How global benefits fragmentation is holding your organisation back
Most global benefits leaders know the feeling. A board member asks a straightforward question about coverage or spend, and what should take minutes takes weeks. The data exists somewhere – in spreadsheets, PDF contracts, broker portals, and local HR inboxes – but pulling it together into a single, trustworthy answer is another matter entirely.
Beyond the day-to-day friction, fragmented data carries a compounding cost. And for many a multinational, one that grows with every country, every renewal, and every decision made without the full picture.
The visibility gap
Origin’s Global Benefits Intelligence Report (2025), surveying 500+ senior HR and reward professionals, found that 82% are concerned about a lack of visibility into their global benefits inventory. Almost half (48%) admit they struggle to compile a complete global overview of their benefits data. Among reward and benefits specialists specifically, that figure rises to 57%.
The consequences are tangible. One in five respondents say it takes more than a month to answer basic questions about coverage limits and exclusions. In a function where speed and accuracy directly affect employee trust, compliance, and cost control, that delay carries a real price.
Where the costs add up
Here are some early warning signs of a fragmented data set-up:
- Wasted time: Origin's research shows 45% of senior managers in large organisations spend at least 16% of their time on benefits administration (nearly a full day every week). That time goes to chasing data, reconciling spreadsheets, and manually compiling reports. It's time not spent on strategy, benchmarking, or building the case for better benefits at board level.
- Compliance exposure: Fewer than two-thirds of respondents feel confident they can easily access the information needed to stay compliant with major regulatory requirements. Almost half (46%) believe their current procedures expose their organisation to undue risk. Across multiple jurisdictions with shifting legislation, fragmented data doesn't just create inefficiency; it creates liability.
- Eroded credibility: When leadership asks about benefits spend and the answer takes weeks or arrives with caveats, it undermines the function's strategic standing. 40% of respondents admit they are not confident in the accuracy of their benefits spend figures. Among organisations slower to adopt new technology, that rises to 52%. If benefits teams can't speak to their own numbers with confidence, they struggle to influence the conversations that matter.
From cost centre to strategic function
None of this is inevitable. The organisations making progress share a common approach: they treat data as infrastructure, not an afterthought.
That means building a single, connected view of global benefits. Not through a one-off audit, but through ongoing processes that keep data accurate as legislation changes, contracts are renegotiated, and programmes evolve.
It means investing in technology that can work across languages, jurisdictions, and provider structures. And it means giving benefits teams the tools to answer questions in minutes rather than months.
What's at stake
Employee benefits are typically an organisation's second-largest people cost, yet for many they remain the least visible. Fragmented data means renewals are negotiated without full context, savings go unidentified, and compliance gaps widen quietly in the background.
The real cost of fragmentation isn't any single failure. It's the cumulative effect of thousands of decisions made with incomplete information. For benefits leaders ready to change that, the starting point is the same: get the data right, and the strategy follows.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, Origin
Origin is the world’s first Global Benefits Intelligence platform.
