If you are like most businesses, you look at the health benefits you offer and worry about overspend. But spend isn’t your biggest problem.

Instead ask yourself … do you know what health benefits your employees are using or if they even understand what’s available?

The spend is just one small piece. It’s the compliance risks, the missed engagement opportunities, and the slow drip of dissatisfaction that turns into retention issues. A State of Healthcare Survey from Employee Benefit News lays it out this way: employers are scaling back benefits to save, but many don’t have solid data on what’s working and what isn’t. That’s the problem you want to address. Because in our regulatory and economic environment, turning a blind eye to what is and isn’t working for employees isn’t only unhelpful but dangerous to your company’s long-term goals.

Some survey callouts:

A disconnect in what’s offered vs. what’s used. Healthcare benefits have exploded in complexity and cost. Employers want to be competitive while watching budgets. But if you don’t have full visibility into which benefits are used it can lead to reactive decisions. Hence, trimming offerings that may seem underutilized but are really under-communicated. For example, digital tools, family assistance, and chronic care support are among the benefits often cut because employers don’t know if employees are using them.

Yet, employees don’t always know what to look for. About 50% of employees say they roll over last year’s benefit selections without researching what’s changed. But they do care. Benefits matter – a lot – to your employees. One in 10 employees say health benefits were a key reason they stayed or left a job. Employees may not know what to look for, what questions to ask, or what is even in their benefit package. Instead, they trust you to provide what they need.

Compliance and communication matter most. Employers don’t know the benefits being used or how they’re used, and employees don’t always understand what’s available. That’s a dangerous combination when you’re trying to stay compliant, competitive, and cost-effective. Employers lean too much on claims data, which only tells part of the story. Instead of keeping an ongoing open dialogue, communication tends to happen just once a year during open enrollment.

Successful employers pay attention by:

• Regularly reviewing their full benefits suite through a true fiduciary lens.
• Measuring not just utilization but satisfaction and access.
• Before adding new benefits, ensure employees understand and trust what’s there.

Find more insights from the full report.