For mid-market and enterprise employers, offering a competitive employee benefits package is critical to attracting and retaining top talent in an increasingly dynamic labor market. Unlike small businesses, these organizations often have dedicated HR and benefits teams and access to broader resources. However, they also face unique challenges such as managing complex plan designs, controlling escalating healthcare costs, and addressing diverse workforce needs across multiple locations or employee groups. Benchmarking can help.
By analyzing benefits data across industries, company sizes, and geographies, these organizations can gain nuanced insights into their total rewards offerings. This enables them to identify strengths and gaps, optimize plan design, and ensure their investments align with employee expectations and organizational objectives.
Key Areas to Benchmark
- Health Insurance: Compare premium trends, plan designs, employee vs. employer contributions, network access, and emerging benefit options like telehealth or high-deductible plans with HSAs
- Retirement Plans: Evaluate employer match levels, vesting schedules, plan options, and participation rates
- Work-Life Balance: Assess PTO policies, flexible work arrangements, family leave programs, and wellness initiatives
- Total Rewards: Consider salary competitiveness, performance incentives, and non-traditional perks such as student loan assistance or financial wellness programs
Strategic Benefits of Benchmarking
- Enhancing Employee Engagement and Experience: Benchmarking helps employers design benefits that truly resonate with their workforce, boosting satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity. Understanding what peers offer empowers you to meet evolving employee needs and preferences.
- Competitive Talent Positioning: Understand how your benefits compare to peers and industry leaders, helping you attract and retain high performers.
- Cost Efficiency: Identify areas to manage or reduce benefit spend without sacrificing employee satisfaction or plan effectiveness.
- Benefit Optimization: Pinpoint gaps or redundancies in offerings to better meet diverse workforce needs and enhance engagement.
- Regulatory Compliance and Risk Mitigation: Ensure benefit programs adhere to evolving regulations and reduce exposure to legal or financial risks.
Benchmarking equips mid-market and enterprise employers to respond proactively to market trends such as increased demand for mental health resources, expanded caregiver support, or enhanced diversity and inclusion initiatives within benefits programs. By leveraging data-driven insights, these organizations can differentiate themselves as employers of choice in competitive talent markets.
Continuous Improvement Through Ongoing Benchmarking
Benchmarking isn’t a one-time exercise – it’s an ongoing process that enables your organization to stay agile in a rapidly evolving benefits landscape. By regularly monitoring market trends and your own data, you can continuously refine your total rewards offerings to stay competitive, control costs, and better serve your workforce’s changing needs.
Integrating Benchmarking with Broader HR Strategy
The insights gained from benchmarking extend beyond benefits alone. They inform broader talent management strategies, from workforce planning and diversity and inclusion initiatives to leadership development and employee retention programs. When integrated thoughtfully, benchmarking data becomes a cornerstone of a holistic, strategic approach to building a resilient and engaged workforce.
How M3 Supports Your Benchmarking Journey
M3’s Applied Intelligence team brings advanced data analytics capabilities to help you refine your benefits strategy. Our benchmarking tool, BenchmarkPRO, provides detailed benchmarking insights across a broad client base. You can analyze medical, dental, vision, retirement, and work-life benefits with filters by industry, company size, geography, and more.
This robust platform delivers actionable intelligence on your Total Rewards package compared to peers, empowering your HR and benefits teams to make informed, strategic decisions that balance cost management with employee value while ensuring data privacy and continuous improvement.
Key Takeaways
By leveraging benchmarking insights, mid-market and enterprise employers can optimize their benefits portfolio, enhance employee engagement, integrate benefits data into broader HR strategies, and manage costs with confidence. To learn more about how M3’s data analytics tools can help you transform your benefits strategy, connect with your client executive today.
