Using Data and Design To Increase Equity in Employee Financial Health

There are important relationships between these areas of data collection. For example, discovering that some employees are not aware of certain benefits may help explain low utilization trends. If employees are aware of a benefit to which they have access but aren’t utilizing, perhaps the benefit is not adequately designed to meet their needs. Leveraging data across these areas will build a compelling narrative to evolve toward more equitable benefits practices. 

Sources of Data

Once a company determines what kind of data it wants to collect and why, it must determine from where, and how, it will collect said data. 

Effectively using data to achieve equity goals requires planning and intention. Given the myriad sources, it is important to understand how best to collect and leverage different types of data. Whether using internal surveys, in-person dialogue, or data derived from external vendor partners, there are important considerations HR teams must take into account when reflecting on their organizations’ equity and inclusion objectives. Below are recommendations on how to leverage different data sources to achieve more equitable outcomes:

Internal Data Sources

Quantitative: Well-designed surveys help employers understand employee preferences and awareness levels, effective communication channels, and adequacy of benefits to meet employee needs. When considering using survey data to further equity objectives, employers must take care to:

• • Protect employee anonymity. When disaggregating survey data, analyze data in groups of no fewer than 5-10 employees (depending on company size) to avoid identifying any individual.
  • Create an environment in which employees feel safe to respond honestly. Explain how the company will collect and use data, and that responses won’t be tracked back to an individual. Consider contracting with third-party survey vendors to gather the data so as to reduce any perceived risk of internal repercussions due to honest feedback. 
  • Capture both real-time and long-term needs. Use a mix of annual and more-frequent surveys to capture immediate needs and track how those needs may change over time.

Qualitative: Employers we spoke to reported a wide variety of qualitative data-gathering techniques, including town halls, skip-level one-on-ones, manager forums, and office hours with senior leaders and/or the CEO. The data collected from these interactions are valuable in ascertaining benefits access, awareness, utilization, and adequacy, as well as capturing workers’ voices directly. When considering equity objectives, employers should:

• • Empower employees to ask their real questions. In group settings, allow employees to submit questions and responses anonymously. Open the window for questions and comments ahead of time as well as during the meeting, if technology allows.
  • Leverage employee/business resource groups (ERGs). ERGs are rich sources of information when it comes to understanding how different employee segments experience workplace benefits. Consider pairing each ERG with an executive sponsor who can present the group’s needs to senior leadership.
  • Prepare and equip themselves to have crucial conversations. Asking employees to openly share their financial needs and how company benefits are meeting those needs must be handled delicately. Skillful facilitation is required for an inclusive and informative conversation, both in groups and one-on-one meetings. Equipping managers and HR leaders with appropriate training, or hiring external facilitators, will ensure a more open dialogue when discussing complex and sensitive subjects. Companies are beginning to tap their internal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) committee leaders for this role as well.

External Data Sources

While benefits providers are an obvious source of utilization data, they do present some challenges to gaining meaningful insights. Some benefits vendors might not share any kind of disaggregated information, only providing usage, balance, or contribution data at the aggregate level. Some employers are running into challenges with large vendors whose systems have not kept up with diversity norms. For example, an employer who includes transgender as an option in internal demographic data has found that when those data are sent to its insurance provider, transgender is not recognized and is defaulted to “male.” The more employers continue to push and expect their partners to evolve, the more likely we will see large-scale structural change.

Once they have better understood employees’ needs, employers can focus on access, awareness, utilization, and adequacy as pillars around which to implement changes to their benefits.  

Access

Increasing access to benefits can take a variety of forms, including adjusting existing benefits and adding new offerings. Employers can broaden eligibility criteria or vary the cost of benefits in ways that meet the needs of less financially healthy employees.

Broadening Eligibility

By expanding access to benefits that support financial health to include more employees, employers can improve financial health outcomes, particularly for those that are more vulnerable. Often benefits eligibility is limited for part-time or shorter-tenured employees. 

Varying the Cost of Benefits

An increasing number of employers are adjusting the employee’s share of the cost of benefits relative to their earned incomes. According to a 2019 estimate, 25% of large employers varied contributions to healthcare premiums based on employee pay levels. Several employers we interviewed offer similarly tiered structures for other benefits, including long-term disability insurance, life insurance, 401(k) matches, child care assistance, health savings account (HSA) contributions, and wellness incentives. Benefits that are more affordable become more accessible to lower-paid employees.

Awareness and Utilization

Once they have examined and addressed issues of access, employers must work to ensure that employees are using available benefits. Both a lack of awareness of available benefits and barriers stemming from program design can cause low utilization. Obstacles to access, such as pricing, may also result in low utilization, or the benefits may lack relevance for certain employee segments, in which case an employer would expect some low utilization rates. Well-designed programs and a consistent, targeted communications plan can help ensure employees are aware of – and using – the benefits available to them. 

Communication

Using data to identify employees that have access but are not using a benefit can help HR departments conduct targeted communications, nudging and reminding individuals of what is available. Asking employees about their preferences of channel, frequency, and style of these communications can help improve their impact.

Design

Employers can also leverage behavioral science to improve benefits design and increase participation. For example, one of the easiest ways to ensure steady contribution to a short- or long-term savings account is automatic transfers. Evidence suggests that auto-enrollment and auto-escalation can help maximize participation in retirement plans, as well as providing default contribution rates and fewer plan options to reduce complexity. For benefits that involve an employer paying for a service or skill for an employee, such as education or credentialing, timing of payment is key. Asking employees to wait for reimbursement may preclude lower-paid staff from utilizing the benefit due to lack of funds. By paying costs upfront, employers can remove a barrier to use.

Adequacy

Adequate benefits are those that properly address employee needs. This means that benefits are accessible, affordable, relevant, and sufficient. Traditionally, HR leaders designed benefits for the average employee, guided by the principle of fairness for all employees. As more nuanced presentations of identity continue to emerge, it is clear that one size does not fit all. Targeted approaches and inclusive offerings must exist in order to meet the diverse needs of today’s workforce. 

Introduce Targeted Benefits

Employers have long offered benefits that are available to all employees, yet designed to address challenges that only some employees face, such as smoking cessation or diabetes management programs. Similarly, certain financial health benefits will have an outsized impact on financially vulnerable employees, helping reduce outcome disparities. 

Inclusive Offerings

Providing care benefits that are culturally competent can help individuals feel welcome, while increasing inclusion broadens the number of employees who can benefit from a particular offering.

The extraordinary shift happening between workers and employers is having a significant impact on all sides of the labor market. In order to distinguish themselves in an economy that favors workers, employers need to make real investments in the wellness of their workforces through a lens of increased equity. By developing clear targets and an intentional plan to get there, employers large and small across the country have a powerful opportunity to use their benefits and rewards strategies to create meaningful change.