What reward and benefits leaders want to address in 2025

We recently invited our customer community to take part in a roundtable event where they had their say on the pressing topics they’d like us to cover in our global research report this year. Every year we survey 2,000+ global employers and employees across four continents on the major trends in HR and Reward; last year, the research revealed a growing perception gap between what employers think of the employee experience and what their people think.

The roundtable was attended by HR and Reward leaders from Danone, Grant Thornton, Flutter, Mitsubishi, IOPP, St James’s Place Wealth Management, and Zscaler to name a few.

Here are the questions, challenges and priorities our community of senior Reward and Benefits leaders are looking to address in the year ahead…

1. How can Reward leaders balance costs and strategic intentions?

Participants highlighted that there can sometimes be a tension between offering a wide array of benefits and ensuring accessibility for all employees. For instance, salary sacrifice schemes can inadvertently exclude lower-paid employees, who may find it difficult to participate in these programmes as their wages approach the minimum threshold (a growing challenge in the UK, which we’ll be exploring in our upcoming webinar with The AA and XPS ). The rising costs of healthcare benefits are also a challenge for organisations.

Several reward leaders highlighted that they’re introducing a discounts site this year to help employees stretch their salaries further and get the best value on everyday purchases; financial wellbeing continues to be high on the agenda as employees are still struggling to navigate high costs-of-living.

There was also some discussion about the paternalistic role of employers – although budgets may be pinched, removing benefits could leave employees without cover; they might not choose to take health benefits or insurances via salary sacrifice, but these benefits can be crucial if the worst should happen. The general consensus was that employees today expect their employers to offer them protection and support – so downgrading or removing these types of benefits could damage employee perceptions of the EVP.

2. How can organisations meet diverse employee needs and prove the value of DEI benefits?

There’s a growing demand for benefits that address various aspects of diversity, equality, and inclusion – with customers reporting that these kinds of benefits are even more popular than sustainable benefits.

Employees themselves are increasingly seeking these kinds of benefits – for example, support for neurodiversity or tailored healthcare coverage. However, measuring the effectiveness of these benefits is a challenge for Reward leaders. Companies are struggling to quantify the impact of their DEI initiatives, making it difficult to justify the costs associated with these programmes – especially as a diverse policy may only benefit a small number of employees.

Beyond benefits, participants also reported that they’re struggling to gather DEI data and get employees to declare their protected characteristics.

Nevertheless, diverse benefits that address specific employee needs can be very highly valued by the individuals that select them. And allowances were also discussed as a way to deliver value to each employee, without being hindered by salary sacrifice limits.

3. What do employees value most when coming to work?

A recurring theme in the conversation was the challenge of understanding what employees truly want from their benefits.

Participants agreed that employee expectations are growing at pace; as companies evolve and introduce new benefits, employees may feel empowered to ask for more – and organisations can struggle to prioritise and manage these requests.

What was clear from the discussion is that employees are looking for increasing flexibility – not only in work-life balance and flexible working arrangements, but also in the benefits they’re looking for.

One participant highlighted that sometimes employees don’t always know what benefits they should put in place until they’re in a situation that requires support. Therefore, effective communication and education around the value of benefits is essential.

4. How can companies use innovative communications to drive benefits engagement?

Participants highlighted that benefits platforms and apps are crucial in making benefits information easily accessible, especially as employees become more dispersed. But even with a centralised hub in place for employees to select their benefits, improving employee understanding and engaging employees in relevant benefits remains a challenge for some organisations.

There’s a need to take innovative approaches to communicate the value of benefits – such as clearly relating them to life events and personal situations like moving house, getting married, improving work-life balance etc., as well as building benefits into onboarding processes so employees understand what’s available to them from day one.

Some customers are creating visually appealing newsletters that highlight relevant benefits year-round and using testimonials from employee advocates to raise awareness and encourage take-up.

5. How can global organisations navigate benefits complexity?

As organisations expand globally, the complexity of benefits increases significantly. From an inclusion perspective, Reward leaders say that they want to provide global minimum standards of benefits across all regions e.g. a standard level of healthcare cover of life assurance. However, cultural and regulatory differences can impact what benefits are feasible or desirable. Several customers are currently going through a global benchmarking process to review their offering to ensure they’re staying competitive and meeting the needs of a diverse global workforce, while remaining compliant with local laws.

6. What should the HR function be doing with AI?

Organisations are experimenting with AI technologies, often starting with basic applications like information gathering. The discussion revealed that while there is interest in AI, many companies remain in the exploratory phase, although some have already initiated proof-of-concept projects to test AI capabilities. Participants are cautiously testing AI’s effectiveness before committing to broader applications.

Some of the internal barriers that HR and Reward leaders face in driving AI adoption forward include organisational culture, a lack of understanding of AI’s capabilities, resistance to change, and difficulty accessing and integrating data.

Two of the most exciting applications of AI that participants discussed were:

1. Personalisation and decision-assistance: AI will enable HR teams to move beyond basic demographic segmentation to a more nuanced understanding of employee needs and preferences. AI should enable organisations to analyse behavioural insights and tailor their communications and benefits offerings more effectively – enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction. AI also has the potential to help employees make decisions around their benefits. However, one participant asked the question: would employees trust AI to help them make benefit selections or make benefit selections on their behalf?

2. Data analytics and decision making: The participants agreed that the effective use of data is essential for informed decision making in HR – and AI should improve their existing data analytics capabilities. One attendee articulated the philosophy of being “data-led” rather than “data-driven”, suggesting that while data is a valuable tool, it shouldn’t dictate every decision. Instead, it should complement the broader understanding of employee needs and organisational goals.

Throughout the discussion there was also a strong emphasis on maintaining the human element in HR processes. As one participant articulated, AI shouldn’t replace the personal touch that HR professionals provide; rather it should be used to free up time for HR teams to focus on more strategic, human-cantered tasks.

7. How can Reward leaders manage an ever-growing remit?

Reward leaders are trying to deal with complex moving parts – they’re already focused on managing multiple stakeholders, keeping their benefits offering competitive, and educating employees on what’s available. But there are additional tasks that are now landing on their plate too; delivering on DEI and sustainability objectives, AI implementation, digital transformation, and there was even one example of managing an office move!

2025 research coming soon

Stay tuned for our 2025 research report, which will be released at the Benifex Forum in June, and will explore the themes above.

If you’d like to dive into our most recent research findings, you can download The Expectation Exponential and The Big Benefits Report.