How Employers Are Rethinking Worker Well-Being

Tim Leier’s household runs on two directions of care at once. He looks after a parent and a child; his manager does the same for a parent, a child, and a grandchild. Leier, director of HR international benefits at Ecolab, described his own “sandwich generation” experience and said the company has leaned into on-site healthcare, wellness providers, and caregiving support that spans generations.

It’s the kind of arrangement benefits leaders now build entire strategies around, as employees across multiple generations and life stages bring different needs, responsibilities, and expectations to the workplace.

That reality was the starting point for a panel on holistic and inclusive well-being strategies for a multigenerational workforce at From Day One’s September virtual conference. “I believe this is the first time we have five generations working side by side in the workforce,” said session moderator Courtney Vinopal, a senior reporter for HR Brew. 

Populations Are Bigger Than Age Groups

The panelists agreed early on that generation alone rarely explains what an employee needs. Jacki Schwartz, a global people solutions business partner at Concentrix, says her company of roughly 450,000 employees worldwide focuses less on age and more on life circumstances such as caregiving, family status, and financial well-being. “We approach it from a lens of inclusion and flexibility,” she said.

That view held across industries. Julie Lawrence, VP, HR business partner, at ISS Facility Services, says that about 80% of her company’s workforce delivers services directly at client sites, so access to a computer, mobile phone, or even information in an employee’s preferred language can shape how benefits are communicated and delivered.

Mamie Wheaton, CFP, CFDA, CCC, and director of financial planning at LearnLux, put a finer point on it: two employees from the same generation can have completely different financial situations, so her team weighs life stage, income, and financial complexity ahead of age. “We don’t assume that someone’s generation tells us exactly what their financial needs are,” Wheaton said.

The Importance of Supporting Caregivers

Supporting workers with caregiving responsibilities also comes with difficult decisions about how much employers can afford to provide. Leier says the company has been looking for ways to provide meaningful support while keeping a close eye on costs. “The money’s not growing on trees, so we’re getting a lot of pressure every day to make sure we’re not overspending,” he said.

Lawrence also pointed to the growing need to support workers as they balance caregiving with their own health needs. ISS Facility Services introduced women’s health benefits covering reproductive care and menopause, along with specific benefits supporting men’s health, as employees navigate caregiving responsibilities alongside their own health needs, she says. “They’re not only trying to take care of kids at home or aging parents, but they also need to be prioritizing their own health,” Lawrence said.

Personalizing Choice Without Creating Overload

Every panelist described some version of the same tension: employees want choice, but too many options create confusion. At Concentrix, leaders use a tiered flex benefit system paired with an AI-enabled benefits portal so employees can ask questions and select what applies to their families, says Schwartz. 

Leier said Ecolab is looking for opportunities to offer evergreen elections, so employees who are happy with their choices don’t have to revisit them every year. 

But even a well-designed benefit only helps if employees know it exists, the panelists agreed. Wheaton described sending LearnLux teams directly into manufacturing facilities to reach shift workers, planning around shift changes and offering support in other languages, including Spanish, rather than relying solely on a benefits website. 

Leier says Ecolab has found some shift workers prefer an on-site kiosk while some office employees favor a mobile app, so the company avoids a one-size-fits-all channel. He added that Ecolab wants personalization to remain associate-driven rather than relying too heavily on AI, and that the company is cautious about using AI for decisions involving HIPAA or other regulatory considerations.

Cost Pressure Is Reshaping Every Decision

With health care costs continuing to put pressure on benefits budgets, the panelists described approaches including preventive care, simpler access to benefits, and financial guidance to help employees make informed choices. Lawrence said ISS has focused on reducing fragmentation, since a valuable benefit that employees can’t easily navigate becomes wasted spending.

Wheaton noted that LearnLux increasingly helps employees weigh premiums against deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums so they choose a plan suited to their actual needs rather than defaulting to the cheapest option.

Utilization Isn’t the Only Measure of Success

Asked how they judge whether a benefit is working, the panelists pushed back on relying solely on usage data. Leier, who described himself as “a recovering actuary,” said Ecolab’s employee assistance program has modest everyday participation but proved essential during crises in Ukraine and Venezuela, when utilization spiked sharply. Schwartz described bringing a leave-administration process back in-house after employee surveys showed the outsourced version added stress during already difficult moments, a decision driven by sentiment rather than usage numbers.

Looking ahead, Wheaton predicted that the biggest shift will be rising expectations for personalization, as employees accustomed to tailored experiences elsewhere in their lives expect the same from their benefits. For a workforce spanning multiple generations and life stages, that growing expectation for personalization may be one of the most important challenges, and opportunities, facing benefits leaders.

Grace Turney is a St. Louis-based writer, artist, and former librarian. See more of her work at graceturney17.wixsite.com/mysite.

(Photo by AKart Design/iStock)