Participation across benefits, wellness, and perks programs rises mainly through communication, timing, and lower friction, not through adding programs, because utilization is low by default and more options can suppress it. In one large study of 401(k) menus, participation fell by roughly 2 percentage points for every 10 extra investment funds offered [5][6], and RAND found that only 20 to 40 percent of eligible employees use a given wellness component in a year [4]. The strongest single lever is the default, since automatic enrollment sharply raises retirement participation [12], though defaults are legally bounded: SECURE 2.0 governs 401(k) auto-enrollment [1][2], and wellness programs that ask medical questions must stay voluntary and confidential [13]. A single open enrollment email also misses the many frontline staff with no company inbox [14], and confidentiality is its own lever: only about 4 percent of employees use an employee assistance program in a typical year, with confidentiality and job fears among the reasons [9]. Track the funnel from aware to understood to enrolled to using, not enrollment alone [10].
\n","summary":"Low utilization is normal across benefits, wellness, and perks. What raises it is communication that reaches people, timing tied to onboarding, open enrollment, life events and paydays, less friction to enroll, honest defaults where the law allows, manager involvement, and measuring the funnel from aware to using rather than enrollment alone. Adding more programs rarely helps and can lower engagement through choice overload. Confidentiality communication is itself an adoption lever.","publishedAt":"2026-07-22T12:25:12.777","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","editorialStatus":"APPROVED","lastReviewedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","nextReviewDueAt":"2026-10-22T00:00:00","templateVersion":"v2","aliases":["How do I increase employee benefits participation?","How to boost wellness program participation","Why do employees not use their benefits and perks?","How to improve benefits enrollment and utilization","Employee benefits communication strategy for adoption","How to raise EAP and wellness utilization","Getting employees to use perks and discount platforms","Benefits adoption best practices","How to measure benefits utilization not just enrollment","Using defaults and nudges to increase benefits participation","Why is wellness program participation so low","How to communicate benefits to deskless employees"],"confidenceScore":85,"confidenceLabel":"High","canonicalUrl":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"contributorOrganizationProfile":{"entityId":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","legalName":null,"description":null,"websiteUrl":null,"imageUrl":null,"slogan":null,"subtitle":null,"facts":[],"coiNote":null,"foundingDate":null,"numberOfEmployeesText":null,"contactPoint":null,"address":null,"headquartersText":null,"organizationType":null},"contributorPerson":{"slug":"answerstack-editorial-team","displayName":"AnswerStack Editorial Team"},"sections":[{"id":"6eea5a7d-301a-46db-9b23-d7ee5b177e42","sectionKey":"why_participation_stays_low","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Why participation stays low, and what actually moves it","introMarkdown":"Low utilization is the normal starting point, not a sign that something has gone wrong. RAND's national study found that only 20 to 40 percent of eligible employees take part in any given wellness component in a year, with incentives lifting the median from about 20 percent to about 40 percent and penalties pushing it higher [4]. Many programs sit well below even that: only about 4 percent of employees at midsize and large employers use an employee assistance program annually, though most employers offer one and run some wellness program [8][9]. The practical question is rarely whether to buy another benefit; it is how to get people to notice, understand, and use what already exists.\n\nAdding programs rarely fixes adoption, and it can make things worse. When a 401(k) plan offered more funds, participation dropped by about 2 percentage points for every 10 additional options, across nearly 800,000 employees in 647 plans [5][6]. That is choice overload: past a point, more options raise the effort of deciding, so more people default to doing nothing. The same thing happens when a benefits portal grows into a wall of programs nobody navigates, so a shorter set that people enroll in beats a longer catalog that sits idle.\n\n### The levers that move the numbers\n\nFour levers do most of the work: communication that reaches people where they are, timing built around the moments that prompt action, less friction to enroll, and honest defaults where the law allows them. Manager involvement runs underneath all four, since a frontline manager mentioning a benefit shifts more behavior than an HR broadcast. None of this depends on spending more; it depends on treating adoption as a design problem with a measurable drop-off.","introHtml":"Low utilization is the normal starting point, not a sign that something has gone wrong. RAND's national study found that only 20 to 40 percent of eligible employees take part in any given wellness component in a year, with incentives lifting the median from about 20 percent to about 40 percent and penalties pushing it higher [4]. Many programs sit well below even that: only about 4 percent of employees at midsize and large employers use an employee assistance program annually, though most employers offer one and run some wellness program [8][9]. The practical question is rarely whether to buy another benefit; it is how to get people to notice, understand, and use what already exists.
\nAdding programs rarely fixes adoption, and it can make things worse. When a 401(k) plan offered more funds, participation dropped by about 2 percentage points for every 10 additional options, across nearly 800,000 employees in 647 plans [5][6]. That is choice overload: past a point, more options raise the effort of deciding, so more people default to doing nothing. The same thing happens when a benefits portal grows into a wall of programs nobody navigates, so a shorter set that people enroll in beats a longer catalog that sits idle.
