Employer’s Blog

Lost Boyz Inc. & Successful Youth Leaders case study

July 12, 2022

Bringing personal responsibility, post-secondary educational attainment, and workforce readiness to vulnerable students on Chicago’s South Side.

How myKlovr helps the Youth Mentors at the Lost Boyz Inc. Successful Youth Leaders program empower their students to succeed.

“myKlovr provided our participants with a one-stop shop to provide information needed to successfully prepare for college and the workforce” – LaVonte Stewart, Executive Director of Lost Boyz, Inc. and leader of Successful Youth Leaders program

 

Learn how myKlovr worked with the Successful Youth Leaders program to:

  • provide college & career guidance to at-risk youth
  • develop tools for student accountability
  • deploy dashboard & reporting for mentor visibility into student actions
  • support frontline youth mentors

 

HR Leader’s Guide – A Case for College & Career Counseling Benefits for Employee Families

June 8, 2022

College & Career counseling benefits for employee families has fast become a key benefit for Employers to showcase their commitment to reducing employee stress, improving employee financial wellness, show support for diversity & inclusion, and more. Get our HR Leader’s Guide : A Case for College & Career Counseling Benefits for Employee Families to ensure you have all the information you need for evaluating your solution.

The HR Leader’s Guide covers:

  • The value of providing college & career planning benefits for your employees.
  • How to communicate the case for college & career counseling.
  • The critical pieces to consider when evaluating a college & career planning solution

 

Using myKlovr as a Retention Tool

February 17, 2020

As of the writing of this article, the economy is booming. That’s great for many reasons. However, for employers, a strong economy also means that employees might start looking for a more lucrative position at a different company. Additionally, with a smaller-than-average labor pool, competitors raise wages and improve benefits.

When an employee leaves a position, they might also leave a professional association. In this scenario, both employers and professional associations lose out, especially when they could have taken steps to increase retention.

In this article, we’ll explore how using myKlovr as a retention tool can reduce employee and membership turnover during a strong economy.

myKlovr: A Brief Primer

Over the last few years, we at myKlovr have developed and launched a first-of-its-kind college counseling app that helps high school students identify their academic strengths, research colleges, and create an action plan for college admissions success. Another one of our service’s exciting features is that users can invite trusted adults – parents, teachers, guidance counselors – to review progress and verify milestones. This way, the people who care about the user the most have real-time information about what the user still needs to accomplish before applying to college.

We are also partnering with outside companies to increase the number of benefits users receive. These services include debt advising and a marketplace that showcases the best online tutoring and test prep services available. Additionally, we offer these extra resources at no extra cost.

For Employers

The work landscape is changing, and as a result, employers must try new strategies to attract and retain top talent. Millennial workers’ growing families will include high school-aged children in the next few years. This fact gives employers the perfect opportunity to provide benefit options that target employee’s children’s needs.

Besides helping student users, myKlovr can increase a company’s retention rate in two essential ways:

  • Offering myKlovr shows that employers care about employees’ well-being outside the office.
  • Once employees see myKlovr’s value, they will want to continue receiving it at the discounted price their employer provides.
    • Of course, an employee’s child can continue using myKlovr if that employee changes jobs. However, he or she will pay the full price for our service.

For Professional Associations

Voluntary benefits are arguably more important for professional associations, as members inherently have less motivation to remain compared to a paying job. That’s why associations must offer unique benefits that prospective and current members cannot find elsewhere. In addition to the reasons mentioned in the previous section, professional associations should consider offering myKlovr if they meet the following criteria:

  • They appeal to mid-career professionals in any field.
  • Their membership primarily consists of education professionals.

Let’s take a brief detour to discuss non-professional and pre-professional associations that cater to young adults (e.g., scouting, honor societies, etc.). These associations, too, should consider offering myKlovr to increase enrollment and retention. This way, members gain both the life skills the association instills as well as myKlovr’s expert college planning advice. That’s a recipe for academic and professional success.

