Employees depend on workplace benefits to provide financial security. Most employers, however, don’t feel ANY responsibility to help employees prepare financially for retirement.

Those findings are according to the 3rd annual Guardian Workplace Benefits Study, and some were personally astounding.

A full 2/3 of workers believe their employers have a responsibility to offer insurance and retirement benefits.

Employers, for their part, are somewhat disconnected from the whole process. While they acknowledge that workplace benefits do help employees and their families achieve financial security, only 16 percent strongly believe they have a responsibility to provide benefits.

Employers don’t think employees are happy with their benefits, either; fewer than 20% believe their workers are extremely satisfied, while only 1/3 of employees describes himself that way.

Employees who get a total benefits package from work value their benefits more; they also consider their company’s benefits communications effective.

While almost 75% of employees who receive a total compensation statement say that seeing in dollars and cents how much their benefits are worth made them value them more highly, only 1/3 of employers say they provide workers with such a statement.

The others lose the opportunity to help employees understand the value of those benefits. (Don’t let that be you!)

If employers placed a higher priority on communicating about benefits with employees, not only would employees be happier with information they can quantify but they’d be getting more help from their employers in getting the most out of those benefits.

As we approach open enrollment season, that’s something to keep in mind.