\nFour levers do most of the work: communication that reaches people where they are, timing built around the moments that prompt action, less friction to enroll, and honest defaults where the law allows them. Manager involvement runs underneath all four, since a frontline manager mentioning a benefit shifts more behavior than an HR broadcast. None of this depends on spending more; it depends on treating adoption as a design problem with a measurable drop-off.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":10},{"id":"ae228681-f977-4776-aca8-aaa17d43c83c","sectionKey":"adoption_funnel","sectionType":"table_section","heading":"Where does adoption break down across the funnel?","introMarkdown":"Adoption breaks at four points, and each has a different fix, so it pays to find the weak stage before changing anything. The funnel runs from being aware a benefit exists, to understanding it well enough to choose, to enrolling, to actually using it. Enrollment counts can look healthy while usage stays low, which is how a program passes on paper and still fails the people it was meant to help [10].","introHtml":"Adoption breaks at four points, and each has a different fix, so it pays to find the weak stage before changing anything. The funnel runs from being aware a benefit exists, to understanding it well enough to choose, to enrolling, to actually using it. Enrollment counts can look healthy while usage stays low, which is how a program passes on paper and still fails the people it was meant to help [10].
\n","outroMarkdown":"The largest gap is usually between enrolled and using, and it hides if you count only enrollment: a platform with 70 percent sign-up and 8 percent monthly use has an adoption problem no enrollment dashboard shows.","outroHtml":"The largest gap is usually between enrolled and using, and it hides if you count only enrollment: a platform with 70 percent sign-up and 8 percent monthly use has an adoption problem no enrollment dashboard shows.
\n","contentJson":{"rows":[{"cells":["Aware","The employee knows the benefit exists","One annual email, no reach to deskless staff","Multi-channel, year-round reminders [14]"]},{"cells":["Understand","They grasp it well enough to decide","Jargon, too many options, no plain-language help","Plain language, fewer choices, decision support [5][10]"]},{"cells":["Enrolled","They sign up or are defaulted in","Logins, forms, deadlines, extra clicks","Single sign-on, one place, defaults where legal [1][2]"]},{"cells":["Using","They actually use the benefit","Forgotten value, distrust, no trigger at the moment of need","Nudges at the moment, confidentiality assurance, manager mention [9]"]}],"columns":["Stage","What it means","Common drop-off cause","The lever that helps"]},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":20},{"id":"b31f7268-0ae6-4041-bba2-1298330023c7","sectionKey":"communication","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How do you communicate so people actually hear it?","introMarkdown":"Reach the whole workforce on the channels they actually use, then repeat the message rather than sending it once. A single benefits email assumes everyone has an inbox and opens it, yet many frontline and shift workers have no company email address or rarely check it during a shift [14]. Text messages, a mobile app, break room signage, and short manager huddles all reach people that email skips. A message in only one channel never reaches part of the workforce.\n\n### Plain language beats completeness\n\nWrite for someone deciding in five minutes, not for the plan document. Employees routinely say they do not understand what they enrolled in; in one survey nearly three quarters wanted more education on their benefits and a quarter felt little or not at all informed [10]. Dense plan descriptions and acronyms raise the effort of understanding, the stage where many people stall. A short note on what a benefit does, what it costs, and when to use it moves more people to a decision than a complete but unreadable guide.\n\n### One message is not a campaign\n\nRepeat the important messages on a schedule instead of concentrating them in the open enrollment window. People miss the first touch and forget the second, so a benefit announced once in January is effectively invisible by March. A steady cadence of short, single-topic reminders keeps a program present and gives you several chances to reach people who were on shift or on leave.","introHtml":"Reach the whole workforce on the channels they actually use, then repeat the message rather than sending it once. A single benefits email assumes everyone has an inbox and opens it, yet many frontline and shift workers have no company email address or rarely check it during a shift [14]. Text messages, a mobile app, break room signage, and short manager huddles all reach people that email skips. A message in only one channel never reaches part of the workforce.
\nWrite for someone deciding in five minutes, not for the plan document. Employees routinely say they do not understand what they enrolled in; in one survey nearly three quarters wanted more education on their benefits and a quarter felt little or not at all informed [10]. Dense plan descriptions and acronyms raise the effort of understanding, the stage where many people stall. A short note on what a benefit does, what it costs, and when to use it moves more people to a decision than a complete but unreadable guide.
\nRepeat the important messages on a schedule instead of concentrating them in the open enrollment window. People miss the first touch and forget the second, so a benefit announced once in January is effectively invisible by March. A steady cadence of short, single-topic reminders keeps a program present and gives you several chances to reach people who were on shift or on leave.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":30},{"id":"8c9f5590-7c5f-4687-b102-f2464a02341d","sectionKey":"timing","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"Which moments make people act?","introMarkdown":"Four moments prompt more action than any general campaign: onboarding, open enrollment, life events, and paydays. A new hire is deciding everything at once, which makes onboarding the cheapest time to drive enrollment and set sensible defaults. Open enrollment is the one window most employees expect to think about benefits, so it is the moment for decision support and live help rather than a one-way email.\n\n### Life events change what matters\n\nTie messages to the events that make a benefit suddenly relevant. A marriage, a new child, a relocation, a new diagnosis, or an age that changes eligibility each shift what an employee needs, and a reminder timed to that change lands far better than the same note sent to everyone in the fall. Many HRIS and benefits platforms can fire these messages automatically from a status change, so the work is mostly in setting them up once.\n\n### Paydays anchor financial tools\n\nPromote financial benefits when money is already top of mind, around payday and pay changes. Federal Reserve data shows the need is real and widespread: 63 percent of adults said they could cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, which leaves more than a third who could not, and only 55 percent had three months of emergency savings [7]. Emergency savings features, earned wage access, and retirement matching get noticed next to a paycheck, not in a booklet read once a year. A companion answer here covers earned wage access in depth.","introHtml":"Four moments prompt more action than any general campaign: onboarding, open enrollment, life events, and paydays. A new hire is deciding everything at once, which makes onboarding the cheapest time to drive enrollment and set sensible defaults. Open enrollment is the one window most employees expect to think about benefits, so it is the moment for decision support and live help rather than a one-way email.