Final Thoughts

myKlovr may not match every corporation and association’s needs, but for some, the benefits are clear. Please contact us if you believe that your company or association could increase retention by offering myKlovr. We look forward to working with you.

How myKlovr Can Integrate With Your Company’s HRMS

November 26, 2019

When we developed myKlovr, a first-of-its-kind virtual college counseling service, we knew we wanted to have companies offer it as part of their benefits package. To help companies integrate myKlovr into their Human Resource Management System (HRMS), we developed different methods applicable to your systems.

In the following paragraphs, you can learn more about our integration goals and the ways you can make myKlovr part of your HRMS. If you have questions after reading this article, feel free to reach out.

Integration Goals

No matter how you integrate myKlovr into your HRMS, we want to make sure the process is a successful one that achieves the following:

  • Employees can view their myKlovr benefits on your company’s benefits portal.
    • Employees can use this same portal to cancel myKlovr or view their billing history.
  • Signing up for myKlovr creates an account for an enrollee’s child or beneficiary (e.g., grandchild, nephew, etc.) automatically.
  • If an enrollee cancels myKlovr, the child/beneficiary has the option to continue using myKlovr at the standard per month rate.
  • Your company’s HR staff can update multiple employees’ enrollment status simultaneously.

Once you decide that myKlovr would be an excellent employee benefit for your employees, we will first determine pricing and set up service levels. When we finish the prep work, we can help you decide how to integrate myKlovr into your HRMS.

How to Integrate

To make sure that your company can meet its integration goals, we offer seamless methods you can use for your HRMS. The following sections provide a non-technical explanation based on technical documents myKlovr developed. We would be happy to share these documents with your HRMS professionals during the integration phase.

API-Based

An application program interface (API) allows your company to create a custom interface that HR professionals and employees use to manage the myKlovr benefit. Although your company would have more control over this system, API requires that your HR professionals have a high level of technical expertise.

Flat File Transfer

Flat file transfer provides companies the freedom to decide when to update enrollees’ information, a boon for companies who allow employees to sign up for myKlovr at any time.

If you prefer to use flat file transfer when updating enrollees’ information, we have prepared a simple six-step process that involves minimal work on your end and near-instantaneous confirmation concerning any requested changes. Also, we take care of the job of informing your employees about the latest modifications to their myKlovr benefits.

We have a host of resources that make this process as easy as possible. As a result, even HR professionals not formally trained in flat file transfer should be able to implement it successfully.

Final Thoughts

Even after integration, we at myKlovr want to make sure that your company’s HR professionals can manage enrollee information in a timely, accurate, and, most importantly, secure manner. As a result, we not only want to help you integrate myKlovr but also forge a productive and long-term business relationship.

We look forward to responding to your comments and inquiries.

How myKlovr Can Bundle with Other Voluntary Benefits

November 8, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

As voluntary benefits become more popular in the workplace, employers are often given the options of choosing benefits that are bundled together in order to save time and money.

In this article, we’ll look at the pros of benefits bundling,  and how myKlovr can bundle with complementary benefits.

Bundling vs. No Bundling

The most significant advantage of bundling involves cost. In a bundle, employees pay less for each benefit than if they had selected them individually. In voluntary benefit bundles, employees pay less and receive the same great benefits.

So, how do companies decide whether to bundle or not to bundle?

What Companies Can Do

When it comes to bundling, companies should turn to the experts – their employees. To understand their employees’ wants and needs, employers can hire survey researchers. These highly-trained professionals perform in-depth research into a company’s history, culture, workforce, turnover, performance, etc. Using this research, they design unbiased surveys (e.g., forms, one-on-one interviews, etc.). After obtaining the results, they present findings and recommendations to senior management.

By asking outside, impartial experts to uncover whether bundling meets employees’ needs,  managers can make an informed decision on whether voluntary benefits bundling works for them.

