Dive Brief:
- Most workers want personalized benefits, a July report from Aon suggests. Sixty-five percent of employees responding to a survey by the company said they would prefer benefits with more choices compared to their current options.
- Meanwhile, only 14% of the multinational companies surveyed have global guidelines in place to facilitate personalization, per Aon’s 2025 Global Benefits Trends Study.
- “The opportunity lies in designing programs that deliver both value and efficiency at scale,” said Michael Pedel, head of global benefits for Aon, in a statement. Researchers surveyed more than 500 global benefits professionals across 16 industries and 45 countries.
Dive Insight:
Offering benefits that address workers’ unique needs continues to be a topic of conversation. A July report from Gallagher indicated that employers were increasingly interested in providing voluntary benefits. This included quality-of-life perks such as pet insurance, accident assistance and adult day care and other caregiver support.
John Tournet, U.S. CEO of Gallagher’s benefits and HR consulting division, said at the time that reinvesting benefits savings could make employers competitive in the war for talent.
“Knowing that care encompasses all aspects of an employee’s well-being from physical to emotional and financial needs, ensuring leaders have the right data to make informed decisions, is more critical than ever,” Tournet said.
In the Aon survey, cost appeared to be a main barrier: 70% of employers said that medical inflation was the main cost driver. However, benefits leaders also said providing employee value is now one of their top objectives.
“This disconnect underscores a new challenge for global benefits leaders: meeting rising employee expectations for flexibility while managing escalating costs,” the Aon report found.
Looking ahead, 77% of survey respondents told Aon that they plan to negotiate costs with their current benefits provider, and 67% will be issuing a request for proposal from their benefits vendor.
Mercer’s July benefits report shows that employers are, in fact, making changes to their plans, but mainly shifting plan costs to employees.
About half of large employers told Mercer they’re either likely or very likely to make shifts that would raise deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums for their employees. This metric is up from 45% of employers who said the same in 2024.
Next year will be “even more challenging from a cost perspective,” Mercer’s health and benefits lead said at the time.
“Employees increasingly expect a consumer-grade experience when it comes to their benefits — one that offers meaningful choice, creates innovative solutions and aligns with their individual needs,” Aon’s Pedel said. “Companies are moving in that direction and communicating their progress, but must also manage the realities of cost and complexity.”