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Prudential study finds 23-point gap between employer and worker benefits views
Survey data from January shows the employer-employee care gap falls to 8 percentage points when benefits are seen as addressing employees current challenges, with costs driving concerns for workers under financial pressure.
A new Prudential Financial study highlights a disconnect between what employers think their benefits communicate and how employees perceive them, finding a 23-percentage-point gap in the overall “care” message.
Prudential reports that 89 percent of employers believe their benefits package shows they care about employees, while only 66 percent of employees agree. The study, conducted via national online surveys in January, questioned 3,096 full-time US employees and 760 employers.
The gap is not fixed, Prudential says, because it shrinks to 8 percentage points when employees believe benefits address the real challenges they face now, even though the benefit offering does not change. Prudential also finds employers are more optimistic than employees about benefits helping at any stage of life, with 85 percent of employers saying so versus 64 percent of employees.
Prudential says barriers are deepest for employees under financial pressure, including women, workers earning under $100,000 a year, and people living paycheck to paycheck. Among that group, 44 percent cite high premiums, high deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses as reasons benefits fall short, and Prudential recommends segmenting by household life stage to better understand engagement.