2024 Employee Health & Benefits Trends

In the 2024 Employee Health & Benefits Trends report from the Marsh McLennan Agency, it is clear that employers must do more to attract and keep top talent at their companies. Employees need personalized help, not just off-the-shelf insurance and benefits packages created by the old guard of networks.

The report opens with, “In the fifth year of a decade marked by unprecedented economic and geopolitical uncertainty, employers are under more pressure than ever to support their workers. We’ve entered a new era of benefits where employees place a premium on personalization and empathy, and employers are called upon to take a less transactional approach. They must respond to the diverse needs of today’s multigenerational workforce and to the growing societal consensus that employers should “be there” for their employees. Delivering on these expectations means employers must understand what their employees want and why they want it.”

While it focused on three main areas; 1) Benefits & Talent; 2) Whole-Person Health; and 3) Healthcare Costs, it also highlighted challenges and preferences for different generations in the current workforce. It is packed with deeper insights and statistical analysis of these categories, and is absolutely worth the read.

Not only are the old days of simple multi-tier coverage options and basic add-ons completely outdated, but there is major emphasis on how each employee (and their dependents, if any) really does have different needs. Plans today need to be able to have customization and user-friendly navigation to the type of help and support that they want, rather than sending everyone to a handful of the same options.

If you could build your ideal benefits package for your employees, what would it look like?