Part Six: 2021 Benefit Trends Survey
Analytics and insights help employers better understand the wants and needs of different employees and make data-driven decisions critical to delivering a personalized employee experience.
Employers globally gave themselves low to middling effectiveness scores across key aspects of analytics. While over four in 10 (45%) indicate they access the latest information to understand market trends and legislative development, only 38% say they use data and analytics to understand program effectiveness. In North America, U.S. employers gave themselves considerably higher scores in these categories, with a majority indicating they understand trends and developments (69%) and program effectiveness (57%).
Additionally, many employers globally are overlooking the value of listening strategies. Fewer than three in 10 (29%) report using surveys and focus groups to understand employee wants and needs.
The weakest area overall — understanding wants and needs — is also the highest employer priority globally as well as in EMEA and Latin America (Figure 1). In Asia Pacific and North America, benchmarking benefit programs tops employers’ priority list for analytics.
| Global | NA | EMEA | LatAm | APAC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Understand wants and needs | 53% | 40% | 57% | 57% | 53% |
| Benchmark benefit programs | 48% | 54% | 49% | 34% | 55% |
| Measure program effectiveness | 39% | 44% | 37% | 40% | 36% |
Close to two in five employers globally (37%) are looking to deploy listening strategies in order to better understand employees’ views on benefits in the next two years.
Also in the coming two years, roughly a third are planning or considering the following measures: using predictive analytics to forecast costs and risks (34%), using data to identify at-risk employees (35%), and connecting health and wealth (33%).
Next section: Next steps for employers
| Title | File Type | File Size |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 Benefit Trends Survey | 1.3 MB |
