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Welcome to This Week in Benefits, a new biweekly podcast from Mployer Advisor, the company that is changing the way employers search, evaluate, and select insurance advisors online.
In each episode, our team will bring you the latest news and industry updates in the world of employee benefits. We’ll break down top headlines, bring you interviews with top industry insiders, and highlight market trends and stories we’re following.
In case you missed Episode 3, click here to listen and here for the show notes.
Show Notes
Date: May 17, 2022
Episode Title and Number: Season 1, Episode 4
Episode Title: Why More Companies Are Banking on Unconventional Employee Benefits
In this week's episode, we discuss a series of recent non-traditional employee benefits announcements from large employers across the country, including Airbnb, MIcrosoft, Amazon, Citigroup, and more.
To listen to Episode 4 of This Week in Benefits, click here.
Additional Recommended Reading
On AIrbnb:
On Abortion Travel Reimbursements:
On Fertility Benefits:
Abbey Dean: Hi everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of This Week in Benefits, a podcast from the team at Mployer Advisor where we discuss all things employee benefits. I'm your host, Abbey Dean, Mployer Advisor's Head of Content, and thanks for tuning in today. We have quite a jam-packed episode for you. We're really fitting in a lot today. We're packaging together a wave of news stories that have come across my desk in recent weeks. So what each of these news items have in common is that they each follow big announcements from large companies. Think Apple, Airbnb, CitiGroup, Amazon, just to name a few. So it's following those companies' announcements specifically around their decision to offer new non-traditional and even unconventional employee benefits. So we're diving into that today.
There's a lot to unpack in this episode. So if you wanna follow along while you're listening, be sure to check out our show notes for links to some of the news articles and sources that I mention in the episode. Without any further ado, here's my conversation. Hi everyone. So today is going to be a fun episode cause I am once again joined by VP of Operations, Weller Emmons Weller. Thanks for being here again.
Weller Emmons: Always happy to join.
Abbey Dean: And it's also going to be fun because we're looking at some recent news items that we've been tracking in the past few weeks. Specifically, we're going to be looking at what some big-name companies are doing to not only attract new talent, but also retain their current workforce. Now this is, again, we have to consider the environment this news is coming out in. So inflation is at, I believe, near record or record rates right now. I think last reported Weller it was 8.5% correct?
Weller Emmons: Correct. I think it was a recent high. Inflation seems to be growing, but at a slower rate, which means it's still getting higher, it's just not doing as quickly, it's kind of decelerating.
Abbey Dean: And that's still creating a lot of stress and uncertainty for employers.
Weller Emmons: Correct. And the natural response to inflation is a rapid increase in interest rates, which the Federal Reserve has been pushing and there seems to be more interest rates coming down the pipeline. And as interest rates go up, it will impact businesses across the board. And we've seen a lot of valuations actually get compressed and some pretty massive drop in stock prices. And seems like there actually may be a sentiment change around the hiring front that is coming out in the past two or three weeks. It may change the bargaining power between employers and employees.
Abbey Dean: So uncertainty. Yes, lots of uncertainty. And of course it's a very competitive job market right now too. So employers, a lot of employers, the ones we're going to be talking about today are thinking about ways to, specifically with benefits that they can stand out. And I would confidently say and Weller tell me what word you would use, but these are some non-traditional methods in terms of benefits to offer that we are going to be talking about today. Is that a fair statement?
Weller Emmons: Yeah. When you traditionally think about benefits, you would think of a health insurance disability. Those are your kind of meat and potatoes of benefits. But what we're going to talk about is a little bit more on newer wave-type benefits that may be attractive to a younger crowd. So interesting. And something that companies are definitely exploring in today's environment.
Abbey Dean: And we wanna talk about this because again, these are big-name companies that are not just setting trends, but also I think it's reflective of what's happening for a lot of the small and medium-size employers out there too. So the first piece of news we're going to talk about is Airbnb. So as some of you might have seen I believe the exact date was April 28th, Airbnb told it's 6,000 employees that they would have the option to permanently work remotely. Airbnb has 6,000 employees globally and 3,000 in the country. They're saying these employees can live and work anywhere in over 170 countries. So the other interesting piece of this is not just that Airbnb employees can work anywhere, it's that if you're currently a Silicon Valley Airbnb employee, say you make like 200 grand, if you move to Clinton, Iowa, you'd be making that same salary, which is very attractive and also different about what we've seen in terms of flexibility in remote work, right? Weller.
