Shaping employee healthcare
The state of benefits in 2025
Unpacking benefits leaders’ biggest obstacles to success
Let’s face it: employers are in a bind. Right now, they’re facing challenges in recruiting, retention, employee awareness, and engagement — not to mention full-on paralysis when it comes to navigating the number of vendors pitching them technology to solve all their concerns.
We’re facing an acute economic reality where employers need to drive down costs while improving the member experience. The time is ripe for benefits leaders to take charge and steer their organizations towards a strategy that truly meets employee needs.
That’s why Collective Health commissioned a survey of 615 U.S.-based individuals who directly manage, design, or oversee their organization’s employee health benefit programs.
We wanted to better understand:
The impact of “good” benefits programs
Leaders’ challenges in plan design and implementation
How integrating technology into plans and programs delivers better experiences and better value
Here’s what we found:
Health benefits are a core component of employee satisfaction and productivity.
According to the vast majority* of the benefits leaders surveyed, good health benefits:
* “Vast majority” refers to over 80% of the 615 respondents in the survey.
But designing the “perfect plan” is easier said than done.
Employees, benefits leaders, and members of the C-suite alike have their fair share of benefits-related challenges, especially when their organization is growing quickly.
72% of benefits leaders say increased head counts have made it more difficult to find health benefits solutions that satisfy the majority of their people.
63% of benefits leaders say a lack of executive buy-in has hindered their ability to introduce the health benefits employees desire.
Education and utilization are lacking across the board.
of employees struggle to understand their health benefits.
of benefit leaders say they have seen an increase in employee questions about health benefits in the last 12 months.
have had to change the way they approach health benefits education as younger generations enter the workforce.
Scaling benefits leads to a number of administrative challenges.
From enrollment to education to utilization, benefits leaders deal with a number of process roadblocks on a daily basis.
55%
The employee health benefits enrollment process
51%
Communicating health benefits information to members
49%
Managing employee records/data
The vast majority of benefits leaders are turning to tech-enabled solutions to ease their burdens.
92%
already use a tech-enabled healthcare benefits solution. Of these, 95% say such platforms have improved their benefits selection process.
63%
say they’ve noticed a decrease in admin work since using a tech-enabled healthcare solution.
92%
of benefits leaders agree that having dedicated human support has boosted employee engagement with their benefits.
85%
of those who DON’T use tech-enabled solutions say having access to better technology would optimize the process of curating employee health plans and increasing engagement.
What does this mean for benefits leaders?
Integrated solutions can make a dramatic difference by:
Joining all the pieces of their program together under one platform.
Delivering value for members through advanced reporting, analytics, and technology alongside dedicated human support.
Supporting employees’ unique healthcare journeys via flexible, carved-out solutions.
Achieving lower costs and better bottom lines at scale.
That’s why Collective Health was founded.
We bring together a modern and tech-driven TPA, human-centered navigation, and a seamless advocacy solution into one platform to deliver a better member experience at a lower total cost.
Leading companies use Collective Health
Discover a better
benefits experience
Learn more about how Collective Health provides both the administrative flexibility on the back end and a connected, engaging member experience on the front end.
Schedule a demo