Most employers and employees agree their organization’s benefits programs are meeting employee needs, according to HUB International’s 2025 Canadian Workforce Vitality Gap Index, with 82% of employers and 63% of employees rating the programs positively. However, knowing employees feel good about their benefits is only half the story. The organizations building real retention advantage are doing something different; they’re combining confidence in their programs with the precision to act on them.

HUB EVP, People & Technology Consulting Andrea Goodkin and Michelle Jukoski, EVP, National Technology Strategy & Workforce Solutions, share what leaders should be asking — and doing — to build a retention advantage that holds.

Q: What’s the retention question you hear from HR leaders most often, and is it the right one?

Andrea Goodkin: The question I hear most is, “What benefits should we add?” but the right one is, “Why are people leaving?” Things like leadership, growth opportunity, flexibility and belonging have a much stronger influence on retention than what’s in the benefits package. Those things are harder to pin down, but they’re where the real retention levers are.

Michelle Jukoski: You aren’t going to solve a retention problem by adding additional benefits. You need to understand the benefits you already offer and what the utilization of those benefits actually is. The first step is making sure employees know what’s available and why it matters to them.

Q: HUB International’s 2025 Workforce Vitality Gap Index found that positive benefits ratings don’t always translate into retention outcomes. What’s behind that disconnect, and where are organizations leaving opportunity on the table?

Michelle: Employers tend to talk about benefits once a year, at annual renewal. That’s not a retention strategy; it’s an announcement. When employees don’t feel the value of what they have, the benefits investment stops driving loyalty. The organizations closing that gap between what employers offer and what employees actually experience are the ones turning a solid benefits program into a real retention advantage.

Andrea: Employers are also frequently measuring the wrong things, benchmarking against peers rather than understanding what’s creating impact for their specific workforce. The organizations building real retention advantage are using workforce intelligence to understand what’s moving the needle for their people.

Q: When a client wants to add benefits, how do you help them evaluate what’s missing?

Michelle: At HUB, we start with our AI-powered HUB Workforce Persona Analysis™ tool that synthesizes workforce demographics by age, income band, life stage and current enrollment so employers can make targeted benefits decisions. For example, if most of your employees are nearing retirement, adding a student loan repayment program isn’t going to resonate.

Andrea: Bigger is not always better. Before adding anything, we conduct a total rewards inventory across tangible and intangible rewards, including culture, career development and flexibility. Stay interviews with employees are where the real intelligence lives. Unlike engagement surveys, which ask how employees feel about the past, conducting stay interviews lets you know what will keep them here and what might not hold them six months from now. That’s the retention intelligence CHROs need.

Q: Where does flexibility fit, and how can employers make sure it’s more than a policy on paper?

Andrea: Flexibility is about control and trust. Even in environments where full remote work isn’t possible, some degree of autonomy over how, when and where work gets done matters enormously. The problem is when organizations profess to offer flexibility, but managers don’t model it. When leaders actually model flexibility — taking the time off, leaving early, working remotely — the policy becomes real. The risk isn’t just that a poorly modeled policy goes unused; it’s that employees notice the gap between what’s said and what’s practised, and that erodes exactly the trust retention depends on.

Q: With cost pressures mounting, some organizations might pull back on benefits. How can CHROs protect retention while building a smarter 2027 benefits strategy?

Michelle: Pull your utilization data, not just to make yourself feel good about what’s working, but to identify where the gaps are. Decisions going into 2027 should be data-driven. The answer isn’t to cut indiscriminately but to invest in what’s driving retention and right-size what isn’t.

Andrea: Employees want to see their employers acting responsibly. In organizations where transparency is high, employees can understand that some changes serve the greater good. What damages retention is when cuts happen without context or communication.

THE HUB EDGE

The organizations winning on retention aren’t outspending their competitors. They’re asking better questions. Consider these priorities:

  • Start with workforce intelligence. Persona analysis, stay interviews and utilization data give CHROs the full picture. HUB’s consulting services combine compensation consulting, HR consulting and persona analysis to surface insights that standard engagement surveys miss and that competitors can’t easily replicate.
  • Prioritize access, not just availability. A mental health benefit that takes three weeks to schedule an appointment isn’t helpful. The right benefits administration technology, including leading-edge AI-powered tools, ensures employees can access resources at the right life stage through the right channels when they need them.
  • Treat culture as a retention strategy. Leadership modeling, psychological safety and transparent communication are conditions that make every other retention investment work. When leaders model the culture they want, retention becomes less of a program and more of a natural outcome.
  • Communicate benefits as an ongoing strategy, not an annual event. Organizations that build regular touchpoints beyond enrollment see higher utilization, stronger loyalty and a workforce that feels the investment being made in them.

The right questions are already in front of you. A HUB advisor can help you decide what to do with the answers.