Fall is about more than pumpkin spice and leather boots. The season also marks the open enrollment period for health insurance plans. Thus, this is the perfect time to rethink the benefits you are using at your job. In the United States, 63% of workers are leaving money on the table by not taking full advantage of health and wellness benefits offered by their jobs, according to a Career Builder study.
Keep reading for some of the biggest benefits you might be missing out on at work, and when you finish this article, shoot a quick email to your boss to ask about signing up for more.
1. Counseling Services
Counseling is an employee benefit that oftentimes goes unused. Many employers offer some form of mental health counseling, whether over the phone or in person. These benefits typically cover a small number of sessions each month free of charge, or at a reduced rate. When you first start a job, these services might be discussed specifically for suicide prevention or counseling after a traumatic event.
With a bit of digging however, you might learn that your job covers therapy sessions regardless of the reason. Give your human resources department a call or reach out to the counseling service selected by your job to understand what’s available to you.
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2. Vacation Days
In spite of the uptick in travel by Americans, people are still not using up their vacation days. If you’re reading this, please take your vacation days!
According to a Glassdoor study, Americans in 2017 left 50% of their vacation time unused. That’s like actual money just left behind. More than money, skipping out on vacation days can negatively impact employees’ work productivity and mental health.
So someone might think they are helping their company by skipping a vacation day or two, when in fact, they are only making things worse for their jobs and their own stress levels. In some cases, employees opt to stay at work instead of taking a few days off because they can’t find the perfect getaway. But a vacation spent at home is just as beneficial to employees as a vacation to a faraway destination. This is why the word “staycation” exists in the first place.
If employees need more convincing to take some time off from work, studies have found that ongoing stress can lead to serious health conditions like anxiety, depression, and even heart disease. If you’re trying to stay slim, stress is a killer to your body goals. When someone’s body is constantly in stress, their blood sugar levels stay high, throwing their appetite, cravings, and entire system out of whack. Taking a day or two of vacation time can add years to your life, which you can use at work, or on the beach, that part is up to you
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3. Fitness & Wellness
One perk that is becoming more common is coverage for gym fees and even items that help you focus on your health and fitness. Some companies give their employees a certain dollar amount each year to cover gym fees, tennis shoes, weight loss programs, exercise monitors, and more. If it keeps you healthy, it could be covered by your job. You should definitely check in with your boss or human resource manager to learn about potential benefits that you haven’t been using.
Alternatively, if your company has not yet started to cover such items, sit down with your human resources department and let them know why they should cover costs related to health and fitness. Employees who exercise regularly incur fewer health insurance expenses for companies and they take fewer sick days. So it really is a win-win.
4. Remote Working
Another trend among workplaces across the country is going remote. Larger companies and small startups alike are opting to allow employees to work from home, or sometimes from anywhere in the world. Working from home can be a major perk as it can save employees money on their normal commute and maximize the available time they have to work during the day. Employees with the option to work from home are often more capable of balancing their day to day responsibilities like family, healthcare, and more when they have just a bit more flexibility in where they work.
What’s even better is that some companies are giving employees the freedom to work from anywhere on the globe, if their job responsibilities allow. Companies like Travel Noire and Remote Year are even jumping on this trend by equipping employees with the steps to take their jobs abroad.
Travel Noire hosts a master class to promote remote work for employees looking to see the world, but keep their jobs intact. Remote Year organizes small groups of remote workers to country-hop while they work. Remote Year finds swanky apartments and the best destinations around the world for exploration and remote working. Like Travel Noir, Remote Year helps employees pitch the idea to live and work abroad to their employers to help make the transition possible.
5. 401(k) Contributions
It might be 2019, but apparently there are still people out there who don’t contribute to their 401(k)s. This benefit is actual free money that many employees leave behind if their companies match their employees’ contributions up to a certain percent. Whatever that matching percentage is, it’s a must that employees contribute at least that amount to get all the free money they possibly can (e.g., if a company matches up to 8% of an employee’s salary, that employee should contribute at least 8% of their salary to see 16% of their salaries go to their savings.)
As a refresher, a 401(k) is a retirement savings plan offered by just about every company and it allows employees to put money away before that money is taxed. The only catch is that there are limitations to withdrawing from a 401(k) before the age of 59 1/2 without penalty. However, you might be able to borrow against your 401(k) for major life events like buying a home or paying for medical expenses.
The great thing is that you are just borrowing from yourself, and you will pay yourself back like you would with any other loan. If you don’t know how your company’s 401(k) plan works, talk to your human resource manager ASAP and make sure you max out those benefits and beef up your long term savings.
How To Get That “Free” Money
If you are not taking advantage of all the benefits your company offers, here are some steps to help you get that “free” money:
- Read your company’s employee site for yourself to find all the benefits available to you. (It’s not rare to find that some companies don’t go shouting their benefits from a rooftop.)
- Schedule a meeting with your human resource manager and talk about signing up for benefits. Be sure to get clarity on those benefits that you are unsure of.
- If there are things that you want that your company does not yet offer, don’t be afraid to ask about benefits that don’t exist. You never know until you ask!
- When looking for new jobs, ask about benefits during interviews or talk to human resource departments after you get an offer so you can be clear about what you’re getting into.
Sharita Jennings is a fitness and travel enthusiast and creator of Get Fit Like That, LLC. She is a health policy attorney and ACE certified group fitness instructor and fitness nutrition specialist. She provides online fitness plans and leads group fitness classes in Washington DC. Check out her fitness tips and workouts at GetFitLikeThat.com.
