What Employees Actually Expect From Benefits Now

Offer acceptance and retention are two of the metrics HR leaders are measured on most, and employee benefits are one of the few levers that can move both. But a package built three years ago rarely holds up against what candidates and employees compare it to today. The bar moved, and you have to catch up.

You've probably already heard it out loud from employees or candidates. Someone asks whether there's anything for mental health support, or whether you offer pet insurance, like the one a friend's employer just added. It rarely comes as a formal request. It’s more often mentioned in a one-on-one or in the week after open enrollment closes.

It's easy to hear that as a budget problem, since the usual response to a weak package is to spend more on it. That's generosity: how much you fund. What employees usually point to is range, or whether the package includes something each of them will use. Range is usually cheaper to fix. This year, more employers are adding range through ancillary benefits like pet insurance and fitness reimbursement, and many of these cost the employer nothing to add. Once you know which ones fit your workforce, you can add them before your next renewal.

This article walks through what changed in employer benefits in 2026, why range matters more than a bigger contribution, and which additions you can make without a new funding request. If you're heading into a renewal conversation soon, start with the key takeaways below.

The core of most employers’ packages hasn’t changed: healthcare, retirement, and leave. In the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2026 Employee Benefits Survey, employers still rate all three as top priorities. Healthcare is very or extremely important to 88% of them, and retirement and leave are tied at 82%.

What’s changing is the mix of additional benefits around that core. SHRM asks employers each year which benefits they offer, and from 2025 to 2026, more employers offered each of the seven benefits below.

Source: SHRM 2026 Employee Benefits Survey, 5,472 organizations, fielded January to March 2026. Employer-reported.

Eleesha Martin, G&A Partners’ Director of Corporate Recruiting, put the same shift in plainer terms on G&A’s recent HR forecast webinar.

Most renewal conversations focus on generosity, or how much to fund. Range rarely gets the same attention, even though it decides how many people the package reaches. The wider the mix of benefits, the more employees and candidates find something that fits their situation.

A package can be well-funded and still be built for the workforce you had five years ago, and putting more money behind it doesn't help the people it's missing now. Adding range does, and it often costs less.

Brett Brown, G&A's Director of Benefits Administration, defines ancillary benefits as your benefits package minus the medical plan. The definition helps because it keeps the medical plan from dominating the whole benefits conversation.

Beyond the familiar lines like dental, vision, and life insurance, his list includes mental health support delivered via telemedicine, wellness programs, financial wellness programs, pet care coverage, and identity theft protection. Pet insurance and wellness are also among the fastest-rising categories in SHRM's survey, which is a useful data point to have handy when you bring this to leadership.

Many popular options are ancillary benefits, which employers can typically offer at no cost. Employees pay the full premium through payroll deduction, and it’s usually only a minimal amount. Adding one means setting it up during enrollment and handling the administration from there. Subsidizing part of the cost is optional, and it can raise how many employees sign up, but it isn’t required to put the benefit on the menu.

Wellness programs need the most planning because a single activity rarely covers what employees need. Brown’s example is a walking challenge. It’s good for physical health, but on its own it does little for financial stress, debt, or strain in relationships. A program that covers several of those needs will reach more of your employees.

According to Brown, building a wellness program that resonates takes three steps: 

1. Get leadership buy-in first. Wellness initiatives go nowhere without a decision maker behind them, and you may need a second conversation with that person to get there.
2. Name a wellness champion. It can be you. What matters more is that the person is genuinely excited about it and will follow through.
3. Pick programs or apps that support the goal. They make a program far easier to build and maintain, and they often cost less than what people expect.

Before your next renewal call, choose two ancillary benefits your package doesn't offer yet and get pricing on both.

How a benefit is supported is one of the biggest factors in whether employees use it. If a plan is hard to navigate, participation drops.

For simple, routine tasks, most employees prefer to handle things themselves. That includes enrolling, comparing plans side by side, pulling a pay stub, checking a paid time off (PTO) balance, and adding a dependent at 10 at night. Routing any of these through a phone call adds a step nobody needs and keeps employees from handling them on their own schedule.

Other situations need a person. For example:

• A divorce or other qualifying life event, and what has to happen within the 30-day window
• A question about what the plan covers before a procedure
• How to file a claim, and whether a specialist referral is needed first

These may not come up often, but they're the interactions employees remember a year later. They need someone who understands both the plan and the employee's situation and can walk them through the next steps. The carrier still reviews and decides the claim itself.

Benefits education is often what separates a program employees use from one they forget. Retirement is the best example because the commitment and the support behind it are moving in opposite directions. In SHRM's 2026 survey, 82% of employers rate retirement as very or extremely important, but only 46% offer retirement education, down three points since 2025. That means more than half of employers leave employees to decide how much to contribute on their own, and that share grew this year.

Source: SHRM 2026 Employee Benefits Survey, 5,472 organizations, fielded January to March 2026. Employer-reported.

Education doesn't need to be complicated. Brown points to a recurring email covering the benefits package, the Employee Assistance Program (EAP), mental health options, and wellness challenges. Sending something regularly matters more than how often you send it. Put one recurring benefits communication on next quarter's calendar, and name who owns sending it.

If a partner takes on benefits administration, the natural question is what stays with you.

A partner can handle the administrative work: benefits administration, open enrollment, carrier billing, claims support, Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) administration, and compliance guidance. Claims support covers help filing a claim and tracking its status. The carrier makes the decision on the claim. Benefits strategy, culture, talent development, employee relations, and organizational design all depend on knowing your workforce, so you should stay closely involved in them. A good partner can bring expertise and support on these too, but the designs stay with you.

Adding range still has to hold up in the budget conversation, especially this year, with renewals running high. The no-cost ancillary benefits covered above don’t need a funding request, so what you're asking for is more options inside the budget you already have. When an addition carries a cost, bring an estimate of how many employees will use it along with the price. A CFO will ask about cost first, and participation rate will come right after.

Questions to ask any provider:

1. What ancillary benefits can we offer at no employer cost, and how many employees understand and enroll in them? A provider that treats these as part of plan design will answer with a list and a plan for communicating them. One that treats them as an afterthought will answer with a brochure.
2. When an employee has a problem the portal can’t solve, who picks up, and how fast? Ask for their most recent answer-time data. Availability is a promise. Answer time is a number.

What belongs in your package depends on headcount, workforce demographics, industry, and how your carrier structure is already built. No other company’s package transfers cleanly, so the useful question is what's within reach at your size.

Scale is what puts real range within reach of a smaller employer. A provider buying across a large book of clients prices medical, ancillary, and wellness on that volume instead of on your headcount. A dedicated team handles the administration behind it. G&A Partners brings that scale to our clients.

Good service answers quickly and resolves the issue. G&A answers 88% of client calls within 20 seconds, and 97% of clients say G&A meets or exceeds their expectations. On G2, where the ratings come from HR professionals, G&A holds 4.8 out of 5 and was named a Spring 2025 Grid Leader for Benefits.