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Speed, Access, and PartnershipWhat Enterprise Benefits Leaders Want and How Brokers and Consultants Can Help

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Exploring the Perceptions, Challenges, and Needs of Benefits LeadersThe very nature of employee benefits is changing dramatically — and not least for consultants and brokers. Group plans are becoming more complex. Expectations are rising from employers and employees. And the need for better health, greater productivity, and more favorable financial outcomes are more important than ever. To give consultants and brokers a helping hand in meeting these needs, Artemis Health sought insight into the perspectives of 300 HR and benefits leaders at enterprise organizations across the U.S.1 We wanted to uncover how benefits leaders are handling these challenges, what they think is key for them to remain competitive, and how consultants and brokers fit into the mix today.

Views on Consultants and Brokers: It’s ComplicatedForward-thinking brokers and consultants are always looking for opportunities to help clients. Our study shows that the overwhelming majority of benefits leaders partner with consultants and brokers today — and 89% of benefits leaders place a somewhat to extremely high degree of trust in their opinions. However, only 20% of benefits leaders say they rely most on consultants and brokers when making major decisions about their benefits program.

In other words, benefits leaders trust consultants and brokers. But when it’s time to pull the trigger, they don’t perceive those same people as go-to resources.

89%of benefits leaders place somewhat high to extremely high trust in the opinions provided by benefits consultants and brokers.

Introduction

1 For more information on the methodology, see the Appendix at the end of this report.

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In other words, benefits leaders trust consultants and brokers. But when it’s time to pull the trigger, they don’t perceive those same people as go-to resources.

Yet ...

say they rely most on consultants or brokers to make major decisions about their organization’s benefits program

say partnering with advisors or experts outside of their organizations is most important to delivering the best possible benefits program

20%

12%

say they currently use a benefits consultant

say they currently use a benefits broker

place somewhat high to extremely high trust in the opinions provided by benefits consultants and brokers

85%

89%

89%

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The Opportunity: Benefits Data InsightsWhat explains this gap between benefits leaders’ perceived trust in consultants and brokers and their tendency to forgo their counsel? Another key theme from the study may shed some light here:

Benefits leaders believe data is incredibly important to running a best-practice benefits program. They also believe it’s key to a strong partnership with a consultant or broker. However, benefits leaders are more likely to believe they have the right skills and team members internally to draw meaningful insights from their data than the right external advisors to get that same insight (including partnerships with consultants and brokers).

Although consultants and brokers have long been trusted advisors to companies with 5,000 employees or more, it’s clear that something has shifted. Maybe benefits leaders are looking for more tangible insights from their partners — more actionable support to face their biggest challenges.

Benefits leaders believe data is incredibly important to running a best-practice benefits program. They also believe it’s key to a strong partnership with a consultant or broker.

I have the right skills to draw meaningful insights from my organization’s benefits data.

My team members have the right skills to draw meaningful insights from my organization’s benefits data.

I have the right external advisors (including consultants and brokers) to help me draw meaningful insights from my organization’s benefits data.

86%

80%

71%

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At Artemis Health, we believe in partnering with expert consultants and brokers like you to deliver excellent solutions to our clients. This report tells you what benefits leaders are thinking, striving for, and demanding as they work toward creating innovative solutions that support their people and drive their businesses forward. It’s interesting and meaningful knowledge you can use to continue being a valued partner to them going forward.

Either way, consultants and brokers need support to continuously demonstrate value with large employers, retain clients, and expand their book of business.

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Moving Their Organizations ForwardAs benefits leaders face increasing pressure from the market and increasing demands from employees, it’s critical to understand how they are prioritizing their many objectives — and what they really care about.

Just like everyone else, benefits leaders are accountable to the bottom line — and also have unique dreams and motivations that drive them to do what they do. What do these aspirations look like for benefits leaders, and how might they affect the way they run their programs?

