Employee benefits

How voluntary benefits help small businesses compete for talent

Give employees more without added cost to your business

Watch video

Everyone wins with voluntary benefits

Voluntary benefits help you do more for your employees—without impacting your bottom line. Your employees get affordable protection they can count on. You build loyalty, strengthen culture and show your people you’re in their corner. It’s a small step with a big impact. 

PDF - Power of Voluntary Benefits
Our research

Voluntary benefits drive real results for lean teams

This white paper shares insights from 500+ small to midsize business leaders who’ve tackled turnover, team strain and HR complexity—without raising payroll. It might just change how you think about competing for talent.

View white paper

Why voluntary benefits?

Compete and thrive in evolving times

Voluntary benefits are a proven way to reduce turnover, show employees you care and offer added protection without adding to your payroll.

Attraction and retention

You don’t need to match big-company salaries to compete. Voluntary benefits help level the playing field by boosting your offer in a way that feels personal, flexible and thoughtful.

Turnover protection

Turnover can cost up to 30% of an employee’s salary.1 Voluntary benefits help reduce that turnover, giving you a simple way to protect your people and your bottom line when every dollar counts.

Simplicity and support

Voluntary benefits shouldn’t be complicated. With digital tools and clear communication, they’re easy to offer, easy to enroll in and easy for your employees to use—helping employees feel more confident.

1 Equitable voluntary benefits thought leadership survey research (Q2 2025)

Two people conversing

Reduce stress, minimize turnover and strengthen teams with voluntary benefits

Money worries—from unexpected health costs to lack of coverage—can drag down morale, focus and productivity. They also contribute to absenteeism and costly turnover. Voluntary benefits offer small to midsize businesses a cost-effective way to ease that burden, support their teams and boost retention.

Read article
Group chatting over tablet

How voluntary benefits strengthen teams and businesses alike

When a key employee leaves, it disrupts your culture, drains productivity and can cost 20%–30% of their salary to replace. For small businesses, that’s tens of thousands lost. Voluntary benefits help you retain top talent—and reinvest those savings in growth.

Read article
Supplemental health insurance

Give your employees the protection they want and the flexibility they need

With a focus on supplemental medical insurance, you can round out your voluntary benefits suite without adding extra cost to your business.

Critical illness icon

Critical illness insurance

Delivers a lump-sum cash payment when employees face covered serious illnesses like cancer, heart attack or stroke.

Critical illness icon

Accident insurance

Pays cash benefits for covered injuries, from broken bones to emergency room visits. Includes a wellness benefit for preventive care (where available).

Critical illness icon

Hospital indemnity insurance

Provides direct cash payments when your employees and their families face hospital stays or other covered medical events.

Discover supplemental health insurance

80%

of Americans worry that an unexpected medical expense could derail their financial goals

1/4th plus

More than a quarter of this group said a bill under $1,000 would cause financial hardship.2

Powerfully Simple®

Powerfully Simple® benefits made for busy business owners

With streamlined enrollment and easy administration, Equitable delivers the benefits your employees want without the headaches.

Customer focused

Customer-focused

Real people when you need them, digital tools when you don’t. Support that works with your schedule—not the other way around.

Intuitive technology

Intuitive technology

Cloud-based tools built for efficiency and ease, so you can focus on your business—not figuring out the software. 

Seamless integration

Seamless integration

Easily connects to the systems you already use, making setup feel effortless and disruption-free. 

Customer focused

Simple by design

We remove complexity—not add to it—because the smartest solutions are often the simplest. 

Ready to give your employees more without spending more?

Whether you’re planning your next open enrollment or just exploring options, talk to your broker about how Equitable voluntary benefits can fit into your strategy. Because when it comes to retention, resilience and reducing stress, a little extra coverage can go a long way.

1Equitable voluntary benefits thought leadership survey research (Q2 2025).

2 Equitable Open Enrollment survey results (August 28, 2025–September 4, 2025).

Powerfully Simple® is a registered service mark of Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company.

Equitable is the brand name of the retirement and protection subsidiaries of Equitable Holdings, Inc., including Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company (Equitable Financial) (NY, NY); Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company of America (Equitable America), an AZ stock company with an administrative office located in Charlotte, NC; and Equitable Distributors, LLC. Equitable Advisors is the brand name of Equitable Advisors, LLC (member FINRA, SIPC) (Equitable Financial Advisors in MI & TN). All group insurance products are issued either by Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company or Equitable Financial Life Insurance Company of America, which have sole responsibility for their insurance and claims-paying obligations. Some products are not available in all states.

© 2025 Equitable Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. 1345 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY 10105. (212) 554-1234.

GE-8456338.1 (12/2025) (Exp. 12/2029)