A new year calls for new strategies from HR professionals. As the business landscape and workforce expectations change, so should your approach to benefits management. If you’re looking to build better employee compensation packages in 2026, here are eight trends that can help you move in that direction.
1. Presenting Benefits as a Retention Tool
While controlling employee compensation and labor costs used to be the most important HR issues, improving the employee experience and preventing costly turnover have become bigger priorities. Recent studies show that companies that invest in employee experience are nearly twice as likely to excel at cost optimization.
It’s a good idea to tie benefits ROI to turnover and retention metrics rather than simply factoring it into cost-per-employee. Additionally, you can offer personalized and flexible benefits that enhance perceived value and use technology to track benefits usage and turnover data to ensure efforts yield tangible benefits.
2. Allowing AI to Personalize Benefits
Over half of organizations believe that using artificial intelligence to personalize the employee experience can have a significant impact. However, only 8% of organizations have implemented this, signaling a lack of data literacy or AI-specific training.
In addition to investing in this education, you may also consider using AI chatbots for automated benefits support, as well as predictive software that can offer customized recommendations based on an employee’s life stage or usage patterns.
3. Offering Mental Health Benefits to Combat Change Fatigue
The Harvard Business Review reports that, in 2022, employees experienced an average of 10 planned enterprise shifts. As a result, 88% of employees report experiencing “change fatigue.”
Digital mental health apps, flexible work, expanded employee assistance programs, and resilience training are no longer “nice to haves.” Now, they’re cornerstone benefits that sustain and stabilize workforces, helping employees beat burnout and sustain long-term vision amid constant change.
4. Using Benefits Programs to Build a Culture of Continuous Learning
Leadership development is a perennial HR priority. While some have opted to integrate learning opportunities into everyday work tasks, many companies are shifting from providing training themselves to investing in employees’ continuous learning efforts. This can involve anything from learning stipends to tuition reimbursement to career coaching, paid learning time, and certification support.
5. Ensuring Employee Benefits Support Diversity Efforts
Despite a constantly shifting social climate, DEI remains a top 10 priority. This, coupled with a focus on employee experience, means that benefits managers should offer flexible options that meet diverse needs across generations and family structures. These options can include caregiving, adoption, IVF and surrogacy support, student loan repayment, and first-time homebuyer assistance.
6. Applying Behavioral Science to Benefits Management
HR professionals who collaborate with their organizations’ communications departments are more than twice as likely to navigate change effectively. Unfortunately, surveys show that little more than half of employees say they understand the “why” behind company decisions and how they connect to organizational values.
To change this, consider using storytelling to take ownership of the employee compensation and benefits narrative and ensure it connects to company priorities. Make sure to use multiple communication channels (such as webinars, one-on-one meetings, and mobile apps) to get information across to employees.
Increasingly, companies are also using “nudgetech,” which is choice-based technology designed to guide employees to better benefits decisions.
7. Using Cross-Functional Collaboration to Develop Effective Benefits Strategies
Less than half of organizations have a formal HR strategy. In 2026, make sure your strategy includes cross-functional collaboration with other department leads.
The finance team can help you optimize costs, while your IT manager can assist with AI adoption and digital transformation. Partnering with legal is crucial for compliance, ethics, and monitoring, and your communications department can help you with marketing and information management.
8. Positioning Employee Benefits to Support Workers Through Disruption
The adoption of AI automation and skills-based hiring has driven organizations to flatten hierarchies and do away with entry-level roles. To promote retention and protect the employer brand through disruption, it’s more important than ever to offer career pathing tools and benefits that support upskilling/reskilling and career mobility.
For employees who are transitioning away from your organization, consider coaching, job search assistance, extended benefits, and supplemental unemployment.
Balance Organizational Priorities With Employee Needs
This year’s trends are about supporting employees in a way that enhances their personal and professional lives while promoting organizational success.
If you want to craft benefits packages that balance these competing priorities, Benefits Advisory Group can help. Contact us today to learn more about how our solutions can assist you in building your employer brand and achieving your strategic goals.