When asked about what motivates them in their work, about a third of benefits leaders said they are primarily motivated to help the organization meet its goals (32%). Other benefits leaders said they’re most motivated by improving workplace culture (23%), helping employees get better healthcare (20%), or saving the company money (20%).

Drastically fewer benefits leaders are primarily motivated by moving to the next level in their career (7%) or proving the value of HR and benefits to the C-suite (7%). We can see that while personal motivations vary, benefits leaders are, by and large, driven by a greater purpose. The majority of benefits leaders are focused on organizational goals and needs — more than their own, those of their team, or even their own career. They are big-picture thinkers and team players who focus on the success of the organization over their own.

32%of benefits leaders are primarily motivated by helping the organization meet its goals.

Motivations and Goals: What Benefits Leaders Care About

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Beyond motivations, benefits leaders see themselves as task-oriented, tech-savvy leaders. A high majority of respondents agree or strongly agree that they enjoy complex, detailed tasks, seek out tech-savvy solutions, and want to be in control of every part of their benefits programs. They were less inclined to agree that they prioritize helping employees over worrying about costs or collaborating with peers outside their organization.

At companies of 5,000 employees or more, this makes sense. Benefits leaders at these organizations are facing increasingly complex benefits plans, continually shifting regulations, expanded C-suite expectations, and evolving employee needs as the demographics of today’s workforce change. Benefits leaders see themselves as diligent and innovative, wanting to take ownership and make an impact on their organization. But what kind of impact are these goal-oriented, tech-savvy, and conscientious leaders striving for? Our next set of findings illuminates this.

I don’t mind devoting a lot of time to complex, detailed tasks.

I seek out the most innovative, tech-savvy solutions.

I want to be in control of every part of my organization’s benefits program.

I prioritize helping employees over worrying about costs.

I want to collaborate with peers and experts outside of my organization.

86%

83%

83%

75%

72%

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Employee Productivity and Satisfaction Are KeyWhen making decisions about their benefits programs, benefits leaders report their top three goals are to increase employee productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and improve employee health and well-being.

Organizational Goals Benefits Leaders Are Trying to Achieve

“Ultimately, benefits leaders want to do a really good job for their organization. They’re the ones who hear from employees when things aren’t going well. Oftentimes they hear from employees who are wrestling with very personal and emotional issues. So it makes sense that they want to do the best job for the organization, but also the employees that make up the organization.”

— Consultant, HR consulting firm

Increasing employee productivity

Improving employee satisfaction

Improving employee health and well-being

Attracting top talent

Ensuring compliance with healthcare laws

Reducing costs

Reducing financial risk

Lowering turnover

Containing costs

Reducing absenteeism

47%

43%

36%

30%

27%

27%

26%

25%

21%

18%

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However, when you look at the size of their companies, you’ll see significant differences in how benefits leaders rank their organizational goals. Those at companies with 25,000 employees or more are significantly less likely than those at companies of 5,000 employees to cite employee productivity as a top goal — and they ranked employee health and well-being as their highest goal. Meanwhile, benefits leaders at companies with 10,000 to 24,999 employees were much more likely to report reducing costs as a top goal, ranking it third-most important.

Overall, it’s clear that benefits leaders see employee productivity, satisfaction, and health and well-being as directly tied to their department’s value for the organization as a whole. These three goals also tie into a larger trend that CEOs and CHROs everywhere are prioritizing: the employee experience. In fact, research from MIT2 shows that enterprises with a great employee experience achieve twice the innovation, double the customer satisfaction, and 25% higher profits than organizations with a poor employee experience. Benefits leaders understand that the better they support and equip their employees, the better they support the organization’s strategic goals and outcomes.

