Current Trends in Employee Benefits
Current Trends in Employee Benefits: Insights from Our HR Pulse Survey
Staying on top of current trends in employee benefits is key to helping clients navigate today’s evolving challenges and expectations. Employers face a numerous set of challenges when it comes to healthcare and benefits — from rising costs to unsatisfactory benefit engagement. While employers’ minds are squarely on quantifying ROI, each of the pain points they have experienced offers innovative brokers the chance to be real difference-makers.
To illuminate employer insights and provide support as you elevate your value to clients, New Benefits has surveyed around 100 HR professionals from across many industries to produce our inaugural HR Pulse Survey. Titled Employer Trends Across the Benefits Landscape, this report indexes employer sentiment, unearths their top priorities and brings to light opportunities for you to make a difference.
Key Takeaways
Employer Trends Across the Benefits Landscape demonstrates consensus, revealing several valuable insights regarding how employers feel about the state of benefits in general and non-insured benefits specifically.
- Rising costs are by far the most pressing challenge, followed by finding competitive benefits and driving engagement.
- ROI is at the top of HR leaders’ minds as they look for clear ways to quantify their returns on benefits.
- Employee engagement is a key focus, with most respondents disappointed with engagement levels while also reporting poor data visibility.
- Cost-effectiveness is by far the primary driver of non-insured benefit adoption.
- HR leaders lean heavily on brokers to learn about new, non-insured benefits — with many hoping for even more guidance going forward.
Insight-Driven Recommendations
Trends in the employer mindset also highlight clear opportunities for proactive brokers to reshape their strategies and improve client relationships in a challenging market.
- Against rising costs and undetermined ROI, employers need to do more with less. Brokers are primed to present more effective cost-benefit analyses and case studies to encourage buy-in.
- Employee engagement continues to disappoint, but engagement data visibility also is poor. The opportunity is there for brokers to implement improved engagement analytics tools to either prove effectiveness or reveal ways to improve benefit use.
- Additionally, employers are looking to brokers for new strategies to help drive engagement — an area in which proactive brokers can generate new revenue.
- HR leaders still depend overwhelmingly on their brokers to keep them on the leading edge, with most stating a desire for even more guidance. By shifting their approach from that of a vendor to a partner, brokers can deepen client relationships.
Looking Forward
It’s no secret that there are many challenges facing employers in a healthcare and benefits space that is difficult to navigate. At New Benefits, we remain steadfast in our commitment to keeping a finger on the pulse of employer, HR leader, and broker sentiments.
Brokers like you are on the front lines, shaping the future of workplace benefits and advocating for meaningful solutions. Your perspective is invaluable, and we welcome your continuous input. Whether it’s feedback on the insights shared here or observations on emerging trends you’re seeing in the field, we’re here to listen.
Our mission is to empower you with timely data, innovative tools, and ongoing support to help you lead with confidence and deliver real impact to your clients. Let’s keep the conversation going—it’s our pleasure to support you.
Next Steps
Interested in exploring these trends and opportunities in more detail? Download your free employer trends report today!
