The Wellness Perk Companies Should Consider This Year (It’s not Kombucha)

2024 has arrived. How are your employees feeling? The new year is always a time when well-being is top of mind – and more importantly the changes we can make to achieve it. At a time when the uncontrollable – economic uncertainty, rising prices, market volatility – weigh heavy on many, focusing on the kind of positive change you can control is more important than ever.

It may be easy to imagine the financial well-being that guaranteed retirement income can bring in the future. But knowing you’ll have that spending money in the future could offer a serotonin boost now.

Our latest Read on Retirement™ report found that that 64% of workplace savers say that just thinking about having to generate their own retirement income worries them – a trend that has been increasing significantly over the last two years. And it’s well-documented that financial strain can spill over into work, too. In fact, PwC’s 2023 Employee Financial Wellness Survey found that one in three full-time employees say that money worries have negatively impacted their productivity. The good news is our report found that nearly 90% of workplace savers say having access to guaranteed retirement income would positively impact their well-being.

It’s time for employers to respond, and it’s why we’re developing an investment solution that aims to replicate the feeling of a paycheck once you’ve retired. The LifePath Paycheck™ solution embeds the option to purchase annuities issued by selected insurers into a target date strategy, which is where employers come in. Ninety-three percent of workplace savers say such a solution is appealing, and 71% said they would save more if their plan offered them a guaranteed retirement income solution.

These sentiments were shared across generations – from Gen Z to Boomers – signaling that employees at all stages in their career are craving a workplace benefit that helps them not only save, but spend, in retirement. At a time of such economic volatility that sentiment is no surprise, and employers should take note. Forget the office ping-pong table and kombucha on tap – workers want to experience the security of a lifetime paycheck. They also want to know how much they can spend each year in retirement, our report found. It’s why we’ve developed the LifePath® Spending Tool, which is designed to calculate retirement spending potential.

It’s widely reported that when workers thrive, businesses do, too. “The benefits of improving well-being have serious implications for business outcomes,” Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace: 2023 Report said, including metrics measuring profitability, productivity, and turnover. Employees aren’t working toward the gold watch anymore. They’re working toward golden sunsets. And they want the serenity now that saving for later brings.