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2026 Employee Benefits Administration Strategies

With healthcare costs projected to rise by 9% in 2026, the evolution of HR technology is transforming how organizations manage and optimize their employee benefits administration solution.

To uncover key areas for improvement, Gatepoint Research surveyed 1,382 HR and benefits executives* across several diverse industries, including finance, healthcare, insurance, retail, technology, and education, to assess their satisfaction with their current benefits administrators and identify critical service gaps. An additional 103 C-suite HR and finance executives** were surveyed separately for their insights on two of the topics listed below.

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Services Offered by Benefits Administration Solution

%
Enrollment & eligibility
%
COBRA administration
%
Dependent verification
%
Service/call center
%
Mobile app
%
Billing & financial
45%
ACA Administration
39%
Decision support
35%
Custom Communications support
27%
Closed-loop payroll
25%
AI virtual assistant/chatbot
23%
Consumer accounts administration
Core administration services are offered primarily, with member experience benefits an essential element. Compliance and services providing insights for decision-making are generally not integrated.

Desired Employee Experience When Engaging With/Enrolling in Benefits

%
Single access point to all benefits programs
%
Simple, easy, understandable information across multiple channels
%
Claims-based data to inform/drive benefits selection and activation
33%
High-touch service
32%
Streamlined and personalized
27%
AI-supported, mobile-first experience
26%
Tools to create educated benefits consumers
Roughly three-fourths of respondents want employees to have a single access point for benefits programs and easy-to-understand information across multiple channels.

Overall Satisfaction with Current Benefits Administration Solution

(Rating on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 being completely dissatisfied and 5 being completely satisfied)

%
Satisfied in some areas, not all
%
Mostly satisfied
%
Completely satisfied
9%
Mostly dissatisfied
3%
Not at all satisfied
Satisfaction levels are generally high for 47%; however, nearly as many (43%) indicate their satisfaction is inconsistent or low.

C-Suite Executives’ Responses:

%
Satisfied in some areas, not all
%
Mostly satisfied
%
Completely satisfied
5%
Mostly dissatisfied
2%
Not at all satisfied
Satisfaction levels are generally high, with 72% rating their provider a 4 or 5, while only 7% report being dissatisfied. However, 1 in 5 respondents say their satisfaction is spotty.

Areas Needing Improvement in Current Benefits Administration Solution

%
Employee service (call center, etc.)
%
Effective enrollment tools/better decision support
%
Benefits team/admin service
24%
Costly customizations
16%
Real-time transparency (files, cases, etc.)
15%
Compliance and regulatory updates
13%
Data integrity and cybersecurity
12%
Single system to manage
10%
Merger and acquisition processes
8%
Efficient manual/paper-based processes
3%
System stability and uptime
The pain points most frequently cited are service quality and user experience. These HR and benefits professionals are less bothered by platform stability or compliance issues and more concerned with human experience and administrative friction.

C-Suite Executives’ Responses:

%
Employee service (call center, etc.)
%
Benefits team/admin service
%
Costly customizations
%
Effective enrolment tools/better decision support
%
Data integrity and cybersecurity
%
Real-time transparency (files, cases, etc.)
14%
Single system to manage
12%
Compliance and regulatory updates
9%
Merger and acquisition processes
9%
System stability and uptime
Key areas cited for improvement include employee and admin services, followed by customization costs and enrollment tools. Fewer respondents emphasized technical or compliance issues.

Top Three Criteria When Evaluating a New Benefits Administration Provider

%
Cost or budget approval
%
Ease of use
%
Features & functionality
%
Customer support
31%
Integration capabilities
14%
Executive buy-in
14%
Security features
5%
Vendor reputation
Priorities include easing costs within budget parameters, enhancing the user experience, and adding features and functions that can eliminate the need for expensive customization.

Research conducted by

gatepoint

*Executive levels represented:

%
who hold the title CHRO
%
VPs
%
Directors
%
Senior managers
Respondents are employed by companies with 2500 to over 25,000 employees and revenue ranging from under $250 million to more than $1.5 billion.

*C-Suite Executive levels represented:

%
who hold the title CxO
%
VPs
Most respondents work for very large firms with revenue levels exceeding $1.5 billion; however, smaller firms were also included in the survey.

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