Six steps to a benefits checkup

Enhance the value of your total benefits package

April 2025

As your organization adapts to changing workforce needs, ensuring your benefit offerings are both competitive and comprehensive is critical to employee satisfaction and retention. This checklist helps you assess your current benefits, identify gaps and optimize strategies for improved employee engagement. Follow these six steps to conduct a strategic mid-year benefits review.

1. Conduct a holistic review of your plan

Start by taking a comprehensive look at your current benefits plan. This step involves evaluating the benefits you offer, assessing their relevance and effectiveness and aligning them with both employee needs and organizational goals.

Evaluate current benefits:

Inventory all benefits: List all benefits offered, including health insurance, retirement plans, wellness programs and voluntary benefits.
Assess relevance and effectiveness: Check if each benefit is still relevant and meeting employee needs. Consider feedback and utilization rates.

Align with employee needs and organizational goals:

Survey employees: Use surveys or focus groups to find out which benefits employees value most.
Review organizational goals: Ensure your benefits strategy supports long-term goals like attracting talent, improving wellbeing and boosting productivity.

        
More than 6 in 10 employees say their benefit packages make them more inclined to stay with their current employers.1

2. Analyze claims and utilization rates

Understanding how your benefits are being used is crucial for identifying areas of improvement. Analyzing claims data and utilization rates helps you spot trends and make informed decisions about your benefit offerings.

Review claims data:

Collect data: Gather data on employee claims over the past year.
Analyze utilization: Check how often different benefits are used to identify high-demand and underutilized benefits.

Identify trends and areas for improvement:

Spot patterns: Look for trends in claims data, like high usage of mental health services or low participation in wellness programs.
Target improvements: Use this information to decide where to enhance or adjust your benefit offerings.

3. Assess employee participation

Employee participation rates can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your benefit programs. Evaluating these rates and comparing them to industry benchmarks can help you identify gaps and opportunities for improvement.

Evaluate participation rates:

Measure enrollment: Check the percentage of employees enrolled in each benefit program to learn what programs are the most valued to employees.
Compare benchmarks: Compare your participation rates to industry benchmarks.

Identify gaps and opportunities:

Look for gaps: Identify benefits with low participation rates and investigate why.
Increase engagement: Develop strategies to boost engagement, like better communication, incentives or adjustments to the benefits.

4. Anticipate medical rate increases

Medical costs are a significant component of any benefits package. Anticipating rate increases and developing cost management strategies can help you maintain comprehensive coverage without breaking the budget.

Understand potential increases:

Research trends: Stay informed about trends in medical costs and rate increases.
Consult providers: Work with insurance providers to get projections for upcoming rate increases.

Develop cost management strategies:

Negotiate rates: Negotiate with providers for the best rates.
Adjust plan designs: Consider changes like higher deductibles or co-pays to manage costs.

        
Employers expect costs to rise by 5.8% in 2025 after making planned changes. Without these changes, costs could increase by nearly 8%.2

5. Adjust your plan based on pricing

As costs change, it's important to adjust your benefits plan accordingly. This step involves reviewing your budget, making necessary adjustments and ensuring that your plan continues to provide comprehensive coverage.

Make necessary adjustments:

Review budget: Assess your benefits budget and determine where adjustments are needed.
Implement changes: Make strategic changes to your benefits plan, like modifying coverage levels or introducing new cost-sharing measures.

Maintain comprehensive coverage:

Balance cost and coverage: Ensure changes still provide comprehensive and affordable coverage.
Communicate changes: Clearly explain any changes to employees and how they will be affected.

6. Enhance communication and education

Effective communication and education are key to ensuring that employees understand and appreciate their benefits. Use multiple channels to reach all employees and tailor your messages to different groups.

Use multiple channels:

Diversify communication: Use emails, webinars, one-on-one meetings and intranet postings.
Tailor messages: Customize messages to different employee groups.

Highlight value and importance:

Educate employees: Provide detailed information about each benefit and its value.
Encourage participation: Emphasize the importance of participating in benefit programs for overall employee wellbeing and financial security.