It’s Monday morning. While 6 a.m. alarms chirp away, your employees are thinking of everything the coming week has in store. From work to meetings, grocery shopping, to carpool…how can they even think about spending a second on their overall wellbeing? It’s 2022, and the time is now to adopt a new approach regarding employee benefits.
Employee spending accounts are nothing new. But customizable employee spending accounts are the up-and-coming trend–and catching on fast. Life spending accounts (LPAs) are the best of both worlds because they are an easy way for employers to support their employees by offering benefits around the four pillars of wellbeing: physical, emotional, social, and financial. And let’s not forget how much more engaged your employees will feel from being able to spend more time on their wellbeing.
An LPA's value is unlike any other employee benefits account through its flexibility and adaptability. See how life planning accounts will improve your company culture and make you stand out amongst the fiercest of competition.
What do your employees want?
What’s the point of benefit programs when your employees won’t use them? With LPAs, employers can customize them in any way they please–particularly in ways that benefit employees the most.
For example, if you are really into golf but most of your employees have never played before, including golf clubs in your LPA may not be such a good idea. Talk to your workforce, and hear what they need to feel supported in their wellbeing. Most of the time, it is a good idea to include things that lighten their loads at home, such as child care services or gym memberships.
Age doesn't mean a thing
It is no secret that Gen Z is entering the workforce by storm, compelling industries everywhere to think about their approach to accommodating a work-life balance. But make no mistake–life planning accounts are not just for Gen Z’ers.
Everyone in the workforce is eligible for LPA’s, including Boomers, Gen X’ers, and Millennials. This is a great way to attract top talent while retaining current talent. If the pandemic made one thing clear, our lives are worth so much more than how much we work. Even during this era of reprioritization, our wellbeing (especially health and wellness) is more critical than ever.
Put the money where it matters
In designing an LPA program, it is important that the right amount of money is going into your program. With life planning accounts being so new and all, we’ve come up with a couple of ways to ensure your LPA is being funded in the best way possible.
- Portion out your budget accordingly. Although LPAs are an extra expense, they can be funded simply by adjusting your benefit-program budget to allocate more funds towards your LPA. If some programs have been underutilized, consider reallocating the funds to your LPA program.
- Make sure the budget is high enough to fuel your creativity. When constructing your LPA plan, you must ask yourself, “Will my employees benefit from this?” Keeping this in mind, we recommend contributing at least $500 (if not more) per employee.
Go with the flow
Improving your overall wellbeing is not a simple solution. As the year progresses or as we grow older, our needs adapt. Customizing an LPA for your employees can take different directions, but here are some pillars that you can build your program upon:
- Health and fitness (gym memberships, equipment, fitness trackers)
- Retirement planning (financial counseling services)
- Education (student loan repayments, tuition)
- Charitable giving
- Emergency funds
As they say in showbiz, always be mindful of your audience. With your employees’ help, you can design a perfect LPA that will benefit them for years.
A new kind of work culture
Workplaces are not the same as they used to be. Employees want to work for employers who care about their workers. Integrating life planning accounts into your company culture will show prospective and current employees that their organization truly cares about them as dimensional individuals. Making health and wellness a priority in your company culture can truly be a game changer when it comes to establishing competitive differentiation.
We know a thing or two about LPAs
Life planning accounts are just beginning to make their mark. Before the rest of society catches on to the hype, be a leader in your industry by checking out our LPA resources and other benefit programs and trends.
In our latest white paper, learn how an LPA can help you increase employee engagement and competitive differentiation.
Published on Sep 29, 2022 by Marketing
