The Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM Executive Summary of Wellness Results - Fourth Quarter 2007
The Principal Financial Group®, the nation's 401(k) leader, commissioned Harris Interactive® to conduct online research with employees (ages 18+) of small and mid-sized (SMB) U.S. businesses (firm size 10 - 1,000 employees) about their attitudes and perceptions regarding their financial well being and their current employee benefits. To compare responses, Harris Interactive also interviewed a group of retirees. Harris Interactive conducted The Principal Financial Well-Being Index survey online among 1,154 employees and 514 retirees from October 22-October 30, 2007. Data were weighted to be representative of the entire population of adult employees working for small to midsized U.S. businesses and retirees on the basis of age by gender, age, education, race/ethnicity, region, income and propensity to be online. With a probability sample size of 1,154 and 514, one can say with 95% probability that the overall results would have a sampling error of ± 2.71 percentage points and ± 4.21 percentage points respectively. Sampling error for data based on sub-samples may be higher and may vary. However, that does not take other sources of error into account. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no theoretical sampling error can be calculated. This is one in a series of quarterly studies to identify and track changes in the workplace of small and mid-sized (growing) businesses. The first Principal Financial Well-Being IndexSM survey was conducted in the United States in 2000.
Key Findings
- Wellness Benefits - The top three wellness benefits offered are educational tools or resources (14%), fitness center discounts (14%), and fitness facilities (11%). As would be expected, wellness benefits are more likely to be offered at larger firms (501-1000 employees).
- Wellness Benefits Desired - To understand what wellness benefits employees desire, employees were given a list of benefits not currently offered by their firms and asked to pick the top 3 they would like to see offered. Fitness facilities received the highest percentage of mentions (34%). Nearly one fourth (23%) responded they would prefer to see their employer offer "none of these".
- Health Plan Options - Forty-two percent of employees have more than one health plan option available. The percentage of employees (11%) reporting that they have no health plan options is up significantly from the percentage reported in 2006 (8%). The bigger the firm, the more likely there are multiple health plan options available. Firms with 10 to 500 employees are more likely to offer no health options or only one option. In contrast, firms with 501 to 1,000 employees are more likely to offer 3 health plan options or 4 or more health plan options.
- Anticipated Medical Insurance Changes - Employees who are offered health insurance through their employer were asked what they anticipate will happen with their insurance in 2008. Sixty percent expect their premiums will increase, over a third (38%) expect their deductibles will increase, 21% expect their plan options will change, and the same percentage expect that their coverage will be reduced.
- Health Plan with Wellness Component - Employees were asked to rate their interest in a new health plan which contains a wellness component that would allow employees to have reduced deductibles and co-payments. Forty-five percent of employees expressed some level of interest (either somewhat interested or very interested) in this type of health plan. A third of employees were either somewhat or very uninterested in the plan. Nearly a quarter (23%) was neither interested nor uninterested in the plan. Employees in firm sizes of 501 to 1,000 employees (42%) are significantly more likely than are employees in firm sizes of 10 to 500 employees (31%) to be uninterested in this health plan.