Weller Emmons: Yeah, so the whole going to remote is such a fascinating HR question and it completely changes our entire infrastructure of how work is done and all the benefits and pay associated with it and creates all kinds of complexities that's going to give HR leaders a lot to think about and work on in the coming years as people go even further remote in their organizations.
Abbey Dean: And according to The New York Times, about one in 10 workers across the country are still fully remote right now because of the pandemic. And I think again, with the economic uncertainty and competitive hiring out there, I think this is going to be something we continue to watch in the coming weeks and months ahead. For sure. Weller, any other reactions to this piece of news from Airbnb? So actually I have one more thing to add. This is also very interesting because right at the beginning of the pandemic, Airbnb could have just totally gone under, their entire business is built around travel when no one was traveling. So they had to totally rebuild their strategy. They went public in the last year too, and now they're doing this. So they've made a lot of big dramatic moves to their entire company structure because of all this. And even though they're a large example, I still think it's reflective of some of the feelings that a lot of employers have right now, small or mid-size. What do you think?
Weller Emmons: Yeah, there's just so much that's going on for Airbnb. One, travel stopped immediately with the pandemic. Some people started having the ability to work remotely. They figured out why would I want to work in New York City when I go work in Jackson Hole, Wyoming? And they didn't wanna stay in a hotel room. So some aspects of travel kind of flipped pretty quickly and Airbnb was able to capitalize on that. I mean, personally, I had several friends who left New York City and would choose a month and go stay in a single location. One group did Charleston for a month and then they went to New Orleans after that. And they stayed in an Airbnb's the whole entire time. So opportunity for Airbnb there.
From an HR front as a mission, the taxes are going to be complex. Hiring could also be complex. Cause as you no longer have to hire in your market, you could hire across the country or across the world. There is the pay to consider as you mentioned. Do you have to pay Silicon Valley salaries to someone who's living in a less expensive city or do you pay them based on the value they provides, assuming they provide the same value? Working remotely does provide some challenges in terms of building culture innovation. There's an old guard of companies and managers who want their employees on site at least periodically. I think it's particularly challenging for new hires to come into a company that's fully remote.
There's just a lot to unpack there.
Abbey Dean: Well, and the CEO did come out and say at least quarterly for now, Airbnb employees are still going to be required to meet up at some point and have some of that. But I think you're totally right in saying that even from an onboarding and culture perspective, that adds an entirely different dimension of difficulty and making something like this work.
Weller Emmons: And if there's one other thing I'll add from a non-HR perspective, which I think is interesting, Abbey, if you could work remotely, would you stay in a hotel or would you stay in an Airbnb?
Abbey Dean: I would stay in an Airbnb Weller.
Weller Emmons: So it's like Airbnb just turned all their employees into customers.
Abbey Dean: Seems like a win-win.
Weller Emmons: Yep.
Abbey Dean: <laugh>. Okay. So that's a great example. But again, something else in terms of remote work, hybrid work, flexibility that we will continue to watch in the coming months. So the next piece of news that came out that we wanted to talk about today is where we get into the non-traditional, I think is a very safe way of saying it. Benefits offerings. A lot of big name companies Lyft, Uber, Amazon, Amazon, which I believe is the largest private sector employer in the country. Levi Strauss, Citigroup, Microsoft, amid reports of a leaked Supreme Court draft ruling that could overturn Roe v. Wade. These companies and others are saying that they will help employees access abortions, including covering travel and other related expenses to states where they cannot legally receive those services. So this is incredibly interesting to me because it's hard for me to still grasp that so many companies are even willing to mention the word abortion in such a
Weller Emmons: Public setting.
Abbey Dean: Yeah, it's hard to find the words because thinking and talking to your . . . okay as a leader Weller talking about abortion at work or any hot button issue regardless of what it is, feels like an instinctive, no <laugh> to me, especially traditionally. But to go as far as what some of these companies have done and say in light of this news, we want to extend this new benefit to our employees is something really interesting. And I struggle to find a comparative event.
Weller Emmons: Yes, to all of those things. When we were contemplating even talking about this topic, Abbey, how many leaders in our organization did you ask about this topic?
Abbey Dean: I asked all of them.
Weller Emmons: And you asked some people multiple times.
Abbey Dean: I did ask some people multiple times. And I also asked not just leaders, but just anyone I came across who works here in the office with me, I was like, how would you feel about even hearing the word abortion at work? And it's, it's a hard thing to do. And I think even asking that question, I was worried about making someone feel uncomfortable.
Weller Emmons: And I think to your point, it's just very interesting that these companies are coming out and making such a public stance on what their values are. We can dig into why they may be doing that, but just the fact that they are coming out and making a stance is a changing world.