\nTie messages to the events that make a benefit suddenly relevant. A marriage, a new child, a relocation, a new diagnosis, or an age that changes eligibility each shift what an employee needs, and a reminder timed to that change lands far better than the same note sent to everyone in the fall. Many HRIS and benefits platforms can fire these messages automatically from a status change, so the work is mostly in setting them up once.
\nPromote financial benefits when money is already top of mind, around payday and pay changes. Federal Reserve data shows the need is real and widespread: 63 percent of adults said they could cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent, which leaves more than a third who could not, and only 55 percent had three months of emergency savings [7]. Emergency savings features, earned wage access, and retirement matching get noticed next to a paycheck, not in a booklet read once a year. A companion answer here covers earned wage access in depth.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":40},{"id":"966ecc6c-f1a0-4926-8415-bb80bd154634","sectionKey":"friction_and_defaults","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How much does reducing friction and setting defaults help?","introMarkdown":"Every extra click, login, form, and deadline loses people, so the highest-return work is often removing steps rather than sending more messages. Put benefits, wellness, and perks behind one sign-on in one place employees can find, so using a program does not mean a separate site and password. Pre-fill what you know, shorten forms to the fields that matter, and set forgiving deadlines with reminders. These quiet changes routinely do more for adoption than a new campaign.\n\n### Defaults are the strongest single lever\n\nThe default option is what most people end up with, because inertia and the sense that a default is a recommendation push the same way. Madrian and Shea's well-known study found that switching a 401(k) to automatic enrollment raised participation sharply, and that most auto-enrolled employees kept the default rate and fund choice even though almost no one had picked that combination before [12]. Set defaults toward the outcome most employees would want on reflection, and make opting out easy.\n\n### Where defaults are and are not allowed\n\nDefaults are legally bounded, and the rules differ by program. Retirement auto-enrollment is governed: under SECURE 2.0, most 401(k) and 403(b) plans created on or after December 29, 2022 must automatically enroll new employees starting in 2025, at an initial rate between 3 and 10 percent that rises 1 point a year to at least 10 and up to 15 percent, with exceptions for governmental and church plans, businesses under three years old, and employers with 10 or fewer workers [1][2]. Health and welfare elections generally cannot be forced this way, and a wellness program that asks medical questions must be voluntary and keep answers in confidential files separate from personnel records [13]. This is general information, not legal advice.\n\n### Nudging honestly\n\nPeer-reviewed work on nudge ethics draws the line at whether the nudged person shares in the benefit rather than paying a cost others collect [11]. Keep defaults transparent and opting out easy, avoid anything that relies on confusion, and do not quietly enroll people into something that mainly serves the employer.","introHtml":"Every extra click, login, form, and deadline loses people, so the highest-return work is often removing steps rather than sending more messages. Put benefits, wellness, and perks behind one sign-on in one place employees can find, so using a program does not mean a separate site and password. Pre-fill what you know, shorten forms to the fields that matter, and set forgiving deadlines with reminders. These quiet changes routinely do more for adoption than a new campaign.
\nThe default option is what most people end up with, because inertia and the sense that a default is a recommendation push the same way. Madrian and Shea's well-known study found that switching a 401(k) to automatic enrollment raised participation sharply, and that most auto-enrolled employees kept the default rate and fund choice even though almost no one had picked that combination before [12]. Set defaults toward the outcome most employees would want on reflection, and make opting out easy.
\nDefaults are legally bounded, and the rules differ by program. Retirement auto-enrollment is governed: under SECURE 2.0, most 401(k) and 403(b) plans created on or after December 29, 2022 must automatically enroll new employees starting in 2025, at an initial rate between 3 and 10 percent that rises 1 point a year to at least 10 and up to 15 percent, with exceptions for governmental and church plans, businesses under three years old, and employers with 10 or fewer workers [1][2]. Health and welfare elections generally cannot be forced this way, and a wellness program that asks medical questions must be voluntary and keep answers in confidential files separate from personnel records [13]. This is general information, not legal advice.
