Less than a fifth of companies say their benefits programs are at the leading edge—and even more say they're afraid their offerings are falling behind industry standards.

That's according to a survey from Artemis Health, which finds that while benefits leaders say they're driven by employee productivity (47 percent), employee satisfaction (43 percent) and the need to improve employee health and well-being (36 percent), only 18 percent of them say their benefits programs are at the front of the pack, while 19 percent say that their organization is probably falling behind the rest of the industry.

And even those top three objectives aren't necessarily at the top for some companies, depending on company size. Those with 5,000 to 9,999 employees, for instance, prioritize "increasing employee productivity" at the top of their benefits program goals, while companies with 10,000 to 24,999 employees instead choose "improving employee satisfaction." For companies with 25,000 employees or more, "improving employee health and well-being" is the top goal.

Innovative programs, it turns out, are more likely to have been created through the use of data analytics and business intelligence solutions, with employee feedback (41 percent), industry best practices (37 percent), financial data (34 percent) and recruiting feedback (33 percent) also factors in crafting benefits design.

Still, laying their hands on the right data at the right time can pose a challenge. While 88 percent say data is vital in design and management of an effective program, 53 percent cite timely access to the right data as one of their biggest challenges. Other potential impediments include failing to run reports quickly enough, an inability to connect disjointed data sources and being unable to trust data accuracy.

Still, failure really isn't an option, with 79 percent of benefits leaders saying their ability to provide data-driven benefits insight is essential to demonstrating their value to the C-suite.

"We talk to benefits leaders who get stopped in the hallway by a CFO and asked about health care costs or enrollment numbers," says Grant Gordon, CEO and cofounder of Artemis Health. "Benefits analytics is the key to feeling confident in these conversations and building better benefits programs for their organizations and their employees."

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Companies struggle to stay on cutting edge with benefits design

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