Few large and midsize employers consider voluntary benefits and services to be an important component of their total employee benefits strategy, but a new study by Towers Watson & Co. predicts that will change over the next five years.

While 94% of mid-market and large employers offer at least one form of voluntary benefits and services to their employees, only 21% said those benefits are “very important” to their total rewards strategies, according to Towers Watson's 2013 Voluntary Benefits and Services Survey, released Wednesday.

However, that percentage could more than double by 2018, with 48% of employers surveyed indicating that they expect voluntary benefits and services designed to fill crucial gaps in employees' health, information security, and wealth management needs to become “very important” to their total rewards strategies over the next half-decade.

The survey results include responses from 320 employers across eight industry groups, with workforce sizes ranging from 540 to 345,000 full-time employees.

Among employers that offer voluntary benefits, 83% said they include the benefits in their total rewards strategy to enrich their core benefit plans with personalized options to fit employees' needs and lifestyles.

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“As organizations consider new benefit strategies in the post-health-care-reform environment, they are seeking a delicate balance of providing their employees with a competitive rewards package but without inflating costs,” Mark Bilderback, senior health care consultant at New York-based Towers Watson, said in a statement.

With excise taxes on health care benefit plans above a certain value threshold under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act due to take effect in 2018, Mr. Bilderback added that voluntary benefit plans and services can provide employers with “an affordable way to reduce employees' out-of-pocket risk and provide clear value to their employees.”

According to the survey results, 80% or more of employers surveyed include some combination of life insurance, dental, vision and disability coverage in their voluntary benefits program. Other popular offerings among employers include accident insurance (68%), legal assistance (55%) and discount merchandise, ticket purchasing or other perks (65%).

Among the voluntary benefits and services employers are considering offering to their employees within the next two years, the most popular options were critical illness coverage (21%), identity theft assistance (20%) and financial counseling (19%).