The benefits imperative
Benefits matter more than ever, but getting strategy, data and technology right takes expert balance.
Employees increasingly view benefits as a critical component of their total rewards. For organizations, the employee benefits strategy is a valuable talent attraction and retention tool as well as an opportunity to reflect the talent strategy in a personal and tangible benefits experience.
Getting to the heart of your employee benefit strategy is complex. It requires balancing many factors such as
- Design competitiveness
- Employee experience
- Cost optimization
Furthermore, you need to find the right data for analytics to refine your employee benefits strategy. And to implement it effectively, you need the right balance of technology for benefits administration.
Translate benefits strategy into tactical solutions for organizations
The Strategy Navigator: Our benefits framework
Elevating benefits
It's helpful to have a framework to design and maintain an effective employee benefits program. Our Strategy Navigator (see below) outlines the five critical components of an exceptional employee benefits package:
In the modern work environment, data sits at the core of all decision making. The challenge (and therefore, the opportunity) is to identify the critical benefits data needed to inform employee benefits design and administration.
'Set it and forget it' is a strategy of the past.
Data comes in two forms:
- Internal, e.g., program utilization — are employees engaging and using benefits at the level that we are expecting?
- External, e.g., benchmarks — what's the competitive practice and what do employees expect when evaluating a benefits package?
'Set it and forget it' is a strategy of the past. Measuring the impact of a program change, soliciting feedback, and continuously refining and improving the employee benefits program is critical to ensure that your employee benefits meet the needs of a changing workforce.
Many organizations or their leadership make bold statements with respect to 'caring for our employees' or making a 'commitment to support mental health'. Designing a thoughtful employee benefits portfolio is a clear way to show alignment between an organization's strategy and employee experience.
Do the benefits you offer truly matter?
Employee benefits can help you achieve your organization's talent goals and ultimately drive business results. We ask:
- Do the benefits you offer truly matter to your employees?
- What are the core employee benefits that are needed to compete within a market or industry?
- What are the additional benefits that you can provide on a voluntary or optional basis?
The perennial question asked of benefits leaders is, 'what's the return on investment?' Organizations tend to turn a critical eye to the enormous investment made in employee benefits, especially when the financial environment is more challenging. Your responsibility as a benefits leader is to ensure that benefits spending is optimal.
It's important to look at different avenues of financing employee benefits, for example cost-sharing. Risk management is also a critical element of financing. Consider:
- What's the appropriate division of cost between employer and employee?
- What are opportunities to protect the company from excess or unexpected cost by leveraging partners or mechanisms to mitigate financial risk?
The most robust employee benefits program has no impact if employees are not aware that the benefits exist. Unfortunately, this is one of the most common complaints of benefits leaders — that employees don't know what they have. Establishing and maintaining a dialogue with employees (and covered dependents) is important to increase awareness.
Clear, accessible communication is a key element of a benefits program.
Sometimes employees are saturated with information and sometimes, particularly in the 'moments that matter' (e.g., a health crisis), the benefits program information is inaccessible or difficult to understand.
Clear, accessible communication is a key element of a benefits program. When you communicate your benefits program clearly, you elevate the employee experience.
The success of an employee benefits program often requires a tightly run benefits administration plan. Employee benefits programs meet or exceed financial and talent goals by leveraging constantly evolving technology and include a tight benefits administration process to drive efficiency.
We can enable you to ensure that your employee benefits program effectively leverages external capabilities and focuses internal resources on the critical elements of the benefits program. We also can help you improve productivity through effective partnerships that outsource the critical elements of the benefits experience to organizations specializing in employee benefits.
WTW’s Elevate Benefits Collective: Big-company benefits. Simplified.
A win-win
Elevate Benefits Collective brings small and medium-sized enterprise employers together in a professionally managed benefits program — a true win-win. We give your employees access to the coverage, pricing and service experience typically available only to Canada’s largest organizations. This gives you long-term budget certainty and a simpler way to manage benefits. By combining the buying power of many employers, we unlock coverage levels, plan features and program enhancements that are often difficult for smaller organizations to obtain on their own.
Financial advantages through pooled buying power
Through Elevate Benefits Collective, you gain access to buying power, preferential pricing, extended rate guarantees and greater renewal stability through the purchasing strength of being part of a larger, expert-managed program. With rate guarantees and maximum caps that take effect upon expiry, you can lock in rates for up to 36 months. This means you get predictable budgeting, reduced exposure to market volatility and no annual renewal negotiations while guarantees are in place. That’s competitive pricing designed for long-term value.
Enhanced coverage for your employees
Your employees gain access to enhanced coverage typically available only to larger organizations. Higher non-evidence maximums and overall maximums for basic life insurance and income protection benefits allow employees to secure meaningful levels without providing medical evidence. That’s a valuable advantage for higher-income earners, whose coverage is often restricted by lower limits available to smaller organizations. Combined with comprehensive wellbeing and flexibility offerings, the program delivers a stronger benefits experience that helps you attract and retain talent.
Expert oversight, simplified administration
Elevate Benefits Collective combines ongoing oversight, advocacy and consulting expertise with the strength and stability of one of Canada’s leading group benefits and insurance providers. With a dedicated service team, a streamlined single-carrier solution and onboarding in as little as 30 days when eligibility requirements are met, employers and employees receive responsive support, simplified administration and best-in-class experience. We manage the provider’s performance and provide market intelligence. You can stay confident that your program remains competitive and well-managed.
Ready to give your employees more? Contact us to learn how Elevate Benefits Collective can work for your organization.
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Benefits Insights
Benefits Insights is WTW’s global benefits platform for multinational employers. It brings together benefits data, market insights, governance tools and AI-driven intelligence into one connected experience, helping leaders manage benefits worldwide from a single source of truth.
