Many organizations today have well-designed, competitive benefit plans. They’ve benchmarked, compared coverage, reviewed costs, and made thoughtful decisions. On paper, the plan checks all the boxes. And yet, if we really pay attention, there still seems to be something missing. Not because the plan is lacking, but because the experience of the program doesn’t always match the care and intention that went into designing it.

This is a shift I’m seeing more and more in conversations with leaders. The question isn’t so much whether their plans are good. It’s whether that support is actually showing up in employees’ lives in a meaningful way.

How employees experience these programs is shaped less by plan design alone and more by how they are brought to life. In many cases, it’s not about doing more. It’s about doing a better job with what already exists.

Benefits are often thought of as something employees use, but they also influence how supported people feel even when they’re not actively engaging with them. Knowing what exists, understanding how it works, and trusting that it reflects genuine care all contribute to the employee experience. They become part of the backdrop of work, quietly shaping culture and engagement over time. The conversation shifts from “here’s what’s included” to “here’s how support can show up for you.” That’s when it starts to feel meaningful rather than abstract.

When support is connected to real life and real stages, it becomes much more tangible.

A workforce isn’t one group with one set of needs. It’s a mix of life stages, priorities, and pressures. Someone early in their career may be thinking about mental health, fertility, or financial pressures. Someone in their 40s may be balancing childcare, aging parents, and their own health. Someone closer to retirement may be thinking about prescription costs, financial readiness, and maintaining quality of life.

This is one of the reasons the shift toward flexibility in plan design has become so important, and it’s supported by Canadian research as well. Employees who have access to flexible or customizable options consistently report feeling more supported and more aligned with their employer’s approach to wellbeing, a trend reflected in Canadian research.
(Source: Benefits Canada)

Designing programs around real lives is important, but it raises an important question: how do we truly understand where employees are in their lives and what matters most to them right now?

Benchmarking can tell you what other organizations are offering but understanding your people and how they experience what’s available to them tells you what matters most.

One of the most effective ways to understand what employees value is also one of the simplest: ask them. That doesn’t have to mean a complex engagement study. Even a short, well-designed survey or a few focused conversations can provide meaningful direction. Questions about which supports employees use most, what they wish they understood better, or where they feel unsupported can reveal insights that are often clarifying, even if they aren’t surprising.

When organizations begin to think about their plans through the lens of real lives and real stages, design conversations naturally start to shift. This is also where communication becomes critically important.

That gap between what employers offer and how employees experience their plan shows up clearly in the data. The 2025 Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey found that nearly three-quarters of plan members say they would welcome more personalized communication about their health and benefits. This reinforces an important point: in many organizations, the gap isn’t the plan itself, but how it is explained and experienced.
(Source: Benefits Canada Healthcare Survey, 2025)

How a plan is communicated sends a strong signal about what an organization values. When communication is intentional rather than transactional, it feels less like a program to manage and more like part of how the organization shows up for its people.

In many organizations, communication happens once a year at renewal, and then the plan sits quietly until the next cycle. But employees don’t think about their health or their lives once a year, and support shouldn’t be communicated that way.

Simple steps can make a meaningful difference: short reminders throughout the year, plain-language explanations, real-life examples of when and how coverage can be used, and mid-year check-ins that reconnect employees with what’s available to them. For example, a short mid-year message reminding employees how mental health coverage works, or a simple guide showing how to use a health spending account, can significantly increase engagement.

Communication isn’t just an administrative step. It’s part of the experience itself.

In practice, creating a better employee experience doesn’t start with redesigning the plan. It starts with stepping back. Many organizations haven’t had the opportunity to pause and ask a more fundamental question: how do we want to show up for our people? What do we want our programs to say about what we care about?

A few simple actions can make a meaningful difference. Start by listening to employees and seeking feedback, even informally. Look at your workforce through a life-stage lens and consider whether your plans reflect the realities employees are facing today. Review how programs are communicated and whether employees truly understand what they have and how to use it. Schedule time to review the plan outside of renewal, when the focus can be on alignment and experience rather than only on cost.

None of these steps require a complete redesign. But taken together, they can significantly improve how employees experience the support available to them every day.

Benchmarking plays an important role, but it often anchors organizations to what has always been done. When we only benchmark against the past, it’s easy to miss whether the plan reflects the realities of today’s workforce.

When organizations get clear on what matters to them and how they want to support employees, the next steps become much more intentional. And communication becomes clearer, because it’s grounded in purpose rather than policy.

This is where experience is shaped. Not through more features or bigger budgets, but through clarity, relevance, and alignment between what an organization believes and how it communicates that belief to its people.

Because in the end, benchmarking is table stakes. Experience is the differentiator.

Written by:
Sarah Morden, BHSc, CLC
Employee Benefits Advisor
Selectpath Benefits & Financial