How myKlovr Can Bundle

When we developed myKlovr, we thought about more than just our primary audience – high school students. We knew that parents would play a vital role in both reviewing their children’s Individual Action Plan and verifying accomplishments. In other words, parents and other trusted mentors play a significant role in helping student users succeed.

For this and other reasons, myKlovr can bundle effortlessly with other voluntary benefits that appeal to mid-career professionals with middle and high school-aged children. The following are just a few of the voluntary benefits that employers can bundle with myKlovr:

  • Discount on a gym membership, local entertainment, etc.
  • Additional medical coverage (e.g., dental insurance that covers braces and other orthodontic services that young adults typically need)
  • Life insurance policy
  • College-savings plan
  • Automobile insurance discounts – a boon for families with young, inexperienced drivers

Final Thoughts

Finally, please keep in mind that if you make surveying your employees part of your company’s culture, you can promote both workplace satisfaction and employee loyalty.

How myKlovr Can Complement Organizations’ Membership Benefits

October 11, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

Professional and civic organizations connect groups of like-minded people throughout the United States. As you’re reading this article, you or someone in your family is likely a member of one of these organizations. Many of these organizations provide tangible benefits to their members.

When an organization decides which benefits to offer, it considers options that can both address members’ current needs and potential ways in which to attract new members. For this reason, let’s discuss how all organizations should offer myKlovr no matter which age group they target.

Here are a few examples:

Ages 14-18

  • Scouting Organizations: Scouting includes more than just the big-name organizations you may have been involved with as a child. Since 1907, the Scout Movement strives to instill positive qualities (e.g., responsible citizenship, personal growth, and community involvement) in children and adolescents.
    • MyKlovr’s mission dovetails with the Scout Movement’s goals in many ways. Both encourage adolescents to take on personal responsibility, plan for the future, and develop interpersonal skills.
  • Honors Societies: In high schools throughout the nation, academically gifted students can join one or more honors societies. These societies are much more than a resume booster. Members often participate in service-learning (e.g., raising money, volunteering) and other projects.
    • Honors societies attract college-bound high school students. MyKlovr can help these dedicated students create an action plan.

Ages 18-25

  • Trade Unions: Trade unions and apprenticeship programs allow high school graduates to obtain a fulfilling career. However, many of these trades require years of training, a time when young professionals make much less than their mentors.
    • Many excellent community colleges boast one-year certificates and degrees in areas such as HVAC, welding, and carpentry. To help young union members advance faster, unions can offer myKlovr to help these professionals so they can explore educational opportunities.
  • Gig Economy Worker Associations: As the American economy evolves, more young workers are part of the gig economy. Although these jobs provide flexibility, they often do not pay way well nor offer benefits. However, in recent years, these workers have banded together to demand greater rights.
    • As the gig economy does not translate into economic stability for employees, many gig workers wonder whether attending college can improve their career prospects. The organizations that represent these professionals should consider myKlovr for its affordable price and college-search functionality. Like with high school-aged users, young adults can also benefit from our counseling service and success steps.

Ages 25-65

  • Corporations: Employees’ benefits need to evolve each year after they have children. For this reason, your company should continuously monitor employees’ satisfaction with their benefits and research new ones you can offer in the coming years. Not only do benefits for working parents increase employees’ satisfaction and loyalty, but they can also, through word of mouth, help your company attract top talent.
    • The complexity surrounding college admissions can put undue strain on parents and negatively affect their work performance. This challenge is one of the reasons that we at myKlovr designed the first virtual college counseling service that provides students personalized goals aimed at increasing their chances of college admissions success. Employees can review their children’s academic and extracurricular accomplishments at any time.
    • Social Worker and Counselor Organizations: When young men and women need help, social workers and counselors step in to uncover problems and propose solutions. These solutions may involve collaborating with children’s teachers. The organizations that these professionals join emphasize professional development and resources.
      • MyKlovr can help social workers and counselors forge a stronger relationship with the adolescents they serve. For example, a high school student may not have any trusted adults who might support them on their myKlovr journey. Counselors and social workers can use myKlovr to communicate with and help these students.

