Mass customization's hoarse roar
Yeah, it's coming - so we keep hearing. But it's not really here yet.

I first started hearing that "consumerism is coming!" back in the early 2000s. It certainly seemed so. But like data warehouses, lakes, and oceans, herding water, cats, and people is a decidedly challenging endeavor.

I also remember talking with a pretty savvy benefits consultant about 6 or 7 years ago. He was all excited about all the data they had on a 40,000 life account: medical, pharma, a couple of point solutions, disability, well-being. He explained how it was all loaded into a leading data warehouse tool, and he showed me some dazzling reports. We talked for a while, and then it occurred to me to ask him, "So, what are you doing with all this data and all these reports?" I didn't really mean to throw him for a loop - but he kinda stuttered, "Uh, well, not much, really."

Same song, 14th verse
Of course, that was the rub - and we both actually laughed - because we knew we were on the right track, but finding the destination seemed as elusive as ever.

Employee needs, too, are more diverse today than they've ever been. Which means that true consumerism must be modular enough, and configurable enough, to deliver something on the order of at least a couple hundred different benefit combinations for, say, a 500+ life group (and exponentially more for larger groups). So, of course, we'll offer more choices! Indeed, research done by LIMRA in 2022 showed that a majority of employers - of all sizes - expected to add new benefits.

Employee #267: "What's right for me?"
More choice is, generally speaking, a good thing. Except when the sheer volume of options becomes overwhelming to the typical employee / consumer. Certainly, decision support tools are helping, but they're just now beginning to do a "pretty good job" of recommending the right combination of health and voluntary plans.

Clearly, if consumerism means anything, it means that the individual employee / consumer gets the "right" mix of plans - at an affordable cost - assembled by them (perhaps with digital decision or human counselor support) - and that leaves them feeling highly confident they've made really good decisions.

Employers actually face similar challenges, while - at the same time - they're also charged with controlling the overall benefit plan cost impact to the bottom line. Are we offering the right plans? From the right carriers? At the right costs? With favorable underwriting / employee access parameters? Are our decision support tools and processes really giving our people what they need?

It's not even cynical to observe that those are really hard questions to answer (at least, objectively).

"Survey says...!"
According to Voya research cited by SHRM last fall, 63% of employees indicated interest in voluntary benefits, up 18% from the previous year's 45%. But on the flip side, data from Alight on 450 employers, covering 9.5mm employees, showed that - while about half of them are offering Accident, Critical Illness and Hospital Indemnity plans - enrollment rates for those 3 plans top out at 20%!

Meanwhile...
Innovation certainly continues apace in the carrier space, with CIGNA adding an MSK benefit to its Critical Illness policies (Voluntary Benefits Voice, Sept 2023, pg. 17). This kind of "mash-up" of what has typically been a point solution, with what has always been a voluntary benefit, points to the bigger picture view that will continue to emerge as the lines between employer-paid health, well-being, and point solutions, and employee-paid voluntary plans, continue to blur.

Personalization means making human connections
Think about what it means - what it takes - for the industry and its constituent players - to deliver a holistic view of all of the above. Consumerism requires personalization - and personalization is really more than just more choices. To really get the rubber to meet the road, we need to connect with employees in a way that's personally meaningfully to them.

So, how do we do that? It will continue to be a nigh-on overwhelming challenge to fully and compellingly explain how all the different product offerings work, much less for employers and vendors to teach employees how to assemble their own "right portfolio."

But we can come at this from a different, and even simpler, angle - a values-based angle. If we know how an employee views the world, and what motivates them, then - regardless of the product features - we can frame those benefits in terms of how the employee has already decided the world works - for them.

The last word
In the benefits world, we talk a lot about security - and security is more a feeling than it is an objective, tangible state. But if we can show / tell / reveal to an employee that our product offerings can help them feel:

• that they're more in control (Self Achievers), or that

• they're getting maximum flexibility (Balance Seekers), or

• they're ensuring that those who count on them are taken care of (Priority Jugglers), or

• they're getting plans that are highly-vetted by credentialed experts (Direction Takers), or that

• they can put their worries behind them so they can make today the best it can be (Willful Endurers)...

...then we've accomplished a new - and deeper - and more fulfilling kind of personalization.

Because, after all, every employee is also a consumer, and all employees and consumers are also humans - first.

~ Mark Head
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