From Theory to Practice

As summer winds down, many of us are facing tighter budgets, changing routines, and—let’s be honest—a bit of grumbling (we’re right there with you; we’re sad to see summer go too). For our HR friends, though, this time of year means you are gearing up to kick off another plan year.  

Just like a shared calendar helps busy families keep it together, you need the right resources to keep your benefits organization running strong.  

Here’s what we’re covering in this edition as we help you shift from thinking in theory to applying practical strategies for your organization. 

• These five benefits hit the mark for back-to-school season 
• On paper, you have a solid HR tech stack—but is it driving value and outcomes 
• AI is just a prompt without people 

Plus, news you might have missed. 

Let’s dive in. 

What’s the number one benefit parents and caregivers want? 

Flexibility. Who doesn’t want more flexibility in their day? However, for caregivers and parents, this can be an absolute game changer when we think about the 180 their weekly routines are about to take:  

• School drop-offs and pick-ups 
• After-school programs 
• Forgotten lunch boxes and homework folders 
• Sick kiddos and playground mishaps 
• Not to mention the middle-of-the-day concerts and art shows 

Plus, the many other unforeseen things parents and caregivers have to take on alongside everything else. Our 2025 State of Workplace Empathy data found that paid leave, flexible work hours and location, and financial support towards care programs are among the top 10 benefits that a workplace can offer to demonstrate empathy for their employees. 

Learn more about what delivering delight through benefits looks like when you have the right data in place. 

Pop Quiz: How hard should you have to work for your tech stack? 

Trick question. Your technology should be doing the work for you!  

If your tech is giving you more work to do and problems to solve, it’s time to consider a change.   

That’s why we’re constantly investing in talent first to drive intelligent innovation. Because we’re not just delivering a benefits administration platform, we’re serving up: 

• Intelligent insights to help you stay ahead 
• More autonomy and time back to focus on strategy 
• Real support designed for real people and real issues 

When we help our clients stay ready, they don’t have to scramble to get ready when something unexpected pops up.  

Go into your next benefits administration RFP knowing exactly what you want and need. This guide can help. 

We don’t do ‘artificial’ intelligence. 

AI is just a prompt without human intervention. Wise words to live by, but even better when you can put it into practice in your technology.  

As you think through what you want your ideal HR tech stack to look like, Alex Saenz, VP of Engineering at businessolver recommends asking these AI questions at RFP: 

1. Can the AI services handle complex questions and provide decisions or support based on context? 
2. Does the AI have a “memory” or is each conversation treated in isolation? 
3. Can you see analytics or a dashboard that shows real-time analytics, like question trends and success rates?  
4. How are you testing and ensuring accuracy and quality over time? 
5. What’s your roadmap for introducing more agentic and autonomous features over time? 

Learn more about how we’re building AI designed to help HR teams get more data, more service, and more results. 

Plus, news you might have missed 

The top 3 KPIs HR should be looking at to measure ROI

Annual enrollment compliance and communication essentials

Delight is our guiding principle. Here’s how we delivered on that so far this year.