\nPeer-reviewed work on nudge ethics draws the line at whether the nudged person shares in the benefit rather than paying a cost others collect [11]. Keep defaults transparent and opting out easy, avoid anything that relies on confusion, and do not quietly enroll people into something that mainly serves the employer.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":50},{"id":"56dae6c6-1593-4738-915e-3b6a9f50bcff","sectionKey":"segment_and_managers","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How do segmentation, managers, and trust change adoption?","introMarkdown":"Different groups need different messages, and the manager in front of a team shifts more behavior than any central campaign. An hourly warehouse worker and a salaried remote engineer do not share a schedule, a device, or the same worries, so one uniform message underperforms for both. Segment by the lines that predict need: hourly versus salaried, onsite versus remote, and life stage, since a 24 year old and a 54 year old weigh retirement, caregiving, and student loans very differently. Even a handful of tailored versions of a message beats one generic version, without a large tech stack.\n\n### Managers drive awareness more than HR broadcasts\n\nEquip managers to mention benefits, because employees hear about programs from the person they report to before they read a company email. A frontline manager who knows a program exists and says so in a team huddle reaches people HR cannot. Give managers a short script and a heads-up before each push, and keep it light: a manager should point to a benefit, not counsel anyone on health or money.\n\n### Confidentiality is its own adoption lever\n\nEmployees avoid programs they read as surveillance, so telling people plainly how their data is protected is itself a way to raise use. Employee assistance programs are the clearest case: only about 4 percent of employees at midsize and large employers use one in a year, and the reasons people give for staying away include confidentiality concerns and job security worries [9]. The same suspicion depresses wellness participation whenever employees believe an employer can see individual results, even though the law requires medical answers to be kept in separate, confidential files [13]. State clearly who sees what, and route sensitive programs through a third party where you can. Companion answers here cover EAP confidentiality and perks utilization in more depth.","introHtml":"Different groups need different messages, and the manager in front of a team shifts more behavior than any central campaign. An hourly warehouse worker and a salaried remote engineer do not share a schedule, a device, or the same worries, so one uniform message underperforms for both. Segment by the lines that predict need: hourly versus salaried, onsite versus remote, and life stage, since a 24 year old and a 54 year old weigh retirement, caregiving, and student loans very differently. Even a handful of tailored versions of a message beats one generic version, without a large tech stack.
\nEquip managers to mention benefits, because employees hear about programs from the person they report to before they read a company email. A frontline manager who knows a program exists and says so in a team huddle reaches people HR cannot. Give managers a short script and a heads-up before each push, and keep it light: a manager should point to a benefit, not counsel anyone on health or money.
\nEmployees avoid programs they read as surveillance, so telling people plainly how their data is protected is itself a way to raise use. Employee assistance programs are the clearest case: only about 4 percent of employees at midsize and large employers use one in a year, and the reasons people give for staying away include confidentiality concerns and job security worries [9]. The same suspicion depresses wellness participation whenever employees believe an employer can see individual results, even though the law requires medical answers to be kept in separate, confidential files [13]. State clearly who sees what, and route sensitive programs through a third party where you can. Companion answers here cover EAP confidentiality and perks utilization in more depth.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":60},{"id":"566fdf30-1f0e-4dfe-9b22-8a7b6eaf6509","sectionKey":"measurement","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What should you measure beyond enrollment?","introMarkdown":"Measure usage, not just enrollment, and instrument the funnel so you can see which stage is failing. Enrollment tells you someone signed up; it says nothing about whether they used the benefit, which is where most programs quietly lose value. Track four numbers per program: how many are aware it exists, understand it well enough to choose, enrolled, and actually used it last quarter. A drop between aware and understand points to communication and plain language; a drop between enrolled and using points to reminders and less friction, not another enrollment push.\n\n### Separate awareness from action\n\nAsk employees what they know, not only what they clicked. A short pulse survey on whether people know a benefit exists and understand how to use it surfaces the awareness gap that usage logs hide [10]. Pair that with real utilization data from the vendor, and the two together show where the funnel leaks.\n\n### Judge programs on utilization, not availability\n\nCount what gets used before adding anything new. A benefits catalog is easy to grow and hard to shrink, and a long list of lightly used programs buries the few that matter. Retiring what almost no one uses tends to raise overall engagement more than the next new perk, partly because a shorter menu is easier to act on [5].","introHtml":"Measure usage, not just enrollment, and instrument the funnel so you can see which stage is failing. Enrollment tells you someone signed up; it says nothing about whether they used the benefit, which is where most programs quietly lose value. Track four numbers per program: how many are aware it exists, understand it well enough to choose, enrolled, and actually used it last quarter. A drop between aware and understand points to communication and plain language; a drop between enrolled and using points to reminders and less friction, not another enrollment push.
\nAsk employees what they know, not only what they clicked. A short pulse survey on whether people know a benefit exists and understand how to use it surfaces the awareness gap that usage logs hide [10]. Pair that with real utilization data from the vendor, and the two together show where the funnel leaks.
\nCount what gets used before adding anything new. A benefits catalog is easy to grow and hard to shrink, and a long list of lightly used programs buries the few that matter. Retiring what almost no one uses tends to raise overall engagement more than the next new perk, partly because a shorter menu is easier to act on [5].