Ages 65+

  • Retirement Associations: Retirement associations claim millions of members ages 65 and over. They spend much of their resources advocating for lower drug prices and strengthening Social Security.
    • At first glance, it seems that retirement associations and myKlovr would be an odd mix. However, consider retired Americans with grandchildren ages 14 and up. If a retirement association offered myKlovr, members could gift it to their grandchildren. Also, student users could invite grandparents to become part of their support network. In this way, myKlovr has two benefits. Students gain expert college counseling advise, and retired individuals have a new way to interact with their grandchildren.

Final Thoughts

As myKlovr has grown, we have realized that people of all ages can find value in our service. We think that myKlovr would be an excellent addition to your association or organization’s benefits package. Please contact us to learn more about myKlovr and how it can help your organization or association.

Understanding Millennial Employees’ Benefits Needs

September 6, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

In 2019, millennials became the largest living generation in the United States. Their ages range from 19 to 37, and overall, they possess many liberal economic and social views. On the job, they want to apply their talents toward producing meaningful work.

Economically, most millennials lag behind the previous two generations (e.g., generation X and baby boomers) due to the “Great Recession” that began in late 2007. This two-year recession and the long recovery stunted many millennials’ career opportunities and salary potential. The recession’s lingering effects have a continued impact on millennials’ earning power.

When considering these challenges under a benefits microscope, two words come to mind: stability and opportunity.

In this article, we’ll explore both traditional and voluntary benefits that appeal to millennials. We’ll also consider how millennials’ benefits needs might change in the coming years.

What Young Families Want

Although millennials differ from other generations, they still value traditional benefits packages. Millennial employees are marrying and starting families, meaning that they put a priority on careers that offer good medical and life insurance policies. Both provide young families – many of which are still adjusting to new financial realities – the knowledge that sickness or death will not cripple them financially.

Yes, millennials greatly appreciate traditional benefits, but their generation also values their families’ well-being over all else, including their employers or careers. This desire to provide their spouses and children with the best quality of life makes it easier for millennials to switch companies if they can attain a better benefits package.

For this reason, companies are offering voluntary benefits to attract and retain employees. Let’s look at some of the voluntary benefits that align with millennial employees’ short- and long-term needs.

The Best Voluntary Benefits for Millennials

Millennials, whether they have families or not, generally want a voluntary benefits package that boasts flexibility, encourages peace of mind, includes their family, and promotes personal fulfillment outside the office.

  • Gym Memberships: Gym memberships represent an excellent supplement to a traditional health insurance policy. Exercise not only improves health, but many people report that it also affects mental well-being. Also, as gym memberships can extend to family members, healthy spouses and children translate into happier employees who can focus on their work better.
  • Financial Literacy: Financial literacy resources can include courses at your job site, apps, and other online tools. If your company adopts financial literacy courses as a voluntary benefit, choose a service that emphasizes 529 plans (i.e., college-savings plans), retirement savings, and student loan repayment strategies. These services best match millennials’ most pressing needs.
  • Additional Paid Time Off: In recent years, companies have used unlimited PTO as a way to attract highly-trained professionals. With more time off, employees can spend more time with their families and feel higher loyalty toward their employers.  Even if your company does not offer employees additional vacation days, ensure that employees feel safe in taking time off.
  • myKlovr Virtual College Counseling: MyKlovr has developed a first-of-its-kind virtual counseling service to assist high school students and their families navigate college admissions. Students receive personalized advice that helps them improve their chances of college admissions success.

Looking to the Future

Although millennials’ children will not enter high school for a few years,  the myKlovr employee benefit can be extended to siblings or even nieces and nephews who are in need of specialized tools to help them gain admission to a good college or university. We at myKlovr also believe that this benefit can be extended to workers who may have taken time-off from studying after high school,  and are currently employed but enroll in college.

