Considerations for Plan Sponsors Headed into Open Enrollment 2025

Increasingly, benefits-eligible American workers are spending less time reviewing their workplace benefits, according to Voya.

Voya’s Dena Faccio, senior vice president of total rewards, has a top-of-mind consideration as she gears up for her company’s 2025 open enrollment.

“Benefits are no longer perks—they’re strategy,” said Faccio, in a statement. She says that this fall, plan sponsors should be communicating to employees what’s new, what’s different, and what actions are required of them.

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“When is [open enrollment] taking place? How long do [employees] have to take action? What are the things they [must act on], and what … will just roll over if they do nothing?” These are important considerations for plan sponsors, according to Faccio.

A Voya study reveals that in 2024, 49% of employed, benefits-eligible Americans reported spending less than 20 minutes reviewing workplace benefits information overall—a 7% increase from 2023. Faccio pointed to a statistic, reported by Schroders, that she summarizes as “employees spend[ing] more time thinking about what they want to watch on Netflix than they do … making choices around planning and investing for their futures.”

Age seems to correspond with time spent reviewing benefits. Generation Z employees, ages 14 to 30, and Generation X employees, ages 45 to 60, are significantly more likely to spend less time reviewing their workplace benefits compared to Baby Boomers, who fall between the ages of 61 and 79.

Millennial employees, ages 31 to 44, however, are outliers to the trend. While 8% more Millennials spent less than 20 minutes reviewing their benefits in 2024 than in 2023, only 48% spent less than 20 minutes reviewing, compared to 53% of Gen X that did so.

The greatest gap in review time comes between Gen Z and Boomers. Sixty percent of Gen Z spent 20 minutes or less reviewing their benefits in 2024, compared to 34% of Boomers who did the same.

Valuing the Voluntary

According to Voya’s research, 61% of benefits-eligible workers strongly agree or agree they took advantage of voluntary benefit options their employer offered during their most recent open enrollment. The same percentage said they were more confident in their financial security because of the voluntary benefits they chose.

Voluntary products can include permanent life insurance and long-term care benefits, which extend beyond an employee’s time with the employer, among other solutions. Such benefits may lessen the financial burden of a covered event, such as an illness or the death of a loved one.

Additionally, 55% of benefits-eligible workers strongly agree or agree they spent more time reviewing those voluntary benefit options than they did during their last open enrollment period. Despite a general decrease in the time plan participants spent reviewing benefits overall, Voya’s research indicates participants are tuned in to the voluntary offerings.

Guidance and Support

After the most recent open enrollment period, 75% of benefits-eligible workers expressed interest in support and guidance tools to help them understand how much to set aside for retirement, emergency savings and health care expenses.

Voya also found that 83% of full- and part-time workers consider receiving guidance on how to optimize their retirement savings to be extremely important or important. In turn, only 64% agreed they kept their benefits coverage the same as the prior year, down from 72% a year earlier.

Faccio highlighted, as an example, the importance of making sure participants who elect high-deductible plans enroll in health savings accounts. Last fall, the firm found only 3% of all respondents understood the full benefits of an HSA. Among participants that had an HSA, full-benefits knowledge was only slightly higher at 4%.

“Are we communicating about what’s new, what’s different, and what actions are needed?” Faccio asked. “It’s so important that we’re talking holistically.”

She says Voya has begun offering several new, trending products in the past two years, as well.

Access to Maven, an online clinical care platform that focuses primarily on supporting women experiencing menopause, is one solution Faccio says Voya uses to address the unique needs of the company’s multi-generational employees. Garner Health, one of Voya’s vendor partners, also offers a solution called Garner that has been popular with Voya’s plan participants. The solution helps participants find top providers and reduce the cost of their care under Voya’s medical plans.

“Every dollar our employers are not spending on … healthcare … we’re hoping they could put towards retirement savings,” Faccio said.

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