Voluntary benefits offer choice and value when budget pressures rise 

Health benefit costs are on the rise. Employers expect cost per employee to rise by nearly 7% on average in 2026, according to preliminary results from Mercer’s 2025 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans. When healthcare affordability is a key consideration — as it is for most employers — voluntary benefits can serve as an intentional strategy that offers the flexibility to bring a breadth of solutions to their employees without busting the benefits budget.

Yet voluntary benefits shouldn’t be treated as one-size-fits-all. Each workforce has unique needs and differing employee preferences on what benefits equal true value. Today, voluntary benefits solutions span employee needs and life stages, including physical health, financial risk protection, and mental and personal well-being.

Leveraging data to craft a voluntary benefits strategy is paramount. Data sources are available that not only account for employee preferences, demographics and location risks, but can also help ensure that buyer profiles and persona segmentation accurately align to industry trends and plan design options. More employers are reviewing medical plan claims data to inform supplemental health coverages, building plan designs that address the top high-cost claim drivers — and provide support for employees when they need it most.

Beyond selecting coverages that best fit the employee population, other considerations for voluntary benefits include synergies with both the benefit administration platform and claim integration. Allowing employees to elect voluntary benefits alongside their core benefits improves their overall enrollment experience. Further, claim integration continues to be a differentiator with voluntary benefits carriers, making it easy for employees to receive the most value from their benefits.

When reviewing your voluntary benefit strategy, here are three ways that can help maximize value for your employees and your organization:

Leading with listening. The Mercer Marsh Benefits Health on Demand 2025 survey report found that when employees can personalize their benefits packages, they are far more likely to feel their employer cares about their health and well-being. Improvements to employee benefits personalization start by taking a vested interest in what they have to say. Total rewards listening surveys can identify wins across offerings already in place, as well as capture any misalignment that may exist within a benefit package. Post-enrollment surveys could be a feasible, manageable place to start later this year, while also becoming an important building block for benefits decisions in the future. By gathering employee feedback, employers gain data insights specific to their people and their benefit programs.

Investing in decision support. Employees want more access to benefits information, and employers need to identify how to effectively utilize technology platforms to meet their workforce’s needs with simple content that is easy to understand and navigate. A single, digital destination where employees know they can seek benefits content, education and decision support tools can be an effective way for employees to interact with benefit plan information with their personal scenarios, assessing best-fit plans for them and their families.

Engaging employees year-round. Effective, year-round communication is critical to build out an engaging value story, instead of treating open enrollment awareness and education as a one-off project. Benefits communication should aim to provide connection and clarity. Today’s employees don’t want or expect a communication strategy that was designed decades ago. They’re looking for employers to:

• Show up digitally and with opportunities to interact
•  Create personalized views of their benefits and help them understand what benefits they should consider for their current and future life stages
• Provide access to view benefits information at home, so decision making can be considered between family members and/or trusted sources outside of work

Despite the challenge of rising health benefit costs, there’s plenty of open road to make headway on an employee engagement strategy that blends effective benefits program design with strategic, purposeful benefits delivery. Organizations who harness both will rise as differentiated employers of choice, with higher levels of employee attraction, retention, productivity and satisfaction.