supplemental health plans to meet the diverse needs of their workforce and provide expanded benefit coverage options.
Source: Aon’s 2024 U.S. Health Survey
Article
How to Make the Most of Voluntary Benefit Plans in the U.S.
As healthcare costs rise, voluntary benefits are a critical component of engaging employees, while also helping to manage direct and indirect medical expenses. Here are three strategies for employers to make the most of their voluntary benefits.
