Health Benefits Key to Talent Strategy

Health-related benefits continue to serve as the foundation of a competitive total rewards strategy, according to a new survey, 2026 Employee Benefits Survey from The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). 

The majority of employers (88%) rate them as “very important” or “extremely important.”

“This year’s survey highlights that health coverage remains the foundation of competitive benefits, while retirement and leave offerings are central to workforce stability,” said Alex Alonso, chief knowledge officer, SHRM, in a statement.

“We’re seeing a strong shift toward technology access, with more employers investing in AI tools. Flexible work arrangements are evolving, and targeted family-support benefits are on the rise.

"As organizations navigate economic pressures and workplace transformation, aligning benefits strategies with both employee value and business sustainability is more critical than ever."

Key findings from the survey include:

The share of employers offering fully insured health plans fell from 70% to 67%, while self-insured plans increased from 27% to 29%.

Rising specialty medication costs, including demand for GLP-1 medications, are driving changes in employer health strategies. The share of employers who offer prescription drug coverage bundled with their health insurance fell from 93% to 77%, while third-party pharmacy management programs grew from 18% to 23%, suggesting that organizations are attempting to shed the costs associated with covering specialty medications.

Flexible work offerings continue to evolve: while the prevalence of flextime during core business hours declined by six percentage points and hybrid work by three percentage points, 27% of employers now offer limited-time work-from-anywhere arrangements, suggesting a more targeted and deliberate approach to flexibility.

Retirement and leave benefits remain central to workforce stability, with 82% of employers rating each as very or extremely important.

Leave for new parents saw some of the largest gains this year, with paid parental leave increasing to 46% of employers, up 7 percentage points from 2025, paid maternity leave beyond legal requirements rising to 44%, up 6 percentage points, and paid family leave reaching 36%, an increase of 5 percentage points.

Employer-sponsored subscriptions to AI tools climbed to 33%, a 17-percentage-point increase from 2025, reflecting a broader shift toward equipping workers for an AI-enabled future — and underscoring the growing need to pair technology access with skill development.

Employers invested more in leadership training, with the prevalence of leadership and managerial coaching increasing by 8 percentage points to reach 55%.