The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, is forcing employers to rethink their health and wellness programs. It likely represents the most profound modification to employee benefits since defined-contribution retirement plans began to replace defined-benefit pension plans roughly 30 years ago.

Additionally, the Great Recession of recent years, overlapping as it did with changing demographics in the U.S. workforce, helped precipitate changes in the growth of contract work vs. full-time employment. And, of course, rapid technological advances are upending the very notion of the traditional workplace.

Benefits or Services?

There is a distinction between employee “benefits” – programs thought to be necessary for employers to provide such as health insurance and retirement plans – and less costly “services," such as on-site childcare, shuttle service to and from railroad stations for more remote locations, or even a coffee shop or dry cleaner on site. So reports the Houston Chronicle.

Services can be added “perks” for smaller companies that can’t provide the same benefits programs as Fortune 500 firms, or can augment benefits packages to encourage employee attraction and retention at organizations of any size.

A comprehensive benefits plan that includes some basic services can go a long way toward building a positive business culture.

The Home Cubicle

The increasing overlap between work life and home life for many workers, thanks to technology, is causing employers to rethink work-from-home options, especially when valued employees want to have children without interrupting their careers. Such issues are compounded by a growing deficit between the traditional work/life balance, or at least increased concerns over it on the part of members of the workforce.

As a result, HR research and advisory portal WorkplaceTrends.com joined forces with global recruitment and outplacement firm CareerArc to produce their recent “2015 Workplace Flexibility Study.” The national survey of more than 1,000 professionals (both employed and unemployed), which included over 100 HR professionals, yielded some interesting findings, including:

• More than two-thirds (67%) of HR pros surveyed feel their employees have a healthy work/life balance, while nearly half (45%) of employees complain of insufficient time to do personal activities.
• 20% of employees report spending more than 20 hours per week of their personal time working outside the office.
• HR personnel and staffers are in sync when it comes to expectations of being reachable outside the office (roughly 65%), thanks largely to e-mail and smartphone capability.
• An overwhelming majority (87%) of surveyed HR leaders feel that workplace flexibility programs lead to higher levels of employee satisfaction, while employers are beginning to realize the benefits of offering this benefit (e.g., higher productivity levels) and are investing more resources in such programs this year.

Employee Healthcare = Change

Nowhere along the spectrum of employee benefits has change been more evident than health and wellness in recent years. The ACA has done more to evolve the nation’s healthcare landscape since the introduction of Medicare and Medicaid 50 years ago.

Despite being an ongoing source of political tension and partisanship, Obamacare has not only provided access to health insurance for some 12 million Americans who were previously uninsured, it’s actually proving to cost taxpayers and employers significantly less than the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office initially projected. It has also helped make a sizable dent in the federal budget deficit to boot. A recent article from Politifact shows how projections of the ACA (both on the upside and downside of what was initially predicted) have evolved since 2010.

Largely in response to Obamacare, roughly 85% of large-to-midsized employers surveyed recently by global professional services powerhouse Towers Watson plan to make changes to their full-time employee health benefit programs within the next three years. Many companies are starting to factor the planned 2018 excise tax (sometimes referred to as the program’s “Cadillac tax”) under the ACA into the cost structures of their health and wellness programs.

Even though employers are predicting healthcare cost increases of 4% this year, as opposed to 4.5% predicted for 2014, that’s still more than double the current rate of inflation. The majority of those surveyed feel that, in order to remain competitive, they need to revisit benefits for employee spouses and dependents; increase the level of employee engagement at their firms by encouraging staffers to develop healthier behavior and take more control over their healthcare; and encourage private health insurance exchanges as a viable alternative to traditional employee-sponsored insurance programs.

That said, a pending ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court on a key component of the ACA concerning federal subsidies, expected in June, could affect health insurance coverage currently provided at reduced costs to millions – and threaten the very viability of Obamacare going forward.

Even if that were to happen, it will only further expedite the revamping of employee health and wellness programs in corporate America, which was well under way even before the advent of the ACA. And as significant a component of employee benefits programs as health insurance coverage has long been, it’s only one aspect of an ongoing overhaul of benefits and services that will surely continue.

In a national workplace that continues to face twists and turns from all sides, the only constant that employers and the workforce can expect down the road is more change.