Employee benefits remain one of the most important tools organizations have to attract talent, retain employees, and support workforce wellbeing. In 2026, advances in benefits technology are changing what a competitive employee benefits strategy looks like.
Leading employers are looking beyond traditional offerings (like healthcare and retirement benefits) to provide more personalized support across employees’ physical, mental, and financial wellbeing. They’re also investing in ways to make benefits easier to understand and use.
That makes employee benefits benchmarking more important, but also more nuanced.
HR and benefits leaders evaluating their 2026 employee benefits strategy are not only asking, “What benefits are other employers offering?”
They’re also asking, “Are our benefits delivering meaningful value to employees and the business?”
Here’s what benefits benchmarking looks like in 2026, which employee benefits top employers are prioritizing, and what HR leaders should consider as they evaluate their own programs.
What Benefits Benchmarking Should Look Like in 2026
Benefits benchmarking has traditionally helped HR and benefits leaders compare plan design, employer contributions, retirement benefits, leave policies, and other offerings against industry peers and talent competitors.
Those comparisons still matter, but in today’s workplace, benchmarking what you offer is only part of the picture.
A competitive benefits package can look strong on paper and still fall short if employees don’t understand what’s available, struggle to navigate their options, or aren’t getting meaningful value from the programs their employer provides. That’s why leading organizations should benchmark not only benefits availability, but also affordability, relevance, engagement, employee experience, and outcomes.
What Benefits Are Top Employers Offering in 2026?
While every workforce is different, several priorities are shaping competitive employee benefits packages in 2026.
1. Comprehensive Healthcare Benefits Remain the Foundation
Healthcare is still one of the most important components of a competitive employee benefits package, with 88% of employers rating health-related benefits as very or extremely important (SHRM’s 2026 Employee Benefits Survey).
Rising healthcare costs are also shaping how organizations approach their healthcare benefits. Employers anticipated a median 9% increase in healthcare costs in 2026, declining to 7.6% after plan design changes (Business Group on Health’s 2026 Employer Health Care Strategy Survey).
For HR and benefits leaders, benchmarking healthcare should therefore extend beyond whether an organization offers medical, dental, and vision coverage.
Employers should be evaluating plan affordability, preventive care, pharmacy strategies, navigation resources, and other solutions designed to help employees make informed healthcare decisions while managing costs.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: How does your healthcare offering compare not only on coverage and employer contributions, but also on affordability, accessibility, and employees’ ability to understand and navigate their options?
2. Retirement Benefits Continue to Signal Long-Term Investment
Retirement benefits remain another cornerstone of competitive benefits packages, with 82% of employers considering retirement benefits very or extremely important in 2026 (SHRM’s 2026 Employee Benefits Survey).
However, benchmarking retirement benefits means looking beyond whether an organization simply offers a 401(k) or similar retirement plan.
Plan design, employer matching, eligibility, automatic enrollment, vesting, investment options, and access to guidance can all influence the value employees ultimately receive.
More importantly, retirement planning doesn’t happen in isolation; it happens over the course of an employee’s career while they’re simultaneously balancing other financial responsibilities like paying back student loans, covering childcare expenses or housing costs, and building up emergency savings.
An employee balancing multiple financial obligations may struggle to prioritize retirement, even when a strong employer-sponsored plan is available. This makes retirement readiness part of a much broader financial wellbeing conversation.
Leading employers can help employees understand how today’s financial decisions affect tomorrow’s goals, rather than expecting employees to navigate each financial priority independently.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: Are you only benchmarking your retirement plan design, or are you also measuring how effectively you’re helping employees build long-term financial security?
3. Financial Wellness Is Becoming a Strategic Employee Benefit
Employee financial wellness benefits are increasingly becoming an important component of a comprehensive benefits strategy.
Despite employee financial wellbeing recently reaching a four-year high, employees continue to face significant financial pressures, including a rising cost of living, inflation, and broader economic uncertainty (Bank of America’s 2026 Workplace Benefits Report).
The challenge for HR and benefits leaders isn’t simply to provide employees with more financial information. Employees need help understanding what to do next based on their individual circumstances.
That’s where leading financial wellness programs are evolving.
Rather than relying exclusively on generic financial education, employers can provide employees with more personalized financial guidance that helps them understand their complete financial picture, make informed decisions, and take advantage of the benefits already available to them.
A comprehensive financial wellness benefit may include:
- Digital financial planning tools
- Personalized financial guidance
- Access to financial professionals
- Retirement planning
- Emergency savings support
- Debt management resources
- Financial education
- Guidance around major life events and financial decisions
The most effective programs connect these capabilities rather than forcing employees to navigate separate resources for every financial need.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: Does your financial wellness program simply provide financial information, or does it help employees take personalized, actionable next steps?
4. Mental Health and Holistic Employee Wellbeing Remain Priorities
Physical, mental, and financial health are increasingly interconnected.
Financial stress can affect mental wellbeing. Health challenges can create financial pressure. Caregiving responsibilities can affect an employee’s time, finances, and emotional health simultaneously.
Leading employers are responding by taking a more holistic approach to employee wellbeing benefits rather than treating every need as a separate program.
That can include mental health resources, preventive care, caregiving support, financial wellness, fitness programs, and benefits navigation.
However, an organization can offer a wide range of resources and still leave employees overwhelmed by where to go for help.
