Many organizations have information readily available to help them gauge the effectiveness of their employee benefit programs—data that’s accessible without having to go on a fact-finding mission. However, while some are using bits and pieces of this information, few are examining it in its entirety to get a cohesive and comprehensive picture of whether their benefit plans are as effective as they could be.

This piecemeal approach to learning whether benefit plans are meeting employee needs can lead to incorrect assumptions. An employer may conclude on the basis of data from one isolated source that there is a major issue with the plan or, alternatively, that it is working well. However, a thorough analysis of all the data might reveal that the plan is effective, only needs minor changes, requires a complete overhaul—or even that the problem is in the communication or administration of the program, rather than the design.

The bottom line is that many organizations may be spending benefit budgets unwisely and not achieving any real competitive advantage from their programs by not making the best use of all the information available to them.

The following list highlights sources that employers should tap into on a regular basis to monitor the success of their benefit programs. Analysis of the information as a whole can help organizations pinpoint problems, as well as identify solutions that are effective and beneficial for employee health.

  • Drug plan utilization data: Because rising drug costs have a significant impact on overall healthcare costs, most employers monitor them pretty closely. That doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that they take steps to identify or address the issues that may be driving up drug costs. Also, rising drug costs might be perfectly acceptable if accompanied by a decrease in disability absences.
  • Trends and benchmarking figures: Third-party research can provide valuable insight into what other organizations are doing with respect to certain benefits and work arrangements. Some benefits that have proved popular at one organization may, of course, have no appeal for the workforce at another business. Moreover, a holistic consideration of total rewards may reveal that employees at your organization are actually better off.
  • Employer survey information and focus group feedback: The best way to know whether benefit programs are meeting workforce needs is to ask employees themselves. Even less formal discussions can be useful, provided various employee groups are heard from.
  • Employee Assistance Plan(EAP)usage information: While employee privacy must, of course, be protected, employers can get a good idea of the types of issues employees are asking for help with.
  • Disability absence figures: Even though disability absence could cost a 1,000-employee company more than $3.5 million a year, findings from Hewitt’s Disability Absence Index survey indicate that few companies track this data consistently. Much of the information is available from third parties(e.g., provincial Workers’ Compensation agencies and insurers), but many organizations either don’t collect it or don’t combine it all so as to get a complete picture. Tracking the causes, frequency, duration and cost of disability absence can identify health and/or safety issues that might be addressed by disability management programs or by including targeted wellness initiatives.
  • Health Risk Assessment(HRA)responses: While one-third of employers currently make HRAs available to their employees, over half(59%) do not analyze HRA data in conjunction with any other health data. Three-quarters do not use HRA data to make informed programming decisions, despite the fact that using the data could lead to initiatives that have the greatest positive impact(Hewitt’s Rapid Response survey.)

All of these sources could, for example, identify stress as a problem for employees—whether through the medications many are taking, the assistance they’re seeking from the EAP, the reasons they’re frequently absent, or the results of their HRA. The employees themselves might provide feedback that they’re lacking work/life balance and benchmarking data may show what competitors are doing to achieve this balance at their organizations. Taken as a whole, this information provides clarity as to the nature of the problem and its seriousness, and also suggests solutions.

The data is there—use it to reach stronger conclusions and make better decisions regarding effective design, targeted communication, and efficient administration of employee benefit plans.

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