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":70},{"id":"52f4b307-b223-46bb-85e8-2bda5555a96e","sectionKey":"first_90_days","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"What should you do in the first 90 days?","introMarkdown":"Find the leak before changing anything, then fix communication and friction before touching the program lineup. A focused first quarter usually produces more adoption than a year of scattered effort, because it targets the exact stage where people drop off instead of adding activity everywhere.\n\n### Weeks 1 to 3: measure the baseline\n\nPull enrollment and real utilization for every benefit, wellness, and perk program, and run a short pulse survey asking what employees know and use. This gives you a starting funnel and shows which programs are used enough to keep and which sit idle [4].\n\n### Weeks 4 to 8: fix reach and friction\n\nSet up multi-channel communication that reaches people without company email, rewrite the top few programs in plain language, and remove the worst friction, usually by putting everything behind one sign-on [14]. Turn on onboarding and life-event triggers so messages fire automatically at the right moments.\n\n### Weeks 9 to 12: defaults, managers, and trust\n\nSet sensible defaults where the law allows, confirm any retirement auto-enrollment meets the SECURE 2.0 rules, and check that wellness data handling meets the confidentiality requirement [1][13]. Brief managers with a short script, and publish a plain statement of who can see personal health and financial data, since that assurance itself lifts use of sensitive programs [9]. Then re-measure the funnel against the baseline so the next quarter targets the weakest stage.","introHtml":"Find the leak before changing anything, then fix communication and friction before touching the program lineup. A focused first quarter usually produces more adoption than a year of scattered effort, because it targets the exact stage where people drop off instead of adding activity everywhere.
\nPull enrollment and real utilization for every benefit, wellness, and perk program, and run a short pulse survey asking what employees know and use. This gives you a starting funnel and shows which programs are used enough to keep and which sit idle [4].
\nSet up multi-channel communication that reaches people without company email, rewrite the top few programs in plain language, and remove the worst friction, usually by putting everything behind one sign-on [14]. Turn on onboarding and life-event triggers so messages fire automatically at the right moments.
\nSet sensible defaults where the law allows, confirm any retirement auto-enrollment meets the SECURE 2.0 rules, and check that wellness data handling meets the confidentiality requirement [1][13]. Brief managers with a short script, and publish a plain statement of who can see personal health and financial data, since that assurance itself lifts use of sensitive programs [9]. Then re-measure the funnel against the baseline so the next quarter targets the weakest stage.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":null,"noteHtml":null,"sortOrder":80},{"id":"a872522f-6b8d-4a06-8a2c-dacdcec31338","sectionKey":"contributor_perspective","sectionType":"markdown_section","heading":"How this answer was researched","introMarkdown":"This answer was assembled from primary and independent research read on July 22, 2026, not from vendor marketing. The behavioral findings come from academic and peer-reviewed sources: RAND for wellness participation [4], the Illinois Workplace Wellness randomized trial for outcomes [3], the Iyengar and Madrian studies for choice overload and defaults [5][6][12], and published work on nudge ethics [11]. Legal points on automatic enrollment and wellness confidentiality were checked against the statute and regulations on the Cornell Legal Information Institute and the Internal Revenue Service [1][2][13]. Financial fragility figures come from the Federal Reserve and program prevalence from KFF [7][8]. A few engagement figures, including benefits comprehension, EAP use, and the deskless workforce estimate, come from employer and industry surveys and are labeled where cited [9][10][14]. The AnswerStack Editorial Team sells no benefits software and takes no vendor compensation. If you run benefits or wellness programs, corrections and field data are welcome. Nothing here is legal, tax, or benefits advice.","introHtml":"This answer was assembled from primary and independent research read on July 22, 2026, not from vendor marketing. The behavioral findings come from academic and peer-reviewed sources: RAND for wellness participation [4], the Illinois Workplace Wellness randomized trial for outcomes [3], the Iyengar and Madrian studies for choice overload and defaults [5][6][12], and published work on nudge ethics [11]. Legal points on automatic enrollment and wellness confidentiality were checked against the statute and regulations on the Cornell Legal Information Institute and the Internal Revenue Service [1][2][13]. Financial fragility figures come from the Federal Reserve and program prevalence from KFF [7][8]. A few engagement figures, including benefits comprehension, EAP use, and the deskless workforce estimate, come from employer and industry surveys and are labeled where cited [9][10][14]. The AnswerStack Editorial Team sells no benefits software and takes no vendor compensation. If you run benefits or wellness programs, corrections and field data are welcome. Nothing here is legal, tax, or benefits advice.
\n","outroMarkdown":null,"outroHtml":null,"contentJson":{},"configJson":{},"noteMarkdown":"This answer was written and reviewed by the AnswerStack Editorial Team, which has no commercial stake in the products, companies, or methods discussed. Every claim is cited inline and verified on the dates shown.","noteHtml":"This answer was written and reviewed by the AnswerStack Editorial Team, which has no commercial stake in the products, companies, or methods discussed. Every claim is cited inline and verified on the dates shown.