Our program works by asking students a series of questions concerning their academic achievement, extracurricular activities, and college preferences. MyKlovr turns this information into success goals that students can achieve throughout high school. If students meet these goals, they can obtain letters of admission from the colleges and universities that myKlovr recommends. We call these recommendations a College Match. In fact, if none of a student’s College Match schools admit the student, we gladly refund the entire subscription fee (terms and conditions apply). That’s how confident we are in myKlovr’s ability to help high school students attend college.

Final Thoughts

Whether through fitness incentives, financial literacy courses, PTO, or myKlovr, your company can attract and retain millennial employees by offering voluntary benefits that match their evolving needs.

Why Your Company Should Offer College Admissions Counseling as a Voluntary Benefit

August 20, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

Voluntary benefits provide employers an excellent, low-cost method to attract and retain the best talent. With so many options, however, human resources departments may find it challenging to determine which benefits best match their employees’ needs. Also, a benefit that employees value in 2019 may lose its luster in 2020.

When employees lose interest in a voluntary benefit, that fact does not automatically mean that the benefit in question has lost value. Every time you hire an employee, your employees’ demographics shift ever so slightly. If your company experiences moderate to heavy turnover, expect that your employees’ voluntary benefits preferences to change. For this reason, companies should curate a broad selection of voluntary benefits that they can either offer all at once or rotate as their employees’ needs evolve.

We at myKlovr created our virtual college counseling service for the large percentage of American families who cannot afford the high prices that professional counselors charge. In this article, we’ll discuss our voluntary benefit and how it can help your mid-career professionals become more effective and loyal workers.

Your Target Audience

Before discussing myKlovr’s college counseling service, let’s determine whether your company’s employees might be interested. Our service benefits high school students and their families. As a result, if Millennials make up a majority of your workforce, it may be too soon to make myKlovr a pillar of your company’s voluntary benefits package. Millennials have young families whose children range from infants to late elementary school students. However, it’s never too early to start surveying these employees on whether they would want myKlovr as a future voluntary benefit.

How myKlovr Brings College Admissions Counseling to the Masses

Over the last few decades, college admissions have become more competitive than ever. Parents with means turn to private college admissions counselors to help their children explore colleges, improve their grades and extracurricular activities, and write excellent application essays. The best counselors charge over $100 per hour, putting their fees on par with some lawyers.

We at myKlovr created the world’s first virtual college counseling service to help high school students from all socioeconomic backgrounds increase their chances of college admissions success. The service works in much the same way as hiring a private counselor. After setting up an account, students take a lengthy survey that allows our software to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and college preferences.

Students receive a list of custom-tailored academic and extracurricular goals, as well as a college match – a list of colleges where they have the best chances of gaining admission. Parents and other trusted adults (e.g., teachers, high school counselors) that students invite to view their profiles receive updates on students’ progress.

Students’ profiles also provide a dedicated space where students can curate their best academic work. They can then reference these accomplishments in their college admission essays. At the same time, teachers can review this work when writing college recommendation letters.

Finally, we are so confident in our program’s ability to help students succeed that we offer a College Match Guarantee. If a student follows the academic and extracurricular recommendation we suggest and does not gain admission to any schools on their college match, we will refund their entire subscription cost.

What You Can Expect

The college application process takes an emotional toll on students and families. Also, most parents feel great anxiety at the prospect of their children moving away. These combined stresses can negatively affect employees’ work performance. Although myKlovr cannot eliminate stress from parents’ lives, it can assure them that their children are receiving excellent college admissions advice. This peace of mind can help your employees focus on their work better.

Final Thoughts

If your company employs primarily mid-career professionals, consider surveying them on whether myKlovr matches their families’ voluntary benefits needs. myKlovr offers a competitive rate for subscribers who purchase our service through a company-wide voluntary benefits package.

Benefits for Working Parents

July 24, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

Every day they go to work, working parents sacrifice time that they could have otherwise used to make memories with their spouses and children. In return, they expect their employers to provide not only a salary but also benefits that help them and their families.

