Four global health benefits experts on their key priorities for 2026
From managing global benefits costs and building employee trust, to putting in place the governance, data and delivery structures to meet workforce needs across markets, managing multinational health and wellbeing is no small task.
For the first time REBA Congress, taking place on 18 June in London, will feature a global benefits stream to support multinational benefits leaders with the many challenges they face.
Delegates will be given the opportunity to visit the multinational lounge – a dedicated area with four networking zones covering Europe, APAC, the Middle East & Africa, and the Americas.
Ahead of REBA Congress four senior reward and benefits leaders, who will help to facilitate the multinational networking lounge, spoke to REBA about their key challenges.
“Our primary challenge for 2026 is balancing continued cost pressure with the need to deliver reward and benefit programmes that genuinely support employee trust, engagement and long-term financial security.
“In response, we are focusing on using reward more intentionally by increasing access to practical financial education and embedding greater pay transparency across Europe.
“By helping employees better understand their pay and benefits, make more informed financial decisions, and trust the fairness of our reward framework, we are strengthening engagement and sustainability while ensuring our investment delivers measurable value for both our people and the firm,” said Hollands.
Debs Hollands
“In line with DHL Group’s Business Strategy 2030 to ‘promote the health and wellbeing of our people’, we are aiming for more and more of our local business entities to adopt our health risk engineering framework to sustainably improve our people’s health, materially reduce healthcare cost increases and contribute to an increase in productivity,” said Helmbold.
Matthias Helmbold
Matthias Helmbold joined DHL’s Insurance and Risk Management function in 2021. In his current role as VP Global Risk Benefits, Health & Wellbeing, Matthias oversees all employee benefit insurances across DHL’s 220 territories, as well as the Health & Wellbeing activities within the function’s Health Risk Engineering framework.
Matthias serves as Director on the boards of the Group’s captives, underwriting annual EB premiums of nearly €200m. Under Matthias’ lead DHL’s captive program won the 2025 AXCO Insurance Award as “Best Captive or ART Solution” and was recognized in 2023 with the “Captive Innovation Award” by Captive Review. Matthias was repeatedly voted into the list of Top20 Captive Owners.
“For PMI, the defining global challenge in 2026 is building the right operating model behind our health and benefits ambition. It’s no longer just about designing good solutions – it’s about putting in place the governance, data, funding and delivery structures that allow us to manage complexity, scale preventive health, and respond to very different employee needs across markets.
“Getting this right is essential if we want our health strategy, global core benefits standards and captive solutions to genuinely improve employee experience, health outcomes and long-term sustainability, rather than remain well intended concepts on paper,” said Mazetti.
Fabio Mazetti
Fabio Mazetti is a Senior HR professional with over 20 years of experience. He excels in various HR subsystems, including staffing, compensation, benefits, organizational changes, business partnering, data analysis, business intelligence, analytics, and reporting. Fabio has led projects across the Americas Region and globally, working with multicultural teams.
Fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, Fabio holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology and certifications in Business Administration, coaching, and health & wellbeing programs. His diverse skill set bridges the gap between technology and HR, driving continuous improvement and innovation.
“The number one challenge for us is how to protect our key medical and insurance benefits amidst rapid price increases. And how to best engage non-digital workers with their benefits, in a world where comms is becoming more digital and AI-driven.”
Doreen Bos
Doreen is Senior Benefits Manager for Europe at Kraft Heinz, where she has spent over six years in regional roles spanning multiple European markets and is now responsible for the European Pacific developed markets.
With experience across Talent Acquisition, Diversity, Inclusion, and Benefits, she designs benefit strategies that help attract and retain talent while meeting the needs of a diverse workforce. Her focus is on ensuring benefits support employees and their families—especially in health and wellbeing—so people can thrive across life stages, boosting engagement, happiness, and long-term attraction.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, REBA
Supporting the reward and benefits community to pursue best practice and drive excellence in their strategies
