2024 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey: Takeaways for Business Leaders

Every employer must make benefits decisions based on their own circumstances, data, and principles. But the 2024 SHRM Employee Benefits Survey can give you better information and more context for making the tough judgment calls that can move the needle on employee engagement, productivity, and retention.

Here are a few takeaways from this year’s results to consider when making benefits decisions going forward:

Start with Compliance

Federal, state, and local regulations are increasingly scrutinizing or requiring benefits related to paid leave, retirement savings programs, and numerous other areas. While compliance isn’t the only consideration when setting benefits policies, make sure you’re up-to-date on all existing regulations, as well as laws and regulations that are in progress or considered likely to pass in the coming year.

Standardize Paid-Leave Policies

Paid leave has expanded well beyond the basic categories of vacation and sick leave. With states enacting a variety of paid-leave laws, now is the time to assess your mix of paid-leave benefits offerings. For employers facing a patchwork of regulations, you might consider a blanket policy that is equal to or exceeds the most stringent applicable laws. This can reduce paperwork, avoid mistakes, and help employees feel that leave policies are applied fairly.

Likewise, look at your mix of paid-leave benefits. What’s working, and what isn’t? Do these policies match employee needs, wants, and demographics? If you’re not already surveying employees about leave policies, start there.

Communicate About Retirement Savings and Other Financial Benefits

Most employers offer some kind of retirement savings and planning benefits, and many have added offerings such as Roth 401(k)s and employer matches for employee contributions. Make sure employees know about these benefits—not just how to sign up for them, but also how important such benefits are for their future. These benefits can add peace of mind and increase employee loyalty, especially if other potential jobs have lesser retirement offerings. Likewise, consider providing and regularly communicating about other financial benefits available to employees, such as nonretirement financial advice, credit unions, and payroll advances.

Connect Your Professional Development Efforts to Skill Needs

What is your organization’s current skills inventory, and how does it compare to the skills your business will need in five or 10 years? Knowing that information can help you shape professional development benefits to train, upskill, or reskill your employees for the skills you need most. Taking inventory of the required skills for each role can also help you recruit people with the skill sets you need—potentially reducing the need to spend money on reskilling or upskilling.

As a member-exclusive benefit, SHRM offers an interactive online benchmarking tool, where users can filter results from the Employee Benefits Survey according to their organization’s size, industry, and location (region and state). In addition, users may view and export results across the entirety of the benefits surveyed—all available on demand.