How to Boost Benefits Utilization

Employee benefits don’t fail because of budget. They fail because no one uses them. One of our customers, Quickbase, had a benefits program in place... but only 5–10% of employees were using it. After they reworked their approach with us and gave employees more flexibility, participation jumped to 80%. Here’s what they did differently (and what you can steal): ✅ Ask, don’t assume. They surveyed employees and realized many of the perks being offered didn’t apply to people’s real lives. ✅ Ditch the vendor list. Instead of pre-selecting options, they let employees choose what worked for them through flexible stipends. ✅ Make it frictionless. Finance teams don’t want more admin. HR doesn’t want more work. So they automated taxes and integrated it with payroll. ✅ Track what matters. Instead of fixating on budget burn, they focused on usage and feedback. Benefits are only meaningful if people use them. If your participation rate is below 50%, it’s time to ask why.

73% of your employee benefits budget? Wasted. Not because the offerings aren’t good. But, employees are too overwhelmed to use them. Here’s what I’ve learned after working with mid-size companies: 🚨 Burnt-out employees don’t read benefits guides. 🚨 Stressed teams don’t search for EAP support. 🚨 Overloaded managers don’t talk about well-being. So, we flipped the script. Instead of expecting employees to engage, we made it easy: ✅ 3-click benefits activation ✅ “Life event” triggers for real-time awareness ✅ Manager & champion training to spark conversations The results? → Increase in benefits engagement → Drop in chronic health claims → Boost in performance → Average savings in healthcare costs HR leaders, it's time to stop playing defense on benefits engagement. The strategy is simple: make well-being effortless. Just have to have a personalized strategy in place.

Your company invests in wellbeing programs. The resources are there. But engagement? Low. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. Many employees don’t know what’s available, don’t see the value, or find it too complicated to access. And if they’re not using the benefits, the impact is minimal. So, what’s the fix?  🔹 Start at onboarding—introduce wellbeing benefits early and reinforce them often.  🔹 Make access seamless—if sign-ups require multiple steps, engagement drops.  🔹 Listen to employees—align benefits that can meet the needs of a diverse, multi-generational workforce, not just what sounds good on paper. At Wellhub, we’ve seen that companies with a clear, strategic rollout drive much higher adoption rates. Because when wellbeing is easy to find and use, people engage. HR and business leaders—how are you making wellbeing benefits more accessible in your company? Drop your comments below! 👇 #HRLeadership #EmployeeWellbeing #CultureMatters