HR and benefits teams need to be empowered in order to report on the success of their programs and to give employees a better benefits experience.

While investing in your employees is the smartest business decision you can make, HR and benefit professionals are beginning to expand their focus to more than talent retention. In 2020, North American headquartered organizations have zeroed in on their top three benefits strategy objectives: (1) promoting employee health and well-being, (2) attracting and retaining talent and (3) driving overall business performance.

Those three objectives all have one common goal: to inspire and engage employees, resulting in more productivity, creativity, and innovation within the workplace. Here are four ways organizations can achieve these objectives for a competitive edge.

1. Adopt and maximize HR technology

While the majority of HR leaders believe they are innovators, they also admit to several obstacles when it comes to technology investment. Increasingly, HR and benefits teams are required to prove their contribution towards achieving organizational goals. However, one of the biggest barriers continues to be lack of buy-in from senior leadership to invest in the technology necessary to deliver on these. HR and benefits teams need to make the benefits of tech clear to the C-suite, as without the people data and insights that come from this technology, teams cannot accurately report on ROI on spend or engagement on benefits– which for 55% of organizations accounts for 16% to 25% or more of payroll.