The data is unambiguous: employees don't enroll in voluntary benefits because they don't know those benefits exist. What's less clear is what benefits brokers and their employer clients should do about it and when.
Kerry Brooks, SVP of Group Protection Product, Workplace Solutions Marketing and Customer Experience at Lincoln Financial in Radnor, Pennsylvania, says employers should start earlier, communicate more often, and make the language matter.
Brooks spoke with Insurance Business Benefits US as Lincoln Financial and the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) published the final installment of a three-part research series examining employer, broker, and employee views on voluntary benefits. The employee survey, which covered 1,130 benefits-eligible workers, found that approximately 50 percent of employees are unaware of the voluntary benefits their employer makes available - a figure Brooks said is validated by Lincoln's own 2025 Wellness at Work study.
The findings build on IBB's earlier coverage of EBRI Issue Brief No. 663, which found that workers absorbing $1,000 medical bills are not enrolling in the supplemental health coverage that would offset those costs. The problem, the research concluded, is not product resistance, but awareness.
The single most important shift brokers can recommend to employer clients, according to Brooks, is treating benefits communication as a 12-month discipline rather than a pre-enrollment sprint.
"Open enrollment should never be the first time an employee hears about or understands a benefit," she said. "Consistent education throughout the year builds that familiarity and creates some degree of confidence through education before enrollment happens."
The EBRI data reinforces why this matters with more than half of employees reporting spending four hours or fewer reviewing enrollment materials, according to the research. When employees are moving quickly through a document stack during a compressed enrollment window, voluntary benefits are the first thing to get lost. Year-round communication builds the baseline of awareness that makes enrollment decisions meaningful rather than reflexive.
Brooks also emphasized the role of delivery channel variety. Reaching employees through a combination of email, digital benefit portals, and printed materials acknowledges that workers receive and process information differently and that a single-channel approach will consistently miss segments of the workforce.
"I don't think the opportunity is necessarily adding more benefits or adding more features to plans," she said. "It's ultimately helping employees understand the benefits that already exist."
The EBRI research identified a specific, replicable mechanism for closing the enrollment gap. When employees were shown plain-language descriptions of what each supplemental health product covers and how it pays out, interest in enrolling rose substantially - 71 percent expressed interest in accident insurance, 76 percent in critical illness coverage, and 63 percent in hospital indemnity insurance after reading clear product descriptions.
Brooks said this finding aligns with Lincoln's approach of connecting the benefit to the employee's actual life circumstances, not to a product specification.
"The language that we use, the examples, case studies to help an employee better understand the connection between the benefit and their point in time in life, their status - to explain those things in a way that they can better grasp and understand," she said.
This is also, she said, the way to cut through the noise of rising healthcare costs. With group health premiums dominating employer and employee attention, voluntary benefits risk being treated as secondary. Brooks said the solution is to use healthcare cost anxiety as the opening, not the obstacle.
"If you're connecting the dots through real-life examples of how certain benefits can offset future expenses due to health-related conditions, you make that connection for the employee on the value of these benefits much clearer," she said.
The EBRI data supports this framing: 73 percent of surveyed employees had experienced at least one medical event costing more than $500 in the past five years, and 53 percent of those had paid at least $1,000 out of pocket. Only 28 percent said they were very prepared for a $1,000 unexpected expense. The financial vulnerability is documented. The coverage exists. The missing link is communication.
Beyond employee financial protection, the Lincoln-EBRI research points to direct business performance implications. According to the 2026 findings, 74 percent of employers that offer voluntary benefits report positive effects on recruitment, retention, and employee performance.
"What stands out is that employers are making a clear connection between benefits and business outcomes," Brooks said. "When nearly three-quarters of employers say voluntary benefits are having a positive impact on recruitment, retention and employee performance, it's a strong indicator that benefits are becoming an increasingly important part of the broader workforce strategy."
The research also found that many employers have not yet fully expanded their supplemental health offerings; a signal that the market opportunity for both brokers and employers remains largely untapped.
"That suggests there's still an opportunity for more to be done, both to support employees' financial well-being and to help employers get even greater value from their benefits programs," Brooks said.
With open enrollment underway at many US employers, Brooks offered specific near-term guidance. In the next 30 to 60 days, brokers should focus on helping employers simplify their communication materials and lean on carrier resources to do it efficiently.
"Most carriers offer materials as well, and ensuring that they're leveraging what the carrier is bringing forth to enable the employer to help tell that story to their population," she said.
For year-round strategy, Brooks recommends communicating to both enrolled and non-enrolled employees on separate tracks. For enrolled workers, the message centers on utilization - reinforcing that they have coverage and know how to use it. For those who have not enrolled, the goal is sustained narrative-building: demonstrating through concrete examples how voluntary benefits protect employees and their families when a health event occurs.
The measure of a strong voluntary benefits education strategy, Brooks said, is straightforward: enrollment increasing over time as a direct result of consistent education.
Brokers and plan sponsors can access the full three-part Lincoln-EBRI research series through the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Additional context on broker communication strategy and supplemental health coverage is available in IBB's coverage of how employee benefits strategy must extend beyond the medical plan and the employee benefits education gap that is costing employers money.
