How global benefits leaders can stop data conversations beginning with an apology
When Euphoric speaks to global benefits and reward leaders the same frustrations come up again and again in almost every conversation about global benefits data.
1. We’re sorry about the state of our benefits data
Almost every conversation with a global benefits leader begins with an apology.
“Sorry about the state of our data.” “It’s messy. It takes ages to pull together and half of it sits with brokers and vendors.”
Leaders feel embarrassed and assume this reflects badly on their organisation, but in reality it doesn’t. Everyone is in the same situation.
Global benefits infrastructure was never designed to produce a clean global dataset. It evolved country by country, vendor by vendor, over decades. Information lives in renewal packs, policy documents, broker reports and local market files, not in one structured system.
So when leaders struggle to answer simple questions like “Which benefits do people value the most?” it isn’t because their teams are failing, it’s because the system is just unable to provide those insights.
2. We can report our spend … but we can’t explain it
Most global benefits leaders can produce a number for total spend. What is much harder to explain is the story behind it. Which benefits employees actually use. Which ones overlap.
Which programmes cost more to administer than the value they deliver.
Benefits data exists as many isolated pieces of information rather than one coherent picture: A broker report here. A policy document there. A spreadsheet someone updates once a year. Individually, this information is accurate, but it can never tell the whole story.
This means leaders can report spend, but they can’t give executives insight into the things they really care about such as: Is this working? Is it efficient? Where are we wasting money? Where should we invest next?
3. We know the answers are in there
Most benefits leaders know that the answers they need do exist. They’re just hidden inside the documentation the industry runs on. Specific wording in insurance policies, restrictions in renewal packs, important details in long PDFs, vendor contracts and management information reports.
When those documents are structured and analysed properly, useful patterns emerge. Supercharge this with real-time employee usage analytics and things suddenly get really interesting.
For example, a company that believes it offers one mental health programme per country might discover it is actually paying for three overlapping services: an EAP, a digital therapy platform bundled into medical insurance, and a wellbeing vendor contracted separately.
They may further notice that the EAP service is hardly ever used by employees despite it being the most cost-effective and patient positive outcome option.
The challenge has never been the absence of information, it has been the difficulty of extracting meaning from it. This is where AI has become extremely useful. It doesn’t magically fix benefits data, but because it can structure, read and interpret the kinds of documents our industry produces it unlocks analytics and insights that were never previously possible.
What we have learned
We are in a fascinating moment for global benefits. Leaders have long felt the pain of messy data and they are frustrated that they haven’t been able to access and utilise the rich insights locked within. Now, for the first time, it’s possible to glean real meaning and strategic direction from global benefits data.
We’re exploring this turning point in more depth on Thursday March 26, when Max Landry, Euphoric’s co-founder and CEO, will be joined by Peter Frampton, global head of performance and total rewards at Freshfields, for a conversation about where global benefits data actually breaks down, and where AI genuinely helps. You’re very welcome to join us.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, EUPHORIC
AI-powered global benefits. Clarity for employers, simplicity for employees.
