The Most Desired Employee Benefits

An accomplished business development and marketing professional, Gary Rixson currently serves as a consultant for Lockton Companies’ Benefit Communication Insourcing team. In this capacity, Gary Rixson designs and implements unique strategies for large organizations to assist HR with employee benefit communication.

Surveys have found that close to 90 percent of employees consider their benefits to be as important as their salary. Employees also rate health insurance as among their most desired benefit. However surveys have shown that 40 percent of employees do not understand their benefits. If they do not understand their benefits how can they make educated decisions about them or truly appreciate them?

In 2002, Lockton developed Benefit Communication Insourcing (BCI) to specifically address these challenges for its clients. BCI significantly reduces workload within HR and dramatically improves employee benefit education, engagement and appreciation. BCI works closely with your HR team to hire, train and deploy full-time, dedicated Benefit Communication Specialists (BCS) to act as an extension of your team and provide accurate and consistent benefit education and communication to your employees year round. At no cost, BCI addresses corporate communication / financial objectives and dramatically improves employee understanding of all benefits. In fact, 94% of employees supported by Lockton BCI specialists rate their benefit education as good or excellent.

Our client’s say it best: http://www.lockton.com/bci

Commonly Misunderstood Employee Benefits

Gary Rixson has accumulated over 19 years of experience in business development, human resources, and operations. In 2013, he joined Lockton Companies as a consultant. At Lockton, Gary Rixson concentrates on designing and delivering communication strategies that help employees understand their benefits.

Many employees read over their benefits package and believe a benefit means one thing when, in fact, it means another. For example, the terms “workers’ compensation” and “disability insurance” may seem similar. However, workers’ compensation only covers injuries one receives on the job. Disability insurance functions as a replacement for income during a time when the employee is unable to work. Bear in mind that most employee-provided disability policies only last for set periods of time.

Retirement plans also cause confusion. Before accepting a job, employees should ask employers about their retirement plans, and if their plans include a matching policy. Health insurance is another important topic. While many employers offer health insurance, some also provide health savings accounts (HSAs). HSAs come with perks such as cheaper high-deductible health plans, as well as the ability to add money to the account without incurring taxes.