MetLife's 2025 Employee Benefits Trends survey found that 68% of workers are concerned about economic uncertainty.
MetLife executive vice president of group benefits Todd Katz joins Brad Smith on Wealth to expand upon these findings, the "stressors" causing the most concerns for workers, and the methods employers can utilize to create more trust with their workers.
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The 2025 MetLife Workplace Benefit Survey found that 68% of workers are concerned about economic uncertainty and that their employers should focus on building trust in a volatile market. Joining me now to break down the top findings from the report, we've got Todd Katz, MetLife Investment Management, executive vice president of group benefits. Todd, good to have you here with us. So why was trust the big theme of this year's report?
Hi, Brad. Thank you for having us and really excited about our report. Look, employees in the workforce today are feeling a lot of stressors out there. And those stressors are around all parts of their life. And what was evident in the research was that when employees trust their employer, they are far more holistically healthy. And that's critical for them as individuals, but also for corporations.
And so with this in mind, as we're taking a look at some of the top sources of stress for workers here, how can employers go about mitigating some of these stressors as they're having a continuing and rolling discussion with their workforce and their team?
Yeah, so the report goes into a lot of really good insights about what employers can do. Let me hit on two quick themes. First and foremost, really providing a supportive and social culture for their employees, making sure they create that transparency and that connectedness so employees feel recognized for the good work that they do and really building that trust between the employer and the employee. But the second one, which is core to the report, is also the importance of employee benefits. Employers have an opportunity to use employee benefits to meet the unique needs that their employees have by educating them on those benefits and making sure that employees are positioned to make great benefit choices.
So this is a pivotal year here and it can't go understated. There are more members now of Gen Z in the workforce than baby boomers. So how is that changing what benefits workers are valuing?
Yeah, Brad, you hit it right. This is the first year that we have more Gen Zs in the workplace. And when we really got underneath the research, the Gen Z segment self-identifies as the segment with the lowest holistic health. And by the way, if we fast forward just three to five years from now, our Gen Zs and our Millennials will be almost two-thirds of our workforce. So it really gets an understanding those things that are important to Gen Zs. Those are things like focusing on mental health, focusing on social health, making sure that you're creating an environment where a Gen Z feels cared for, but also feels that their employer trusts them. And when you put those two things together, we see holistic health even for the Gen Zs going up significantly.
How do you believe this is going to change in that prioritization what Gen Z, what Millennials, what is being advocated for as they are even applying for a job and negotiating for a total compensation package?
I think it's going to be an individual piece. Not everyone's going to be the same. But I would say paramount across all generations is to treat people as individuals and understand their unique needs. To do that, employers really need to have a diverse set of benefits that go into that compensation package so that it's not one size fits all, but it's showing that individual that you as an employer have put something together that they can curate to meet their unique needs.
What do you think the number one benefit is going to be that that trends higher among prioritization as we see a younger workforce now take on the majority of people who are in the labor force participation?
Yeah, so there's I wouldn't call out one specifically, but I'd say two things that are important. Having good comprehensive healthcare is table stakes. Every employer needs to do that. The advice we would give employers is to put together a broad shelf of products, products that are as unique as pet insurance or legal services or supplemental health or even things that are designed to address unique diagnosis of specific employees are going to be key to success. The point there is not to design one thing, but give those employees the choice, the education and tools to make those choices, and then make it really easy for them to use those benefits.
Yeah, Todd. If you do come across anybody that can help me ensure a Maine Coon tabby cat mix, then, my goodness, you would have a lot of concerns that get quelled within my household. Todd, appreciate the time.
Happy to be here, Brad. Have a great day.
You too.