What ‘Aging’ Millennials Really Care About When it Comes to Their Benefits!

In a world where 15 minutes of fame has become 15 seconds, our greatest generation, the Millennials, are now preparing for retirement! Yep, that’s right kids, the Millennials are aging!

Pentegra recently released there 2018 Millennial Benefit Report (because isn’t that what every Benefit Analyst/Mgr needs in their HR shop a report that only focuses on one part of your workforce!) and they found the Millennials are concerned with some things I don’t think most of us would expect:

– 401K and retirement savings were the #1 benefit concern amongst Millennials! (Did you expect that?)

– #2 concern? Health InsuranceĀ (expected) tied with Pensions (Um, what!? What Millennial is expecting a pension?)

– HR Pros ranked Telecommuting and Flex-time as important benefits for Millennials, even though, those didn’t make the top 5 for what Millennials actually ranked as important benefits. (Disconnect alert!)

HR pros also believe Millennials are basically idiots when it comes to understanding their health insurance benefits. News alert! We are all idiots when it comes to understanding our health insurance benefits because insurance companies make it extremely complex in hopes we won’t actually pay attention when they bill us for stuff they shouldn’t.

So, I’m on a rampage to get executives to stop calling young people “Millennials”. Millennials are old people now! They only care about their 401K, a pension plan, and if their health insurance will cover their hip replacements!

By the way, how can “Pension” be the #2 concern of Millennials? Of really anyone under the age of 70 at this point in our society!? Almost no organizations are giving out pensions anymore. In fact, I would bet that if you asked 100 Millennials to define “Pension” less than 10% could do it. I bet 100% of GenZ couldn’t do it!

I question any study that says it’s about Millenials and Benefits and lists pensions as a concern!

This brings up a really good point about the studies we keep wanting to show to our executive teams as valid data to make decisions. Most ‘studies’ you are getting from a vendor, aren’t really validated studies, but simple marketing materials designed to get you interested in the products and services they are pimping.

I don’t even know what Pentegra sells, but if I had to bet one of my kids on it, I’m guessing they’re selling retirement products to organizations. Without even knowing anything about them! Was I right?! Of course, I was!

So, what do you think? Are Millennials really concerned with 401Ks and Pensions? My guess is they’re probably more concerned with buying a house and raising their kids. That will lead to concerns about based pay, health insurance, and college savings. Does retirement come up, eventually? Sure it does. But, for most, it’s not #1.

 

6 thoughts on “What ‘Aging’ Millennials Really Care About When it Comes to Their Benefits!

  1. I’ll bet there are more studies on millennials than actual millennials out there! So sick of all these surveys. (and stereotypes)
    Guess I’m considered a ‘mature millennial’. I have a house and kids. Retirement is important to me, having watched as my parents and other family members lost almost everything during the recent recession, but so is paying down our debts and health insurance.
    Thanks for calling out this survey (and others like it). Now to get the rest of the industry on board!

  2. The reasons why millennials may not be as focused on retirement planning is that they need to pay off their debt and earn enough to actually be able to put some of that money aside and not just live month to month.

    Millennials want to retire, they want to have pensions, they want to have healthcare, they want to support their families. They are just people who have had to be practical and creative to make do with the hand they were dealt. Why does this need to be said?

  3. I agree that this study seems completely off & that it certainly is more of a marketing ploy more than anything. As a millennial (God I hate these labels) w/ kids you are correct in that my main concern is raising them & making enough to do so while putting something aside for their college. Retirement comes up but trying to survive & raise kids on less than 100k/yr kinda takes precedence. Flex time would have totally been my #1 because great health insurance w/o flex time makes utilizing the insurance harder; especially w/ the unpredictable life w/ kids. Thanks for your commentary on this”study”!

  4. I think older Millennials are concerned about retirement (born in 81, I actually consider myself an Xennial, a combo of GenX and Millennial). We grew up seeing our parents concerned about their retirement account, especially after 9/11 when many of our parents lost thousands from their retirement. So I want to make sure this doesn’t happen to me and I’m set when I do retire in 40 years. I also recently changed employer because of the lack of retirement benefits/options my previous employer offered (none at all). My new company has retirement benefits, retirement life insurance, and a better 401k match.

  5. I’m a Millennial and I have a pension. But I’m confident that some respondents didn’t’ know the difference between 401k and pension, and selected
    pension just thinking “retirement benefits.” Healthcare is my #1 concern (re: fear) in life. This is totally naive of me, but I was shocked when ADP’s deductible was $4K. That’s insane. Then my mom told me no, that’s normal, you work in a bubble.

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