As benefits play such a vital role in employer/employee relationships, working parents should not only understand the benefits they and their families receive but also demand that those benefits match their families’ needs. At the same time, employers should take note of employees’ life situations and craft unique and attractive benefits packages that blend both traditional and voluntary options.

Traditional Benefits

Traditional benefits are those that many employers began offering in the years immediately following the Second World War. As employers shoulder the financial burden, employees receive these benefits at no cost.

Health Insurance

The most significant traditional benefit, health insurance protects employees and their families by paying for many medical services. Expecting parents should research their companies’ health insurance policies to ensure that their children have coverage from the moment they are born. Signing children up for dental or vision insurance may require additional forms.

Paid Time Off  

Paid time off benefits working parents in many ways. For one, working parents can use this time for vacations or other significant events in their children’s lives. Most employees gain additional paid time off each year that they stay with the company. 

401(k) or Other Retirement Plans

Although retirement plans benefit parents rather than their children, some retirement plans can reduce employees’ tax burdens, ensuring they have more money for their growing families.

Voluntary Benefits

Working parents with children of all ages appreciate when their employers offer voluntary benefits that improve their children’s lives. Unlike traditional benefits, employees – and not their employers – pay for them. However, as employees receive a group discount, they can both save money and choose the services that their families need.

Supplemental Health Insurance

Health insurance may cover most expenses, but up-front costs (e.g., premiums, the need for out-of-network specialists, travel, etc.) can still put a tremendous financial strain on families. Supplemental health insurance policies close the financial gap. Many policies allow enrollees to select the specific health benefits that match their financial and health needs.

Life Insurance Policies

Life insurance policies reassure employees that if something should happen to them, there will be money to take care of their surviving spouse and children. However, once an employee has children, the costs of these policies jump significantly. A cheap, long-term life insurance policy can put your employees’ minds at ease and increase their loyalty to your company.

College Counseling

Although employees may keep their supplemental health insurance and life insurance policies as their children become high school-aged, the complexity surrounding college admissions can put undue strain on parents and negatively affect their work performance. This challenge is one of the reasons that we at myKlovr designed the first virtual college counseling service that provides students personalized goals aimed at increasing their chances of college admissions success. At work, employees can review their children’s academic and extracurricular accomplishments at any time.

Final Thoughts

Employees’ benefits needs evolve each year after they have children. For this reason, your company should continuously monitor employees’ satisfaction with their benefits and research new ones you can offer in the coming years. Not only do benefits for working parents increase employees’ satisfaction and loyalty, but they can also, through word of mouth, help your company attract top talent.

Voluntary Benefits That Attract Top Talent

July 10, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

Voluntary benefits help companies diversify their benefits offerings and tailor them to the talented professionals they want to attract and retain. As companies and employees’ needs change, so can voluntary benefits.

In this article, we’ll discuss some of the most popular benefits that attract top talent, including myKlovr’s affordable college admission-counseling service.

Family Benefits

Many traditional benefits (e.g., health insurance) already help both employees and their families. However, as millennials who enjoy voluntary benefits start families, they will want voluntary benefits that help their spouses and children. Employers that offer these benefits can forge a deeper connection with their employees, reducing the odds that those employees will leave for other opportunities.

Voluntary benefits that help families come in many forms:

  • Public Transportation Passes
    • Employee benefit: Employees who take public transportation have more energy when they arrive at work.
    • Family benefit: Spouses and children can save money on travel in their local communities.
  • Gym Memberships
    • Employee benefit: Employees maintain good health, which saves employers money on health insurance plans.
    • Family benefit: Families can bond through physical activities.
  • Additional Health Insurance
    • Employee and family benefit: Families can save money on unexpected health emergencies.
  • Life Insurance Policies
    • Employee benefit: Employees, knowing that the policy will take care of their families if the worst should happen, feel higher loyalty toward their employers.
    • Family benefit: Families do not have to pay as much for life insurance policies.