Companies with 5,000 to 9,999 employees

Companies with 10,000 to 24,999 employees

Companies with 25,000 employees or more

01 Increasing employee productivity

01 Improving employee satisfaction

01 Improving employee health and well-being



02 Ensuring compliance with healthcare laws

03 Improving employee health and well-being

03 Reducing costs


04 Attracting top talent

04 Improving employee

health and well-being


2 MIT. Building Business Value With Employee Experience. 2017. https://www.avanade.com/~/media/asset/thinking/mit-research.pdf

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Finally, to help you pinpoint how to create more value with those benefits leaders, we looked not only at what motivates them, but also at how they are being measured. Yes, they’re striving to help the organization meet its goals and improve employee productivity and satisfaction. But how are their bosses measuring their success?

Our study revealed, again, that employee satisfaction takes the cake. But benefits leaders also say their ability to make data-driven decisions is a top success metric. Relatedly, 79% of benefits leaders agree or strongly agree that their ability to provide data-driven insights is essential for demonstrating their value to the C-suite.

This focus by our respondents’ supervisors on cost reduction is surprising, considering that relatively few benefits leaders rated it as a top organizational goal. This shows that although benefits leaders are measured on reducing costs, they focus on the employee experience first. While staying within budget is likely still important — perhaps even table stakes to any good benefits program — they see their top priority as providing value.

01 Their ability to improve employee satisfaction

02 Their ability to make data-driven decisions

03 Their ability to reduce costs

Top Three Ways Benefits Leaders Are Measured

79% of benefits leaders agree or strongly agree that their ability to provide data-driven insights is essential for demonstrating their value to the C-suite.

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Keeping Up with Industry StandardsNow that we understand the motivations and goals of benefits leaders, we can explore how they gauge the current state of their benefits programs and what they consider their biggest challenges. On the topic of efficiency, benefits leaders feel generally confident. In fact, 83% of benefits leaders say they are very or extremely confident in the efficiency of their organizations’ current benefits plans — with 1 in 4 stating they’re extremely confident.

However, when comparing their benefits programs to industry standards, only 18% feel they’re ahead of the curve. Almost two-thirds of benefits leaders surveyed feel their company’s benefit offerings are keeping up with industry standards, while 19% feel their company is actually falling behind.

How would you describe your organization’s benefits program compared with your perception of industry standards today?

Challenges and Needs: Where Benefits Leaders Stand

18% Ahead of the curve

19% Falling behind

63%Keeping up

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Relying on FeedbackThese findings suggest that efficient benefits plans are simply not enough — benefits leaders are looking for something more to push their organizations forward and into the next generation of innovation and industry leadership. To dive deeper into how they’re keeping up, we asked what resources they most rely on to make major decisions about their benefits programs:

Top Resources Relied Upon:

The majority of benefits leaders rely most on employee feedback, industry best practices, financial data, and recruiting data or feedback. Given their focus — and the focus of their supervisors — on employee satisfaction, this makes sense. Yet considering how much they trust consultants and brokers, it is surprising to see those advisors at the very bottom of this list. Again, it seems that there’s a disconnect between how benefits leaders perceive advisory services. This represents an opportunity for consultants and brokers to partner on delivering even greater value from their services.

Employee feedback

Industry best practices

Financial data

Recruiting data or feedback

Trends among my organization’s competitors

Employee satisfaction or engagement data

Internal data analysis

Data warehouse

Data analytics technology

Advisors (either consultants or brokers)

41%

37%

34%

33%

32%

30%

26%

25%

22%

20%

The majority of benefits leaders rely most on employee feedback, industry best practices, financial data, and recruiting data or feedback.

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“I once worked with a client to launch a large survey to inquire on what aspects of a benefits program are most important to employees. Personalization, choice, and affordability rose to the top. Gaining access to employee feedback is important and good data to use in conjunction with benefits data. It’s not necessarily a matter of collecting claims data over employee feedback — they need to be used together.”


The Secret to Getting Ahead: Using Healthcare Analytics for Actionable InsightsThis question also revealed a key finding for understanding why so many benefits leaders feel they’re just keeping up. Benefits leaders who feel they’re ahead of the curve in terms of industry standards were significantly more likely to cite data analytics technology as a resource they rely upon. Even more telling, the use of data or advanced technology was also one of the most-cited reasons for respondents’ ability to keep up or get ahead.

