Employees are strategic collaborators essential to an organization's growth and productivity. Their engagement is therefore critical to its success. In an increasingly competitive labor market, a major challenge for many companies is attracting and retaining top talent.
Employee benefits are a vital strategic tool for achieving this. With businesses now having a wide range of options, making the right choices is crucial. What should you offer? What should the employer pay for? When should adjustments be made? In short, where should the budget be invested to maximize the impact on the employee experience.
As data becomes one of the most valuable assets for companies, leveraging it offers an unprecedented opportunity to refine strategic decision-making. A data-driven approach allows you to fine-tune your benefits programs and better target their components, maximizing their impact across the organization. Of course, data collection must comply with privacy protection laws.
Demographics and Needs
The first step is understanding your workforce’s demographic composition and needs. Surveys or focus groups are vital tools to guide your decisions based on employees’ expectations and requirements.
Who are your employees? What are their priorities at different stages of their personal and professional lives? Younger employees might be interested in benefits related to parenting (e.g., parental leave, childcare subsidies). In contrast, older employees might focus on eldercare or long-term health support.
By analyzing correlations between demographic and survey data, you can identify the most relevant and appreciated benefits for various employee age groups. A personalized program increases employee satisfaction and fosters deeper engagement with your organization.
Staying Competitive and Anticipating Future Needs
By 2025, millennials will comprise 75% of the workforce1. This generation seeks a professional environment aligned with its values and lifestyle, placing a strong emphasis on mental and physical health2.
This reality drives the continuous evolution of employee benefits. HR leaders must stay abreast of market trends and external data, such as benchmarking studies. These tools help compare a company’s benefits offerings with those of similar organizations in size, industry, and location, enabling competitiveness while forecasting cost and needs evolutions.
Cost Management
In this area, usage data is critical for managing benefit costs. For instance, analyzing disability or insurance claims data might reveal concerning trends—such as a rise in musculoskeletal disorder claims—allowing proactive and preventive solutions. This approach enhances employee health while potentially lowering overall costs for both the employer and employees.
Furthermore, during insurance contract renewals, detailed actuarial data enables employers to negotiate fair pricing. For example, data might predict lower future claims due to the departure of a high claimant or the single-use nature of a medication. Claim data analysis thus supports transparent and constructive negotiations.
Determining ROI: Reduced Absenteeism
Once benefits are implemented, measuring their usage and impact is essential. Usage data provides key insights into how employees leverage these benefits. For instance, if your offerings include telemedicine, employee assistance programs, or wellness accounts, HR managers need to understand their actual utilization and quantify their ROI.
Low usage or marginal ROI might indicate communication gaps or a mismatch between offered benefits and actual needs. In such cases, reevaluating your offerings allows you to refine your strategy and allocate resources to more relevant programs.
Optimizing Communication Strategies
Communication is key to the success of employee benefits programs. Even the most generous benefits will go unused if employees are unaware of them or do not understand how they work. By monitoring data on employee engagement with internal communications (e.g., email open rates, link clicks, attendance at information sessions), you can adjust your messaging to ensure critical information reaches its audience.
An effective communication strategy should be continuous and adaptable, incorporating employee feedback and usage rates to maximize uptake, satisfaction, and engagement.
The Bottom Line
Integrating data into benefits management is no longer optional. By fully leveraging demographic, usage, and actuarial data, you can design programs that meet employee needs while aligning strategically with organizational goals.
This approach maximizes the value of employee benefits, enhances employee satisfaction, and optimizes costs for your company. In doing so, you create a win-win scenario for all stakeholders.
Do not hesitate to contact the group insurance and employee benefits experts at Lussier for any issues in these areas. They will provide you with the tools you need and answer your questions.
1 Big demands and high expectations, The Deloitte Survey
2 The mental health of Gen Zs and millennials in the new world of work, Deloitte