Like with all voluntary benefits, employees pay a reduced cost compared to if they had obtained these services on their own. However, when it comes to providing voluntary benefits to employees with children, employers must consider not only how many employees have children, but also those children’s ages. As children age, so do parents’ priorities. Employees with young children may sign up for a life insurance policy, while employees with high school-aged children may desire something different.

That’s where myKlovr comes in.

How myKlovr’s Voluntary Benefit Meet Employers’ Needs

MyKlovr’s revolutionary voluntary benefit provides employers a new and unique way to attract and retain employees with high school-aged children. For a low monthly rate, students can make a custom profile, and after answering a few simple questions, receive individualized college admissions advice.

The system works by helping high school students create a series of academic and extracurricular goals for their freshman-senior years. Parents and other trusted adults (e.g., teachers, counselors) can view these goals at any time and keep track of when and how students complete them.

Students’ myKlovr accounts also boast a portfolio wherein students can curate their best academic achievements (e.g., research papers, projects, awards, etc.). This way, students do not have to rummage through four years’ worth of work when it comes time to write college application essays and ask teachers for recommendations.

Final Thoughts

To attract and retain the best talent, your company should offer voluntary benefits that positively impact employees and their families’ well-being. Start by researching your employees’ family lives and preferences. And if myKlovr doesn’t meet your employees’ needs at this time, keep us in mind as your employees’ children reach their teenage years.

Your employees – and their families – will thank you.

Six Rising Trends in Voluntary Benefits for 2019

June 25, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

Voluntary benefits have shown great promise in supplementing traditional benefits packages that include health insurance and retirement savings plans. However, attracting top talent means that companies must continuously refine which benefits they offer employees and how they roll out these benefits. For this reason, employers must keep up to date with the latest trends in voluntary benefits – trends that have a significant impact on employee retention.

That said, let’s look at six rising trends that employers should pay close attention to for the remainder of 2019.

Voluntary Benefits Are Expected Benefits

The first trend is not so much a type of voluntary benefit but an essential fact that all employers should know. By the end of 2019, most employees will want to work for companies that offer flexible benefits packages that provide some choice. Voluntary benefits provide employees agency, and even the smallest amount of agency can forge a bond between employees and their employers. 

Student Loan Relief

Students loans take years if not decades to pay back, and the stress of paying off loans can have a detrimental impact on your employees’ work performance. Also, consider retention. Employees burdened with loans are more likely to leave for another company that pays them a higher salary.

To offer student loan relief, your company matches student loan repayments up to a set dollar amount. The system works in much the same way as retirement matching. A student loan relief program can instill employee loyalty, as employees can pay off their loans faster than they would have been able to otherwise. Your company can also supplement this benefit by holding seminars on student debt – educating employees on other strategies they can use to pay off their loans and build excellent credit.

Financial Guidance

Young employees have more financial difficulties than student loans. Many employees struggle with saving, budgeting, and other skills. An automated savings plan costs your company very little and can go far in convincing employees that you have their best interests at heart.

In addition to savings plans, professional development courses and other tools can help your employees build their financial skills. No longer worried as much about savings or debt, they can focus more on their jobs.

Multi-Generation Support

In the generations since the Second World War, companies that offer childcare services have attracted employees with young families. However, as America ages, more and more employees find themselves caring for elderly parents and grandparents, as well. These responsibilities can negatively affect even the most talented and hard-working employees.

You can offer multi-generation support through discounts on elder care (e.g., nursing services, physical therapists) and additional financial assistance for employees who act as a family member’s sole caregiver.

Multi-generational support means much more than aiding employees’ infants and elderly family members. It also means helping employees’ school-aged children.  myKlovr created our virtual college counseling service as a voluntary benefit that prepares high school students for college admissions success. Employees receive this benefit at a low cost and can use the app to check in on their children’s college preparation goals at any time of day.