Reasons Respondents Say They’re Ahead of the Curve

Through combining the data we have with analytics solutions, we have acquired the capacity to derive actionable insights to create an optimized benefits serving platform, so we’re ahead of the curve.

We use world-class business intelligence solutions to carve out the best benefits delivery system and ensure that it goes beyond the modern-day standards of the industry.

We try and make our benefits programs impactful by adopting smart and innovative solutions. Our efforts are to be highly structured and streamlined while using data, and we take meaningful actions as a result.

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This may be the key for benefits leaders: Listening to employees and using best practices may help benefits leaders achieve a benefits program that’s efficient and in line with industry standards.

But innovations like healthcare analytics and advanced technology are what really pushes their programs forward.

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The Need for Speed, Access, and AccuracyData is essential to putting enterprise benefits leaders ahead of the curve. So why have so many struggled to crack the code? Businesses today have plenty of data; some might even say too much. What are the biggest challenges benefits leaders face with their current data, and how equipped are they to overcome them?

“Many benefits leaders are frustrated by the lack of transparency around everything related to healthcare. They’re frustrated by the vendors and the difficulty of getting that data. They’re trying to get a better handle on how well their solutions are performing, but find it very difficult to ever figure that out.”

— Partner, benefits brokerage firm

When it comes to healthcare and benefits data, it’s clear that benefits leaders see value in it. Eighty-eight percent of benefits leaders believe the use of data is somewhat to extremely important to their ability to design and manage an effective benefits program, with 57% seeing it as important or extremely important. When it comes to their challenges, however, benefits leaders have a clear need for speed, access, and accuracy. Over half of benefits leaders rank accessing the right data as one of their biggest challenges. Other top challenges with benefits data include running reports quickly enough, connecting disjointed data sources, and trusting data accuracy.

Getting Ahead with Better Insights: Where Benefits Leaders Are Going

53% of benefits leaders rank accessing the right data as one of their biggest challenges.

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Biggest Challenges With Current Data

This mirrored our findings that a third of benefits leaders say speed and ease are most important to delivering the best possible benefits program. Another industry survey also found that getting key benefits information takes benefits leaders anywhere from a few minutes to three months, depending on their data solution and support.3

When it comes to data, which of the following do you believe is most important for delivering the best possible benefits program?

Although 80% or more of benefits leaders believe they and their team members have the right skills to draw meaningful insights from their organization’s benefits data, only 71% agreed they have the right external advisors (including consultants and brokers) to help them do it.

Accessing the right data

Running reports quickly enough

Connecting disjointed data sources

Trusting the accuracy of the data

Drawing meaningful conclusions

Analyzing the data

Taking action based on data-driven insights

53%

48%

45%

43%

38%

37%

33%

36% Getting insights from benefits data quickly and easily

12% Partnering with advisors or experts outside my organization

24% Having actionable data and insights for better decision-making

27% Getting a holistic view of benefits and employee data in one place

Again, benefits leaders see partnering with outside advisors as less important to their benefits program compared with their ability to get access, draw conclusions, and take action themselves.

3Artemis Health. Three Hurdles Employers Are Overcoming to Get Actionable Benefits Insights. 2018. https://www.artemishealth.com/landing/three-hurdles-employers-are-overcoming-to-get-actionable-benefits-insights

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So, what exactly are benefits leaders looking for in their partnerships with consultants and brokers? How can you take action to increase the confidence benefits leaders have in your services? The rest of our findings may provide some insight.

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Consultants and Brokers Garner High TrustBenefits leaders need fast, easy access to meaningful insights. Their organization has lofty goals, and their employees have complex needs. How can consultants and brokers best work alongside and support them in overcoming these challenges? How exactly do benefits leaders view them and expect them to provide value?

The good news is that, as mentioned in our introduction, 88% of benefits leaders show a somewhat to extremely high degree of trust in consultants and brokers, with over half of benefits leaders reporting a high or extremely high amount of trust.

