November 19, 2025
How Voluntary Benefits Help Employers Save Money
Offering voluntary benefits is a powerful way to control the costs of your employee benefits package. Unlike core benefits, such as employer-sponsored health insurance, which are paid for largely or solely by the employer, voluntary benefits are elective, and employees pay the premiums through payroll deduction. In other words, employers don’t bear the insurance cost, and this shift in financial responsibility produces immediate cost savings.
Customizing a menu of voluntary benefits to suit employee demographics allows you to address the personal, health and financial needs of a diverse workforce. This increases worker satisfaction, which enhances hiring, engagement, productivity, and loyalty and contributes to stronger organizational performance and profitability.
In a 2025 study, WorldatWork reports that 51% of employers now view voluntary benefits as a tool for attracting and retaining talent. That’s up from 31% in 2023.
Key Features of Voluntary Benefits
Voluntary benefit solutions fall into three broad categories that reach across needs and stages of life. They are insurance-based, financially focused, and family- or lifestyle-focused. These solutions share four common features:
- They’re fully elective, so employees are free to accept or decline coverage for themselves and eligible family members.
- Premiums are lower than individual plans due to group rates and other employer-negotiated discounts.
- Premiums are fully funded by employees, so employers can provide expanded benefits without major expenditures.
- A wide variety of voluntary benefits are available, and the choice of offerings can be customized to the needs of the workforce.
Voluntary Benefits with the Greatest Impact
Some of today’s most popular and impactful voluntary insurance solutions span all three broad categories to address employees’ healthcare, financial, and lifestyle needs.
- Critical Illness insurance
- Accident insurance
- Life insurance
- Short- & long-term disability insurance
- Cancer insurance
- Hospital indemnity Insurance
- Mental health support
- Fertility benefits
- Health & financial wellness programs and apps
- Physical wellness programs
- Legal services
- Identity theft protection
- Telemedicine and virtual care
- Pet Insurance
How Voluntary Benefits Support HDHPs and HSAs
If you’ve introduced high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) and Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) to lower healthcare expenses, voluntary health insurance benefits can be an excellent complement. For example, critical illness, accident, and hospital indemnity benefits help employees feel more comfortable enrolling in an HDHP and an associated HSA. That’s because these voluntary benefit solutions provide lump sum, cash payouts that help fill gaps created by HDHP’s high out-of-pocket costs. They provide a financial safety net that reduces the out-of-pocket anxiety keeping many employees in costly traditional health plans and suppressing uptake of HDHP and HSAs.
A Win-Win Strategy for Employers and Employees
By providing employees with the option to purchase their own supplemental coverage, you can offer your workforce a more robust and attractive benefits package while directly saving on premiums, protecting the core health plan from upward cost pressure, and reducing the hidden expenses of poor morale, high turnover and lost productivity. These benefits offer a win-win strategy to strengthen your company’s bottom line while supporting the physical, mental and financial wellness of your employees.
Partner with Daybright to Find the Best Fit
Daybright cuts through the complexity of voluntary benefits to find the options that align with your organizational goals and employee demographics. Rely on our expertise in plan design, management, and compliance to make sure your chosen solution becomes a powerful, efficient and strategic asset for your business.