Professional Development

Employees in hundreds of professions take professional development courses to maintain their professional licenses. These courses can cost hundreds of dollars a year, even if employees receive other discounts through professional organizations. Employers who provide group rates on professional development courses can save not only their employees money but also time. Employees without their employers’ support often waste hours researching professional development courses that meet recertification requirements. By helping their employees save time and money, employers can further raise their employees’ loyalty and job satisfaction

Keep Employees Informed

Making voluntary benefits a success at your company requires much more than a company-wide email or form. To ensure that voluntary benefits become a cornerstone of your company’s corporate culture, you have to invest the time and money to ensure that all employees understand voluntary benefits and stay up to date with the latest benefits your company offers. Consider investing in professional development, seminars, videos, and simple ‘how to’ guides. Once employees become acclimated to voluntary benefits, you can release more periodic updates.

Finally, keep prospective employees up to date by prominently displaying your latest voluntary benefits on your company or organization’s website.

Final Thoughts

Trends evolve, which means that companies must update their benefits every year to meet employees’ changing needs. This way, companies never lose out on attracting and retaining the best talent.

Voluntary Benefits: A Primer for Employers

June 11, 2019

By Thomas Broderick

From catered lunches to flexible work schedules, employers are doing everything they can to attract top talent away from other companies. Although attractive to employees, these benefits and perks can cost employers a tremendous amount of money. Also, not all employers can afford these services, especially when they already pay for traditional benefits packages. However, in this era of record-low unemployment, all employers must experiment with new and unique benefits. One such option involves voluntary benefits.

What Are Voluntary Benefits

The following chart breaks down some key differences between traditional and voluntary benefits.

Traditional Benefits Voluntary Benefits
Employees receive them automatically. Employees select some benefits from a list of options.
Employers pay the cost. Employees pay the cost, but a much lower price as they receive a group rate.
As every major employer offers them, companies do not stand out to prospective employees. By curating a unique list of voluntary benefits, employers can target a particular group of professionals (e.g., millennials with young families) they want to recruit and retain.

Now that you know how traditional and voluntary benefits differ, here are some popular voluntary benefits that companies are offering their employees:

  • Identify theft protection
  • Critical-illness insurance
  • Pet insurance
  • Student-loan refinancing
  • Public transportation passes

To create a benefit for employees, companies partner with a second company — a benefits broker or professional employer organization (PEO) — that manages the benefit. The two companies agree on how the benefit will work and how much employees will pay. This process costs the employer very little; the company offering the benefit knows it will make its profit from the other company’s employees. Companies can offer their employees as many or as few voluntary benefits as they please.

Should My Company Offer Voluntary Benefits?

Voluntary benefits provide a host of advantages with little to no drawback for your company. By researching the most popular voluntary benefits and surveying your employees, you can determine which benefits would best attract and retain talented professionals.

If your company has never offered voluntary benefits, employees will need to learn how these benefits can complement their traditional benefits packages. You might consider holding a company-wide seminar or training session to educate employees about voluntary benefits.

After you roll out voluntary benefits, be sure to judge your employees’ reactions and adjust benefits accordingly. Just because employees responded positively to a benefit in a survey does not automatically mean that they will stay with your company if they should receive a better offer. In other words, providing the best voluntary benefits requires continuous fine tuning, especially if your company experiences moderate to high turnover.

MyKlovr’s Unique Voluntary Benefit

The best college admission counselors often charge over $100/hour for their services, making them out of reach for most families. Since 2017, myKlovr has striven to create an affordable virtual college admission advising program for high school students and their families. For a flat monthly fee, students receive expert, tailored advice to help them raise their chances for college admission success.

Our benefit appeals to employees who could not otherwise afford college admission counseling for their high school-aged children. As of the writing of this article, myKlovr has partnered with the following companies to bring our service to families in need:

By selecting myKlovr as part of your company’s voluntary benefits package, you convey to employees that you care about their lives outside of the office. With their children’s college advising in good hands, employees can direct more energy toward their work.

Your Next Step

Now that you understand voluntary benefits and how they can help your company, consider hiring a consultant – preferably a survey researcher — to determine which benefits best match your and your employees’ needs.

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