Even more encouraging, those who feel their organization’s benefits are ahead of the curve are much more likely (66%) than those falling behind (53%) or keeping up (47%) to have high or extremely high trust in their consultant or broker. This is a huge opportunity for consultants and brokers — benefits leaders see your opinions and services as trustworthy and valuable. To learn how you can capitalize on this and deliver even more value for them, let’s see what benefits leaders expect from their partnerships.

Expectations for Partnership: What Benefits Leaders Want

88% of benefits leaders show a somewhat to extremely high degree of trust in consultants and brokers.

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Better Insights: Key to a Strong PartnershipBenefits leaders, and especially those who feel they’re ahead of the curve, place a lot of value in their healthcare and benefits data and see it as crucial to delivering an innovative program that fits their employees’ needs. So, we wanted to drill into this and find out exactly how they see it playing a role in their partnerships with consultants and brokers.

When asked what would be most important to a strong partnership with a broker or consultant, respondents most often said getting better insights from benefits data, getting objective benefits data insights, and getting data-driven insights into larger industry trends.

Most Important to a Strong Partnership With a Consultant or Broker

Benefits leaders rely on their consultants and brokers for a third-party perspective outside of their carrier reports. While benefits leaders feel their internal teams are equipped to analyze their data, they still believe external advisors could help them derive better insights — and see it as important for strong partnership.

“Making decisions is so much easier when benefits leaders have solid, trustworthy data behind it. Confidence is key, because they have to make a case for whatever they want to put in place. A data warehouse is great, but having a person there who can interpret it and distill the main takeaways is crucial. That’s what really gives them the confidence they need.”


29% Getting better insights from your organization’s benefits data

14% Having proactive, frequent communication

13% Having access to the same data the consultant or broker uses

3% Knowing the consultant or broker has local o�ces

18% Getting objective benefits data insights

22% Getting data-driven insights into larger industry trends

36% - Getting insights from benefits data quickly and easily27%- Getting a holistic view of benefits and employee data in one place24% - Having actionable data and insights for better decision-making12% - Partnering with advisors or experts outside my organization

The key to a strong partnership with employers is providing better insights into their benefits data.

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With the number of data sources and the complexity of business today, healthcare analytics solutions are the only way to deliver on the depth, objectivity, breadth, and accessibility benefits leaders require to make good decisions with their benefits data. Consultants and brokers can collaborate with clients on benefits analytics and dive deep within their clients’ data warehouse, delivering reports in hours rather than weeks. This give benefits leaders a holistic view of their benefits programs and how they can improve. This will boost the trust that benefits leaders place in their advisors and allow consultants and brokers to drive more value.

Collaborating With Consultants and Brokers to Deliver InsightsOne question many consultants and brokers have is how benefits leaders expect them to use a benefits analytics solution. Almost all benefits leaders expect to use benefits analytics in conjunction with their consultants and brokers. Only 9% said the consultant or broker would lead the use of the tool completely.

Benefits leaders expect collaboration, transparency, and autonomy. They value objectivity and want to get into the data and see for themselves — or at least have the option to do so when needed.

“Most benefits leaders have a consultant to help them understand their data, but they’ll want to dig into it themselves too. Artemis Health allows that. Some of the other solutions will allow it too, but with Artemis, it’s easy to use and difficult to make mistakes. The others have too much room for user error.”


51% The consultant or broker would use the tool most often, but I’d have access as well.

9% The consultant or broker would lead the use of the tool completely.

40% I would lead the use of the tool and collaborate with the consultant or broker when I needed help.

[radial chart/pie chart]51% - The consultant or broker would use the tool most often, but I’d have access as well. 40% - I would lead the use of the tool and collaborate with the consultant or broker when I needed help.9% - The consultant or broker would lead the use of the tool completely.