\n","sortOrder":90}],"citations":[{"title":"26 U.S. Code 414A: Requirement to provide automatic enrollment","url":"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/414A","excerpt":"not less than 3 percent and not more than 10 percent ... by 1 percentage point (to at least 10 percent, but not more than 15 percent) ... the requirements ... do not apply to any qualified cash or deferred arrangement established before ... December 29, 2022.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"SECURE 2.0 mandatory automatic enrollment for 401(k) and 403(b) plans established on or after Dec 29, 2022; initial default of not less than 3 percent and not more than 10 percent, escalating 1 point a year to at least 10 and not more than 15 percent; exceptions for plans established before Dec 29 2","domain":"law.cornell.edu","publisherName":"Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School"},{"title":"Retirement topics - Automatic enrollment","url":"https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-automatic-enrollment","excerpt":"Automatic enrollment allows an employer to automatically deduct elective deferrals from an employee's wages unless the employee makes an election not to contribute or to contribute a different amount.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Definition of automatic enrollment; eligible automatic contribution arrangement (EACA) and qualified automatic contribution arrangement (QACA); default deferral applied unless the employee opts out or elects a different amount; QACA default starts at 3 percent and increases to 6 percent, not to exce","domain":"irs.gov","publisherName":"Internal Revenue Service"},{"title":"Study: Benefits of workplace wellness programs underwhelming","url":"https://news.illinois.edu/study-benefits-of-workplace-wellness-programs-underwhelming/","excerpt":"no significant effects on measured physical health outcomes such as weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or blood glucose ... no significant effect of the program on employee health measures or medical use.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Randomized controlled trial of more than 4,800 employees (Jones, Molitor, Reif) found no significant effects on measured physical health outcomes or medical use, with only modest improvement in self-reported health beliefs and in having a primary care physician","domain":"news.illinois.edu","publisherName":"University of Illinois News Bureau"},{"title":"Workplace Wellness Programs: Services Offered, Participation, and Incentives (RAND)","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5158287/","excerpt":"only 20 to 40 percent of eligible individuals participate in a program in any given year ... median participation rate of only 20 percent ... median participation rate of 40 percent ... median participation rate was 73 percent.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Only 20 to 40 percent of eligible employees participate in a wellness program component in a given year; financial incentives raise the median participation rate from about 20 percent to about 40 percent, and penalties or premium surcharges raise it further, to a median near 73 percent","domain":"pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov","publisherName":"RAND Corporation / Health Services Research"},{"title":"How Much Choice is Too Much? Contributions to 401(k) Retirement Plans","url":"https://pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu/publications/papers-2018/how-much-choice-is-too-much-contributions-to-401k-retirement-plans/","excerpt":"participation in 401(k) plans is higher in plans offering a handful of funds, as compared to plans offering ten or more options.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Analysis of nearly 800,000 employees found that 401(k) participation is higher in plans offering a handful of funds than in plans offering ten or more options, evidence of choice overload in benefit menus","domain":"pensionresearchcouncil.wharton.upenn.edu","publisherName":"Pension Research Council, The Wharton School"},{"title":"Why too many 401(k) choices can be a bad thing","url":"https://coloradobiz.com/Business-Insights/Why-too-many-401k-choices-can-be-a-bad-thing","excerpt":"Every additional 10 investment choices, on average, reduced participation by 2 percent ... data from nearly 800,000 employees in 647 plans.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"CORROBORATING","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Independent summary of the Iyengar, Jiang, and Huberman study quantifying choice overload: every additional 10 investment options reduced 401(k) participation by about 2 percent, across nearly 800,000 employees in 647 plans","domain":"coloradobiz.com","publisherName":"ColoradoBiz Magazine"},{"title":"Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2024: Savings and Investments","url":"https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2025-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2024-savings-and-investments.htm","excerpt":"63 percent of all adults said they would have covered it exclusively using cash, savings, or a credit card paid off at the next statement ... 55 percent of adults said they had set aside money for three months of expenses.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"63 percent of adults said they could cover a hypothetical $400 emergency expense using cash or its equivalent, leaving more than a third who could not; 55 percent had set aside three months of emergency savings; 13 percent said they would be unable to pay the expense by any means","domain":"federalreserve.gov","publisherName":"Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System"},{"title":"2025 Employer Health Benefits Survey","url":"https://www.kff.org/health-costs/report/2025-employer-health-benefits-survey/","excerpt":"Fifty-six percent of firms with 10 to 199 workers and 83% of larger firms offer a program ... 35% of small firms and 53% of large firms provide workers the opportunity to complete a health risk assessment.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"56 percent of firms with 10 to 199 workers and 83 percent of larger firms offer a health promotion or wellness program; 35 percent of small firms and 53 percent of large firms offer a health risk assessment; 22 percent of small firms and 43 percent of large firms offer a biometric screening; incenti","domain":"kff.org","publisherName":"KFF"},{"title":"Boost EAP Usage to Address Mental Health Support","url":"https://worldatwork.org/publications/workspan-daily/boost-eap-usage-to-address-mental-health-support","excerpt":"Only 4% of employees at midsize to large companies use EAPs annually ... 