As organizations head into 2027 planning, there’s a real opportunity to align what your benefits program offers with what your employees actually want. HUB’s Workforce Vitality Gap Index1,2 measures that alignment. For some employers, it’s a validation of things they’re doing right. And for others, it can be a wake-up call. For the CEO, this is a competitive positioning question. For the CFO, it’s a return-on-spend question. For the CHRO, it’s a retention strategy question. All three arrive at the same eight-point audit.

Part One: Is Your Strategy Current?

  1. When did you last make a significant change to your benefits program?

Nearly three-quarters of decision-makers surveyed in HUB’s Workforce Vitality Gap Index planned changes to their program that year, and most were expanding, not cutting.

The HUB EDGE: Revitalizing an undervalued benefits program is one of the fastest paths to stronger employee engagement and retention.

  1. Do you have a multi-year benefits strategy or a one-year fix?

One HUB client — a 5,000-employee real estate firm — weathered four C-suite transitions in four years, each of which reset the mandate for its benefits program. Rather than start the program over each time someone new came in, HUB built a five-year glidepath, staging three phases so each was fully approved and implemented before the next began: competitor benchmarking, then full total rewards alignment and now vendor consolidation. That’s proof that sequencing big changes over several years gets more done than trying to fix everything at once.

The HUB EDGE: A sustainable strategy rooted in strong change management and communication processes.

Part Two: Is Your Benefits Program Spend Delivering Return?

  1. Are you measuring ROI or VOI?

Return on investment (ROI) treats every benefit as a financial line item to defend. Value on investment (VOI) asks what each offering returns in engagement and retention.

The HUB EDGE: A benefit that pays off in employee satisfaction can be worth more than one that simply costs less.

  1. Are you offering retirement planning without personal wealth planning?

Personal wealth planning is the top-ranked financial wellbeing benefit for employees aged 18-34, yet only 53% of employers surveyed offered it.3

The HUB EDGE: Retirement planning protects the workforce you have. Personal wealth planning helps you build the one you want next.

  1. Where’s the daylight between what you offer, what’s used and what’s desired?

Employee discount programs are a strong example — only about half of employers surveyed offered them, yet 63% of employees said they’d use them if available.4

The HUB EDGE: The highest-value, lowest-cost shortfalls are often the easiest to close first.

Part Three: Is Your Benefits Program Working?

  1. Does your program reflect what drives retention, or what you assume drives it?

Employers still believe compensation is the top retention lever. Employees rank flexibility higher — including 37% of those 55 and older, who now prioritize work-life balance above everything else.5 What employees value is generational, and as a multi-generational workforce increasingly favors flexibility over pay, that gap is expected to widen.

The HUB EDGE: Audit your retention strategy against what your people are telling you they value, not what you think they should value.

  1. Is your mental health benefit being used?

One in four employees surveyed reported mental health concerns. Fewer than one in four of those employees said they were using the wellbeing programs already available to them.

The HUB EDGE: Offering the benefit isn’t the finish line; easy access and clear, ongoing communication about how to use mental health resources are what will drive utilization.

  1. What data are you using to make these decisions?

Seventy-five percent of decision-makers said they relied on employee satisfaction surveys alone, while fewer than half used demographic analysis or outside advisors.6

The HUB EDGE: The strongest total rewards strategies are built on more than one data source with an advisor who can turn that data into a retention and engagement strategy.

A stronger 2027 starts now

By balancing ROI and VOI, organizations can make every total rewards dollar work harder, keeping the programs employees already rely on, shoring up what’s missing and giving employees a real reason to stay.

1HUB International, “The HUB International 2025: US Workforce Vitality Gap Index,” 2025. 
2HUB International, “Workforce Vitality Gap,” 2025. 
3HUB International
4HUB International
5HUB International
6HUB International