2025 Employee Health & Benefits Trends

Tomorrow’s workforce is looking for more than a benefits plan. Employers that emphasize financial and mental well-being and pharmaceutical costs can help to keep employees engaged and healthy.

Future-focused HR departments and employers' priorities can include:

• Technology: AI holds the potential to help employers improve productivity and support employees in critical roles, but organizations should carefully plan when and how they use AI.
• Centralization: To curb spending, tech platforms and human support options for HR teams will likely centralize over time.
• Empathy: Organizations and employers that strive to support the individuals in their workplace.
• Personalization: Give employees choices when it comes to their benefits.
• Segmentation: Understand the different segments of employees and what they seek.

Employers’ focus on four key trends can optimize employee health and benefits plans.

Trend 1: Bridging the generation gap
Harnessing the power of today’s intergenerational workforce is mission-critical to organizational success and well-being. Unretirement and Boomers’ return to the workplace will continue to change workplace demographics for years to come.

Trend 2: Keeping up with the AI revolution
AI has already transformed how organizations function and will continue to drive change in all areas of the workplace. Organizational leaders face the double challenge of developing internal best practices and ethical guidelines for AI as well as anticipating forthcoming state and federal regulations of the technology.

Trend 3: Rx reset
Employers are reconsidering their approach to pharmaceutical spending and pharmacy benefit management contracts. Low-cost solutions like biosimilars are emerging as alternative options for employers.

Trend 4: The (ever) rising cost of care
There’s no end in sight to rising health care costs. Health care costs remain a significant challenge, driven by inflation, new treatments, and an aging population. Cost-shifting strategies are growing, with some large employers considering transferring more health care costs to employees.