55% of employees have never attempted to use their available EAP.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Survey data reported by WorldatWork: only about 4 percent of employees at midsize to large companies use an EAP annually and 55 percent have never attempted to use one; top barriers cited are fear of negative consequences (40 percent), confidentiality concerns (38 percent), and job security worries ","domain":"worldatwork.org","publisherName":"WorldatWork"},{"title":"Study Finds Most Participants Don't Understand Their Benefits","url":"https://www.psca.org/news/psca-news/2024/9/study-finds-most-participants-dont-understand-their-benefits/","excerpt":"73% of employee respondents want more education on company benefits.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Vendor survey (Payroll Integrations State of Employee Financial Wellness) reported by the Plan Sponsor Council of America: 73 percent of employees want more education on company benefits, and 25 percent feel little or not at all informed about their benefits","domain":"psca.org","publisherName":"Plan Sponsor Council of America (reporting Payroll Integrations survey)"},{"title":"Nudge politics: efficacy and ethics","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3867635/","excerpt":"Nudges which require individuals to pay upfront costs without the opportunity to share in the collective benefit are morally dubious.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Peer-reviewed analysis of nudge ethics: nudges preserve freedom of choice through libertarian paternalism by keeping an opt-out, and are morally dubious when individuals pay upfront costs without sharing in the collective benefit","domain":"pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov","publisherName":"Frontiers in Psychology (PMC)"},{"title":"The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior","url":"https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/facpub/9087/","excerpt":"401(k) participation is significantly higher under automatic enrollment ... a substantial fraction of 401(k) participants hired under automatic enrollment retain both the default contribution rate and fund allocation.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"INDEPENDENT","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Automatic enrollment significantly raised 401(k) participation, and most auto-enrolled employees retained both the default contribution rate and default fund allocation even though very few employees hired before automatic enrollment had chosen that combination, evidence of inertia and the power of ","domain":"scholarsarchive.byu.edu","publisherName":"Madrian and Shea, Quarterly Journal of Economics (BYU ScholarsArchive)"},{"title":"29 CFR 1630.14: Medical examinations and inquiries specifically permitted","url":"https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/29/1630.14","excerpt":"collected and maintained on separate forms and in separate medical files and be treated as a confidential medical record ... does not require employees to participate.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"PRIMARY","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Under the ADA, a wellness program that includes disability-related inquiries or medical examinations must be voluntary: the employer does not require participation, does not coerce or take adverse action against non-participants, and medical information must be kept on separate forms and in separate","domain":"law.cornell.edu","publisherName":"Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School"},{"title":"Deskless worker communication: reach employees without email","url":"https://playipp.com/resources/deskless-worker-communication-reach-employees-without-email/","excerpt":"80% of the global workforce who are deskless ... lack a company email or rarely check it during shifts.","quoteText":null,"sourceRole":"SUPPORTING","verifiedAt":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","supportsText":"Commonly cited industry estimate that roughly 80 percent of the global workforce is deskless, and that these frontline and shift workers often lack a company email address or rarely check it during shifts; stated without a cited primary source, so treated as an industry estimate","domain":"playipp.com","publisherName":"PlayIPP"}],"revisions":[],"relatedAnswers":[{"id":"43b6eee1-c965-41c8-bc16-a906ffb4e94c","slug":"what-are-the-best-employee-perks-and-discount-platforms","question":"What are the best employee perks and discount platforms, and do employees actually use them?","publishedAt":"2026-07-22T12:25:10.107","confidenceScore":74,"confidenceLabel":"Medium","industry":{"id":"e1a1da3c-52a8-4e99-88ad-d08ef17d7c3f","slug":"hr-technology","label":"HR Technology","description":"ATS, HRIS, payroll, and workforce management"},"topic":{"slug":"benefits-employee-wellbeing","label":"Benefits & Employee Wellbeing","description":"Benefits Administration & Enrollment, Corporate Wellness, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), Financial Wellness, Employee Perks & Discounts","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Perks and discount tools fall into four groups: no-cost retail discount marketplaces, employer-funded lifestyle spending accounts and stipends, recognition platforms with a reward store, and voluntary benefits marketplaces. The right pick depends on your workforce, not a ranking. Utilization is the real test, and discount catalogs often go unused while flexible stipends see higher participation. Most employer-funded perks are taxable to the employee unless a specific IRS exclusion applies.","url":"/q/what-are-the-best-employee-perks-and-discount-platforms"},{"id":"f4572961-7252-480f-8656-a346c8bb14c8","slug":"what-is-a-financial-wellness-program","question":"What is a financial wellness program, and is it worth the investment?","publishedAt":"2026-07-22T12:25:06.867","confidenceScore":84,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"e1a1da3c-52a8-4e99-88ad-d08ef17d7c3f","slug":"hr-technology","label":"HR Technology","description":"ATS, HRIS, payroll, and workforce management"},"topic":{"slug":"benefits-employee-wellbeing","label":"Benefits & Employee Wellbeing","description":"Benefits Administration & Enrollment, Corporate Wellness, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), Financial Wellness, Employee Perks & Discounts","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Financial wellness