More than half(52%)of employers would be supportive of auto-enrolling employees into group risk protection products, latest research finds.
The Group Risk Development (GRiD) research - conducted by Lightspeed Research among 500 UK businesses - found two in five (38%) respondents suggested they would consider implementing such products alongside pension auto-enrolment (AE).
Furthermore, almost two-thirds (62%) of employers would be encouraged to offer group risk protection products to their staff if the government were to incentivise them to do so.
GRiD spokesperson Katharine Moxham said it was positive that employers were looking beyond pensions to extend the concept of auto-enrolment.
"I am heartened to see that employers are broadly positive about pension auto-enrolment and are receptive to the potential for extending auto-enrolment into other areas of the benefits package," she said.
Employers' attitudes towards pension auto-enrolment have also been positive, with a quarter (24%) having increased their spend - or planning to do so - on their employee benefit package in line with the introduction of AE.
A further two in five employers (40%) said pension auto-enrolment had a positive impact on their business, encouraging employee loyalty as well as supporting employees' to take an active interest in their finances.
In order to further improve their employee benefits package, a third of employers (32%) said they would consider more flexible working initiatives, while 20% would include a separate health and wellness programme.
"With employers upping their spend on employee benefits, it is encouraging to see that they are still looking to further improve their offering by introducing group risk protection products, flexible working initiatives and health and wellness programmes," Moxham added.
"Businesses are coming to recognise that they are the ones to facilitate greater personal financial responsibility and resilience prior to retirement as well as afterwards and group risk protection benefits have a major role to play in ensuring that the UK workforce is adequately protected from the financial devastation that death or disability can bring."
