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With the new year underway, we can expect the industry to keep changing and maybe even be turned upside down. With whatever comes, benefits pros work hard to keep up and find solutions.
Industry leaders share their thoughts and concerns about the ever-changing employee benefits landscape and how it will affect their 2025.
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Shifting from one-size-fits-all
HR teams will continue to shift from one-size-fits-all benefits to more flexible and portable benefits that meet employees’ unique needs and goals. Benefits should also become more comprehensive, covering everything from employees’ physical and financial wellness to their families. The right benefits are central to employees’ overall wellbeing, and they will be a major competitive differentiator in the coming years.
Rob Whalen, co-founder and CEO, BNFT
A multigenerational workforce that redefines benefits strategies
As Gen Z continues to enter the workforce and many baby boomers choose to extend their careers and delay retirement, the workplace will become more multigenerational than ever before. This will present both challenges and opportunities for employers in meeting varying benefit preferences. Instead of tailoring benefits to specific generations, employers should focus on moments that matter–such as mental health support, student loan assistance and parental, maternity and caregiver leave–ensuring these critical benefits are available across all life stages.
By offering a flexible, inclusive benefits package that addresses the needs of every employee, regardless of generation, companies can attract, retain and support a multigenerational workforce effectively.
Amanda Czepiel, JD, Brightmine
Emerging niches in insurance
One of the most interesting insurance trends we see is the acceleration of non-traditional benefit options playing in the more traditional insurance spaces. One example is better-designed “discount network” programs infringing on some health care and insurance offerings.
This includes pet discount networks that are more cost effective than pet insurance offering real savings and reliable service to the end user. Similarly, dental and vision discount networks actively steal membership from more typical insurance offerings.
Megan Wood, president, Genius Avenue
Hot 2025 benefits: Child care
The list of hot 2025 benefits includes child care! The reality is that child care is expensive and without corporate investments in these benefits, parents are strapped balancing work, care and finances – even forced to leave the workplace altogether. HR leaders hear parents vocalizing the urgent need for child care resources, and are researching and putting more effort into better understanding how to meet their needs.
Child care isn’t a one-size-fits-all offering. Some parents require after-school care, on-site care at the office, a nanny, in-home care, etc. There’s a wide spectrum of options and companies need to be mindful of the diversity of the needs of their employees. What do your employers really want? I recommend HR leaders invest in surveying employees, to truly understand their needs and then investing in the benefits that address those specific needs. The new year will bring more benefits, more curated to case-by-case, unique and organizational needs.
Shanelle Reese, chief people officer, Wonderschool
Addressing holistic employee needs
During the 2025 open enrollment season, we anticipate a continued focus on benefits that address holistic employee needs, including financial security, mental health, and supplemental health coverage. Employees are seeking greater flexibility and personalization in their benefit options, and employers have a unique opportunity to meet these expectations through enhanced communication and tailored offerings.
By providing clear guidance and robust options during open enrollment, organizations can empower employees to make informed decisions that align with their individual priorities and build a more engaged workforce.
Kristina Welke, VP and head of strategy, solutions, & marketing, New York Life Group Benefit Solutions
The year of benefits tools
Before employees go through open enrollment, employers select the health insurance plans they’ll offer to their teams in the coming year, as well as how much the business will contribute to health insurance premiums. This requires a lot of financial modeling, understanding the types of plans employees might want, and more. When discussing employer plan selection, I often use a supermarket metaphor. Would you rather go to a trusted grocery store that vets its products and only offers 3-4 cereal options or one that has a low threshold to allow products on their shelves but offers shoppers 20 cereal options?
I personally prefer the former. The vetting has been done, and I know the 3-4 options are the best value, so my choice ends up being more about what I’m in the mood for rather than which is the best. Employers should aim to be “supermarket one” – providing well-researched plans for their teams that make sense for the employee population but also the business. So, in 2025, I predict more tools will be available focused on helping employers, especially small businesses, navigate this process with more ease (like implementing more AI).
David Feinberg, SVP of risk and insurance, Justworks
Using AI to streamline benefits
In 2025, more companies will explore using AI to help streamline benefits management. AI offers incredibly compelling opportunities to make benefits management more efficient, while providing personalized support at scale. While regulators will need to scrutinize how AI is being used in health care and in financial services, in 2025, we’ll see more companies finding ways to solve these problems – potentially revolutionizing how benefits packages are designed and delivered.It’ll be critical for these builders to tackle this work responsibly – with great power, comes great responsibility to be stewards of people’s health and financial prosperity.We predict companies will start with tools to augment HR professionals’ work before making customer-facing tools, and will start with work that doesn’t require a license. For example, we’re already seeing companies use AI to help with manual tasks like reviewing proof of qualifying life events and HSA and FSA claims.
Julia Miller, general manager & head of product, benefits, Gusto
2025: Employers redefine GLP-1 management frameworks
Employers will continue to evaluate how to meet employee demand for anti-obesity medications. While small- to mid-size organizations will primarily weigh coverage decisions, large employers are diving deeper and evaluating which utilization management (UM) techniques yield the best results. We will see more open information sharing among employers, pharmacy benefit managers, navigators, and third-party vendors in an effort to manage GLP-1 spend.
As a result, some meaningful frameworks could begin to emerge to better define best UM solutions based on employee demographics, prevalence of chronic disease, health care consumption patterns, and regional health care dynamics, among others.
Borislava Marcheva, head of market engagement, Red Cell Partners
Traditional models of health benefits?
Rising medical costs and annual premium increases continue to force employers to look beyond traditional models of providing health benefits to their workforce. At the same time, remote work in the U.S. has increased dramatically since the pandemic, leading employees to want choices that give personalized, flexible benefit choices in the local markets where they live.
Andrew Reeves, SVP & general manager, Gravie ICHRA
Employees will expect employers to ensure fair work and benefits
The new model of DEI will be one that supports DEI goals while not discriminating against any particular group of employees. Benefits teams in particular have an opportunity to look at areas such as health care and financial health, where benefits are less utilized or less valuable to women and people of color.
For example, regarding financial health: retirement, financial planning, and financial education are disproportionately under-utilized by women and people of color. Offering real solutions that will actually be used by the 70% of the U.S. who are not financially healthy (while still being offered to everyone) will drive retention and advancement of these populations.
Tom Spann, co-founder & CEO, Brightside
Financial wellness benefits
As inflation and the cost of living rise, HR teams will face an increasing number of requests from employees for financial support – especially as 54% of workers say they’ve saved less as a result of inflation.
In 2025, proactive employers will need a comprehensive communication and benefits plan that highlights available financial resources, offers lifestyle discounts and provides employees with more flexibility to manage their deductions. Clear, proactive communication will be key to ensuring employees are fully aware of the benefits available to help them navigate these challenges.
Amberly Dressler, VP of corporate marketing, isolved
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