There are many ways consultants and brokers can improve their services to help clients with their benefits data, such as adding data partnerships into their contract value, initiating data analyses on hot topics, or partnering with point solution vendors to brainstorm plan design adjustments.

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In terms of tools and resources, the majority of respondents say they use benefits data warehouses and have partnerships with consultants and brokers. But given the resources they rely upon, it’s clear these solutions fall short of what they need today. When asked about which factors are most important when choosing a benefits data analytics solution, benefits leaders report that data accuracy, fast answers, and integrating multiple data sources are most important.

What do you believe are the three most important factors in choosing a benefits data analytics solution?

Being able to trust the accuracy of the data

Being able to find answers quickly

Being able to integrate multiple data sources

Being able to easily understand and draw meaningful conclusions from the data

Having the right support for the solution, to answer questions and provide help when I need it

Being able to slice the data any way I want

Being able to easily use and navigate the tool

Having an advisor (a consultant or broker) who can lead my team in using the solution

Being able to see trends and benchmarks from other organizations

41%

32%

40%

32%

39%

23%

20%

37%

37%

“There’s an opportunity for consultants and brokers here to pivot and use an analytics tool to get that data faster. With a data analytics tool, we can look at your client’s programs holistically and see your program performance overall using a tool and pulling data in a more real-time manner. That fast access is definitely the underlying component to having that sophisticated benefits program.”


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While partnering with consultants and brokers is less important at face value, these findings again line up with themes we’ve seen throughout our report: Benefits leaders need accuracy, speed, and access. Partnership alone is not enough; the real value consultants and brokers can deliver is in helping benefits leaders achieve accurate, fast insights from all of their data.

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Let’s Partner to Help Benefits Leaders Reach Their GoalsThe consultants and brokers who will find success in this new world of complexity, competition, and changing expectations will be the ones who can give their clients the tools they believe are necessary for them to step into the future. Counsel and advice alone won’t be enough. Consultants and brokers have a huge opportunity to get their clients ahead of the curve with better, faster insights and access to their data.

Remember, a key difference between those merely keeping up with industry standards and those ahead of the curve is whether they rely on data analytics technology. Benefits leaders understand their important responsibility to push their businesses forward with access to the right kind of insights. They expect consultants and brokers to provide the kind of deep, relevant, and timely insights that only a dedicated analytics platform can bring.

Artemis Health is the forward-thinking data solution to help advisors and employers innovate. We understand the unique challenges of benefits leaders and believe consultants and brokers are key to helping them reach their goals. If you’d like to learn more about this research, contact us below. We’d love to explore how we can work together to deliver the future of benefits to your clients.

Moving Organizations Forward With Better Benefits Insights

Consultants and brokers have a huge opportunity to get their clients ahead of the curve with better, faster insights and access to their data.

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MethodologyTo conduct this study, we used a mixed-mode research methodology that included surveying 300 HR and benefits leaders at U.S. companies with 5,000 or more employees. We also interviewed consultants and brokers to provide qualitative insights on the challenges of benefits leaders.

Sample ProfileThe sample (n300) represented a natural fallout of regions and industries at the enterprise level. All respondents work in Human Resources or Talent Management; the majority have a focus on Benefits Administration.

Company Size

Position

07 Appendix

55% 5,000 to 9,999 employees

9% 25,000 to 49,999 employees

4% 50,000 or more employees

32% 10,000 to 24,999 employees

66% Director/Senior Director

4% Vice President/SVP/EVP

1% C-level/President/Founder/Owner

30% Manager/Supervisor

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Primary Area of Focus

About Artemis HealthAt Artemis Health, we are striving to help fix healthcare in America. We’re making it easy for self-insured employers to use their own benefits data to offer better health benefits for fewer dollars for their employees. We believe that everyone should have good healthcare that they can afford. Learn more about our benefits data analytics solutions and services at artemishealth.com.

© Artemis Health Inc.

71% Benefits administration

3% Payroll2% Compensation

3% Talent management

21% General HR

[email protected]

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