programs bundle money education, coaching, budgeting and savings tools, debt and student loan help, and sometimes earned wage access or product offers. The honest cases split: financial stress is real and targeted help can reduce it, yet most ROI figures are vendor produced and engagement runs low. The model matters most, since a program funded by selling employees loans or investments carries a conflict of interest that fee for service coaching does not.","url":"/q/what-is-a-financial-wellness-program"},{"id":"876cc79e-90d9-412f-84ec-cdfee5ee00d5","slug":"corporate-wellness-programs-actually-work","question":"Do corporate wellness programs actually work, and how do you measure the ROI?","publishedAt":"2026-07-22T12:25:03.711","confidenceScore":88,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"e1a1da3c-52a8-4e99-88ad-d08ef17d7c3f","slug":"hr-technology","label":"HR Technology","description":"ATS, HRIS, payroll, and workforce management"},"topic":{"slug":"benefits-employee-wellbeing","label":"Benefits & Employee Wellbeing","description":"Benefits Administration & Enrollment, Corporate Wellness, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), Financial Wellness, Employee Perks & Discounts","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"Randomized trials of general workplace wellness programs, including the Illinois Workplace Wellness Study and the JAMA study at BJ's Wholesale Club, found minimal near-term effects on health, costs, and productivity, while the widely cited multiple-to-one ROI figures rest on observational data skewed by who volunteers. Disease management for existing conditions has stronger cost evidence than broad lifestyle programs. Measure value of investment and participation separately from causal, hard-dollar ROI.","url":"/q/corporate-wellness-programs-actually-work"},{"id":"6f56aaf5-32dc-4f89-a1bc-846e5c793837","slug":"what-is-an-employee-assistance-program-eap","question":"What is an employee assistance program (EAP), how does it work, and is it really confidential?","publishedAt":"2026-07-22T12:25:01.41","confidenceScore":87,"confidenceLabel":"High","industry":{"id":"e1a1da3c-52a8-4e99-88ad-d08ef17d7c3f","slug":"hr-technology","label":"HR Technology","description":"ATS, HRIS, payroll, and workforce management"},"topic":{"slug":"benefits-employee-wellbeing","label":"Benefits & Employee Wellbeing","description":"Benefits Administration & Enrollment, Corporate Wellness, Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), Financial Wellness, Employee Perks & Discounts","schemaKind":null},"contributor":{"id":"ec39deab-44fe-48d8-9029-fefe993ab85a","slug":"answer-stack","displayName":"AnswerStack","websiteUrl":null},"snippet":"An EAP is a workplace benefit offering a few free counseling sessions per issue each year, work-life referrals, and crisis help, delivered by a standalone vendor, a health plan, or a mental health platform. Your records stay with the EAP and the employer sees only aggregate usage data. Confidentiality holds unless there is an imminent safety risk, a child or elder abuse report, a court order, or a management referral you consent to. Actual use is usually in the single digits.","url":"/q/what-is-an-employee-assistance-program-eap"}],"contributorStats":{"verifiedAnswers":224,"openDisputes":0},"schemaJson":{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Question","name":"How do I drive employee participation and adoption across benefits, wellness, and perks programs?","text":"How do I drive employee participation and adoption across benefits, wellness, and perks programs?","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/how-do-i-drive-employee-participation-and-adoption-across","answerCount":1,"datePublished":"2026-07-22T12:25:12.777","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"AnswerStack Editorial Team","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AnswerStack"},"url":"https://www.answerstack.io/contributors/answer-stack"},"about":[{"@type":"Thing","name":"Benefits & Employee Wellbeing"},{"@type":"Thing","name":"HR Technology"}],"acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Participation across benefits, wellness, and perks programs rises mainly through communication, timing, and lower friction, not through adding programs, because utilization is low by default and more options can suppress it. In one large study of 401(k) menus, participation fell by roughly 2 percentage points for every 10 extra investment funds offered [5][6], and RAND found that only 20 to 40 percent of eligible employees use a given wellness component in a year [4]. The strongest single lever is the default, since automatic enrollment sharply raises retirement participation [12], though defaults are legally bounded: SECURE 2.0 governs 401(k) auto-enrollment [1][2], and wellness programs that ask medical questions must stay voluntary and confidential [13]. A single open enrollment email also misses the many frontline staff with no company inbox [14], and confidentiality is its own lever: only about 4 percent of employees use an employee assistance program in a typical year, with confidentiality and job fears among the reasons [9]. Track the funnel from aware to understood to enrolled to using, not enrollment alone [10].","url":"https://www.answerstack.io/q/how-do-i-drive-employee-participation-and-adoption-across","upvoteCount":0,"datePublished":"2026-07-22T12:25:12.777","dateModified":"2026-07-22T00:00:00","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"AnswerStack Editorial Team","worksFor":{"@type":"Organization","name":"AnswerStack"},"url":"https://www.answerstack.io/contributors/answer-stack"},"citation":[{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"26 U.S. Code 414A: Requirement to provide automatic enrollment","url":"https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/414A"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Retirement topics - Automatic enrollment","url":"https://www.irs.gov/retirement-plans/plan-participant-employee/retirement-topics-automatic-enrollment"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Study: Benefits of workplace wellness programs underwhelming","url":"https://news.illinois.edu/study-benefits-of-workplace-wellness-programs-underwhelming/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"Workplace Wellness Programs: Services Offered, Participation, and Incentives (RAND)","url":"https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5158287/"},{"@type":"CreativeWork","name":"How Much Choice is Too Much? 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