4 ways to measure value of employee benefits in the COVID-19 era

It can be hard to know whether you’re providing the right mix of health benefits, wellness programs, and support initiatives — especially during these unprecedented times. What are the right metrics to use? Should you simply look at engagement data? If not, what else should you include?

As you are evaluating your mix of benefits and planning for next year, you should think carefully about setting measurable objectives, whether those are related to talent retention and attraction, productivity, or cost reduction. Companies often pull back on benefits because they have no idea whether they’re effective or spend more than they should on efforts that aren’t working. Don’t let that be you.

Here are some ways you can avoid spending on benefits that aren’t paying off — and make sure you are offering the ones that are.

Are people healthy?

It might seem obvious, but the most important measurement of whether your health care benefits offerings are working is the health of the people who use them. By starting with a focus on the outcome — and not just inputs and processes — you’ll simplify your decisions. It’s a wonder how far you can get by asking whether your offerings will lead to healthier people.

Of course, you’ll need to think about how to measure that.

Some common ways to measure health outcomes include absenteeism and sick leave. Those are easy to track on a short-term basis, but in the long term, you will want to look at disability claims, the percentage of members with gaps in care, ER and hospital admission rates, data on mental health, and mortality rates.

What are your costs?

Even the best health outcomes are not sustainable if an organization can’t pay for the benefits that support them. So you’ll need to balance other metrics against cost.

One important benchmark is to compare what you are spending to what similar organizations are spending. (For more of an idea of that, you may want to start with the Kaiser Family Foundation’s annual report on employer health benefits.)

You may also want to look at how people who use certain programs that you offer compare with similar people who don’t (this method is often called matched cohorts). If similar people show similar health outcomes regardless of whether they’re using a given program, it’s a good indicator that the program may not be very effective.

How much are people using?

You can offer anything you want, but it’s what people will actually use that matters. For that reason, it’s a good idea to get input from employees on what they want before implementing a new program, while also being sure to measure utilization of any program you put in place.

It’s essential to track utilization rates because they’re some of the most important indicators of success.

At the most basic level, you should be measuring participation for all of the programs and benefits that you offer. From there, you can get more granular to understand how the benefit impacts use of specific services. How often are your employees using primary care? The emergency room? What about preventative visits? Mental health support?

Are you benefiting in other ways?

In addition to these core metrics, you may also want to look at the indirect effects of what you offer for health care.

Related: Attract and retain employees with a modern employee benefits program

Especially during the Great Resignation, health care benefits can have a big effect on hiring and retention. Many new benefits programs that have been recently introduced are focused on attracting and keeping workers. Although hiring and turnover metrics have many causes, keeping the employee experience in mind when offering benefits is likely to have positive effects. Again, this is a place where it’s helpful to compare what you are offering to your competitors. To attract and retain talent, you need to keep up or exceed what others are offering.

Healthier employees and a healthier organization

By being clear in measuring the costs and effects of your health care offerings, you can begin to craft benefits that drive positive health outcomes, are cost-effective, are more likely to be used, and attract and keep employees in their jobs. One way to simplify this data work is to use a health intelligence platform that equips you with deep and immediate insights.

Dr. Janet Young serves as lead clinical scientist on Springbuk’s Data Sciences and Methodologies team.