The opportunity for HR leaders is to create a benefits experience in which employees can more easily identify, understand, and access the right support at the right time.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: Do employees experience your wellbeing benefits as a connected ecosystem or as a collection of separate programs they have to navigate on their own?
5. Leave and Flexibility Remain Core Employee Benefits
Leave benefits continue to be a major component of the employee value proposition, with 82% of employers considering leave benefits very or extremely important in 2026 (SHRM’s 2026 Employee Benefits Survey).
Competitive programs may include parental leave, caregiver leave, paid time off, bereavement policies, flexible work arrangements, and other support for employees navigating changing life circumstances.
Benchmarking these benefits shouldn’t stop at comparing the number of days provided, because workforce demographics and employee life stages can dramatically influence which leave policies employees value most. (For example, a new parent may have different needs from an employee caring for an aging family member. An employee early in their career may value flexibility differently from someone approaching retirement.)
Leading employers can use workforce data and employee feedback to understand how their workforce values and utilizes leave, and design programs accordingly.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: How well do your leave and flexibility policies reflect the real needs and life stages of your workforce?
6. Personalized Benefits Experiences Are Becoming a Competitive Differentiator
One of the most significant changes in employee benefits isn’t necessarily what employers offer. It’s how employees experience those benefits.
Employees are accustomed to personalized digital experiences in nearly every other area of their lives. Increasingly, they expect their workplace benefits to be easy to access, understand, and navigate as well.
Yet there is still room to improve that experience: Sixty-five percent of employers say they could do a better job communicating benefits information to employees (EBRI, Expanding How Employers View Voluntary Offerings).
This highlights an important distinction between offering a comprehensive benefits package and delivering an effective benefits experience.
Technology and AI can help employers make benefits information more accessible, surface relevant resources, and provide support at scale. But technology is most valuable when it helps employees move from information to action.
For complex decisions, employees may also need access to human expertise.
That’s why a combination of intelligent technology and personalized human guidance can create a more effective experience, helping employees get answers quickly while giving them access to deeper expertise when they need it.
| 2026 Benefits Benchmarking Question: Are you benchmarking only the benefits you offer, or also the employee experience of finding, understanding, and using them?
Benefits Benchmarking Is Shifting From Quantity to Value
It’s easy to treat employee benefits benchmarking like a checklist. A competitor offers a certain benefit, so perhaps your organization should offer it too.
However, more benefits don’t automatically create a better benefits strategy.
An employer could offer dozens of programs and still have employees who don’t know what is available, don’t understand how different benefits fit together, or aren’t confident making decisions.
That creates a critical distinction between benefits availability and benefits value.
Leading employers should consider benchmarking their benefits across six dimensions:
- Competitiveness: How do your offerings compare with relevant peers and talent competitors?
- Affordability: Can employees realistically access and use the benefits available?
- Relevance: Do your benefits reflect workforce demographics, priorities, and life stages?
- Engagement: Are employees actually using the programs and resources you’re investing in?
- Experience: Can employees easily find, understand, and navigate their benefits?
- Outcomes: Are those investments contributing to employee wellbeing, financial confidence, retention, engagement, and other organizational priorities?
Looking across these dimensions gives HR leaders a clearer picture of benefits performance than comparing benefit lists alone.
How to Benchmark Employee Benefits Strategy in 2026
Effective benefits benchmarking starts with choosing the right comparison group.
Industry averages can provide useful context, but your organization’s actual talent competitors may differ based on company size, geography, workforce demographics, job type, compensation strategy, and other factors.
From there, HR and benefits leaders can combine external benefits benchmarking data with internal workforce insights.
Consider evaluating:
- Benefits utilization and engagement rates
- Employee survey results
- Frequently asked benefits questions
- Financial wellness assessments
- Employee demographics and life stages
- Benefits satisfaction
- Employee feedback
- Recruitment and retention data
- Program outcomes
This can reveal an important gap that external benchmarks alone may miss: the difference between offering a benefit and employees receiving value from it.
For example, offering a retirement plan doesn’t necessarily mean employees feel prepared for retirement. Providing an EAP doesn’t necessarily mean employees know when or how to use it. Offering financial education doesn’t necessarily mean employees feel confident making financial decisions.
Identifying these gaps can help HR leaders determine whether the organization truly needs to invest in another benefit offering, or whether the greater opportunity is helping employees get more value from the benefits already in place.
What Should Employers Prioritize in Their 2026 Benefits Strategy?
The right strategy depends on your workforce, business priorities, budget, industry, and talent market.
While there is no universal “best employee benefits package” for 2026, current employee benefits trends do point toward a common direction: employers are balancing rising costs with growing expectations for benefits that are relevant, accessible, personalized, and easier to use.
That means the organizations that stand out won’t necessarily be those with the longest list of employee benefits.
They’ll be the organizations that understand what their employees need, invest intentionally, and help employees get more value from what they already offer.
So as you benchmark your employee benefits strategy for 2026, don’t stop with:
“Do our benefits match the market?”
Ask:
“Do our employees understand, use, and get meaningful value from the benefits we’re investing in?”
That’s the benchmark that can turn a competitive benefits package into a more effective employee benefits strategy.
Ready to get more value from your benefits investment?
See how BrightPlan helps employees better understand their financial lives, navigate their workplace benefits, and make more confident financial decisions with personalized guidance.