Abbey Dean: And again, going back to what we said at the beginning of the episode, I think context is everything here with inflation, with uncertainty, with the competitive job market. Companies are trying to distinguish themselves. And I think this is a very underscore highlight, capital letters, exclamation point way of companies doing this. Now I do have a couple of quotes I wanna read. This is from Levi Strauss. This is a statement they made as the pandemic has shown. So clearly public health issues are workplace issues. "Business leaders are responsible for protecting the health and well-being of our employees. And that includes protecting reproductive rights and abortion access."
So Levi Strauss also added that women make up 58% of their the company's global workforce of about 15,000 employees. And that those employees expressed to leadership, their growing alarm over the rollback of all forms of reproductive care in recent years. Weller and I talked about this before we started recording too, but I think regardless of your stance on this very sensitive topic, if you're thinking about the cost of providing this benefit, it's very minimal, especially for companies, I would argue especially for companies like Microsoft and Amazon. I think the bigger thing here is about these companies making a statement to employees that this is part of our company culture and this is where we feel we need to speak up. Weller, what do you think about that?
Weller Emmons: Yeah I mean I think I saw somewhere where one of these organizations put a $1,500 cap on, right? Access to these types of funds. I don't think the benefit will be used a ton, a ton. So if you try to actually do the cost per employee of when this benefit would actually be used, I imagine it's pretty low dollars, especially to some of these multi-billion dollar companies, it's not really an economic play more it is than probably just making a stance and maybe it's more of a comment on that company's culture and virtues and support of employees who identify with those same virtues,
Abbey Dean: Right, I agree. But yeah, it's a new world. It's a new world for benefits and what companies are willing to offer and what even employees are willing to ask for.
Weller Emmons: And it's also interesting that in our current medical healthcare system, the employer takes the burden of a lot of the healthcare costs through health insurance and their contribution. And it's becoming a bigger issue. We've talked about this ad nauseum, but it's one of the largest line item expenses. So as long as that expense sits on a business's books, they're going to be concerned about anything that impacts the health of their employees just from a dollar and cents type perspective. And then you have other businesses that really, really care about their employees and want them to have great health just because they're something they're very interested in and has something to do with dollars and cents. But as long as the company is paying the expense, they're all going to care to some extent.
Abbey Dean: We even just gave the example that if you are choosing between two job opportunities and offers have been extended, if everything, if salary matches up, if a financial benefit matches up too, then what are you looking at? You're probably, look, you may, depending on your age and where you are in life, looking at some of the healthcare benefits,
Weller Emmons: Especially if you're someone who has chronic healthcare issues and healthcare benefits may be very substantial in terms of a financial sense. Or if you're expecting to have a child soon, then health insurance matters. Maternity and or paternity leave matters. And those factors may mean more to you than just a salary or bonus.
Abbey Dean: This is something we're all going to be continuing to watch closely, and I think it will be very interesting to see what unfolds.
Weller Emmons: Concurred.
Abbey Dean: Okay, so to round out our episode around non-traditional benefits and news around that, the last one we're going to talk about today is fertility or infertility benefits. So again, if the pandemic has showed us anything, employees will leave jobs for better healthcare. Even, and this comes from a 2020 survey by Willis Towers Watson. Even before the great resignation, 72% of employers reported the top reason for offering family-friendly benefits like IVF support, like parental leave, and adoption benefits was to help recruit and retain talent. Now, this is from Fortune, nearly half of all workers, 45% reported these types of benefits as being very important when considering a new job. According to a survey Fortune did earlier this year with the Harris Poll also according to the CDC, apparently one in 10 women will struggle with infertility at some point or about one in eight couples.
So that's about 7.4 million Americans. And of course, this is not to mention the many LGBTQ couples that also need help starting a family. So with all of that to consider, we've seen a lot of news, and this isn't so much in the past couple weeks, as in I would maybe say the start of the year where more and more companies are beginning to offer or extend not just parental leave benefits, but benefits around fertility. And again, I think this is an example of how employees not only feel like they can maybe demand or voice that they need these benefits, but also that financially, this kind of IVF alone, I think per cycle, according to The New York Times can run about $16,000. And that doesn't factor having to go through that several times. So that's a lot of numbers and stats. Weller, what do you think about this topic?
