Voluntary Employee Benefits

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What are voluntary benefits?

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Sometimes called supplemental insurance or employee-paid benefits, voluntary benefits are offered by the employer through the workplace where employees can choose to buy them in addition to the core employee benefits they may get as part of a benefits package.

Payment options are typically flexible. To suit their budget, companies can choose whether voluntary employee benefits are:

• Fully employee-funded

• Part-funded by both employee and employer

In their Voluntary Benefits and Services (VBS) survey, Willis Towers Watson highlighted four critical life needs that voluntary benefits fulfill:

• Health – typically helping employee well-being, while minimizing health risk at a reasonable cost

• Wealth accumulation – protecting income and assets (Willis Towers Watson calls this one Wealth, but arguably a more relevant term is “Lifestyle”)

• Security – protecting our survivors, vulnerable people or even people’s identities

• Personal – products that cover what’s important to the individual interests and needs of the person

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