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The moneyball approach to employee benefits: Using wins above replacement to maximize value

Just as baseball teams once fixated on home run hitters while overlooking equally valuable players with different skill sets, many organizations focus heavily on traditional big-ticket benefits like premium health care plans while missing opportunities to create greater value through strategically allocating their benefits budget.

By Harrison Newman | March 05, 2025 at 10:45 AM

In baseball’s analytics revolution, teams discovered that traditional statistics like home runs and batting averages told only part of the story. Introducing the concept of wins above replacement (WAR), a statistic that estimates a player’s value by comparing them to a replacement-level player, transformed talent evaluation by measuring a player’s total contribution compared to a replacement-level alternative. This shift to a comprehensive value assessment offers a compelling framework for reconsidering your employee benefits strategy.

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