Weller Emmons: So as you noted, the cost of some of these reproductive therapies is quite high, especially since it's not covered by a lot of health insurance. So a lot of that cost is pushed 100% to the individual. And you noted that in IVF, it's $16,000 per cycle. And I know that it can often take several cycles, right? Of IVF is not a 100% guarantee. So you can be talking tens of thousands of dollars that must come out of pocket for employees and they're not getting any help from their companies until they start making these kind of demands. And I think that's why you're seeing these kind of demands. It's like, "Hey, this is going to cost me a lot of money. What can our insurance include it?" Cause our insurance includes so many other things. The insurance will take care of a half-a-million dollar heart bypass surgery. Why won't it help me with $30,000 or $40,000 for potential expenses associated with IVF or some kind of other reproductive therapy?
Abbey Dean: So in 2021, Mercer did a survey and they found out that 61% of large employers provide some sort of fertility benefit to their teams. Obviously what that means can vary. But of those 61%, those employers that do provide coverage, 97% said it has not resulted in a significant increase in medical plan costs. That number surprises me a little bit. What do you think Weller?
Weller Emmons: I'm trying to do the math in my head, but you said it affects one in 10 women one of eight couples, 7.8 million Americans. And from a true health cost perspective, I mean $30K, $40K, $50,000 while expenses, really individual, is when you multiply it by that percentage of the population and compare it to other potential healthcare costs. Actually, it doesn't seem to add up to be all that much. And so the cost is being distributed amongst all the premiums. So I can understand why it's not really that much of an increase or per employee per month kind of basis.
Abbey Dean: Well, and again, depending on the population of your workforce, if you have mostly women, if you have mostly women, I would maybe even add under 45 even. This might be something you need to look at more closely.
Weller Emmons: And I think it also has something to do with the way in which your workforce is educated and trained.
The healthcare, if you have a hospital and you have a bunch of doctors on staff, you know, med school is four years after college, and then you have residency and you have fellowship and however many other versions of training. Or if you have lawyers or anything of that nature, you have some part of your population that due to their training regimens are really unable to have children at the biologically preferred time. And so you're timing to see additional therapy, help them have children at a later point in their careers when they're financially or able to have those children from an emotional standpoint.
Abbey Dean: Right. Well, and if you consider, gosh, I'd have to, I'll make sure to link all of these studies and articles of course that I'm quoting in the show notes too. But I believe The New York Times or The Washington Post just came out with something that said, I think about, I wanna say it's 41% of Americans are working parents, which is crazy. So if you add in, even just if you're choosing between a few jobs, and this is something you care about, not because you're so, maybe not because you yourself are personally interested in the service, but you like the fact that your company is extending this benefit that could still sway someone choosing between a few different jobs.
Weller Emmons: So there's always some kind of signaling, if you will, by offering any kind of benefit and you know, may attract or retain people who don't only benefit necessarily directly from that service, but they identify with whatever you're signaling now to that potential workforce.
Abbey Dean: So again, obviously this topic can include a lot of different things, which we don't have time to go into. Maybe a different episode would be interesting to discuss, but this is something else we're seeing in terms of non-traditional benefits that I think is going to be really, really interesting to watch and see how companies of all sizes and industries react to in the coming years.
Weller Emmons: Yeah, and there's a whole other crazy benefits out there. There's some company, I forget the name of them, but they would even offer to mow their employees lawns, <laugh>, and pick up dry cleaning.
Abbey Dean: I think that sounds great, Weller.
Weller Emmons: So there's all kinds of additional little fringe benefits that companies can throw to their employees.
Abbey Dean: And we will also have a podcast about all of our favorite ones that we've seen throughout the year maybe.
Weller Emmons: Yeah, maybe that would be a top 10 list of quirky benefits.
Abbey Dean: That would be fun.
Anyone listening if you've seen or heard of a quirky benefit that a company has offered, please let us know. We would love to hear about it and talk about it more. Okay. Well, I think that's all for today. That was a lot. That's a meaty episode. Weller, thanks for agreeing to tag team with me. I appreciate your support.
Weller Emmons: Yep, always happy to be here. Thank you, Abbey.
Abbey Dean: And that is another episode down everyone. Thanks for tuning in. As a reminder, if you have not yet, please subscribe and leave us a review. It really helps us out. You can even leave us a voicemail message if you want to suggest ideas or you have follow-up questions to any of our episodes. Thanks for listening and we will see you next time.
Thank you for listening to this week's episode of This Week in Benefits, brought to you by Mployer Advisor. Mployer Advisor is changing the way employers search, evaluate, and select insurance brokers. Our intuitive platform connects employers and employees to get great benefits and insurance plans by providing employers with actionable data to easily evaluate and select the best advisor for your company's specific needs. To learn more about Mployer Advisor and our suite of products, please visit our website at mployeradvisor.com and tune in next time. Thanks.
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