U.S. and global employers are increasingly offering voluntary benefit options as the way to meet the needs of a diverse workforce, according to two recent surveys.

A International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP) survey [found that] . . . 84 percent of the respondents offer voluntary benefits, and 5 percent plan to offer voluntary benefits. Of employers who offer voluntary benefits, the most common options include:

• Term life insurance (73 percent)
• Vision insurance (53 percent)
• Long-term-care insurance (51 percent)
• Long-term-disability insurance (50 percent)
• Accident insurance (49 percent)
• Dental insurance (48 percent)

A smaller but still significant number of employers offer newer niche voluntary products including automobile insurance (32 percent), homeowners’ or renters’ insurance (29 percent), debt counseling and financial planning (22 percent), identity theft coverage (22 percent), college savings plans (21 percent) and pet insurance (19 percent).

. . . The trend toward voluntary benefits isn't confined to the United States. One out of four global employers now offers their employees choice in the benefits they receive, with a third of the remainder considering doing so, according to a survey of more than 1,700 organizations in 47 countries (excluding the U.S.) by Mercer.

The most important reason for providing choice is to “respond to diverse workforce needs and values,” but an additional factor is the ability to manage costs, cited by nearly a third of organizations offering flexible benefit programs, [according to the survey].

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