In this age of rising benefit expenses and tighter bottom lines, no one would blame employers for looking for ways to enhance their employee benefit menu at little or no cost. For many companies, voluntary benefits have fulfilled that role over the years. But organizations often fall short in conveying the value that these offerings add to the total rewards package.

Voluntary benefits are products—such as life, disability, critical-illness and accident insurance, as well as pet coverage, ID theft protection, legal services and financial counseling—offered through an employer but paid for partially or solely by workers through payroll deferral. The attraction of these benefits is that they can offer individual employees group rates that they would likely be unable to obtain on their own.

In a 2013 survey of CFOs by benefits provider Prudential Financial, 74 percent agreed or strongly agreed that offering voluntary benefits is a cost-effective way to increase employees’ satisfaction with overall benefits. The percentage of CFOs who agreed with that statement increased significantly from just a year earlier, when a similar survey found that 56 percent agreed that voluntary benefits boost workers’ satisfaction with the benefits package.

Similarly, a 2013 survey of employee benefits professionals at midsize and large businesses, conducted by consultancy Towers Watson, showed that employers strongly believe that voluntary benefits will become more important to their total rewards strategy over the next five years. The primary reasons companies said they adopt voluntary options are to provide personalized benefits that fit employees’ needs and lifestyles (83 percent) and to enrich their total rewards packages (74 percent).