Employees still overwhelmed when making health care decisions but willing to devote more time to the open enrollment process.
The annual open enrollment season is nearly underway, and U.S. employees will be making benefits decisions during an unprecedented and challenging time. To understand employees’ and employers’ feelings about this critical event, Aflac, a leading provider of supplemental insurance and products in the U.S., conducted a national online survey of 1,200 benefits decision-makers and 2,000 employees across the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2020 Aflac WorkForces Report provides insights into how the pandemic is influencing benefits research and selection in addition to consumer opinions on health insurance and financial security.
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Pandemic Underscores Open Enrollment Decisions
According to the survey, nearly half (49%) of employees said the pandemic has been a wake-up call to invest more time researching and selecting the best coverage options for their situation. This represents a significant shift in employee behavior considering a vast majority of employees (92%) choose the same benefits year after year and on average spend 33 minutes on the task – statistics that haven’t changed meaningfully over the years of the survey. However, in light of current events related to COVID-19, about half of employees said the pandemic was a wake-up call to invest more time researching and selecting the best coverage options for them and their families.
“Choosing benefits is one of the most important actions people take each year. And for the past 10 years, our survey found that employees are on autopilot when it comes to the choices they make,” said Matthew Owenby, chief human resources officer at Aflac. “However, COVID-19 has inspired important conversations taking place about the current health care crisis and growing concerns about financial security.”
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