SHRM 2026 Recap: The Benefits Engagement Problem Has a Solution

SHRM is nothing like your average conference. It's a temperature check on where the benefits industry actually stands– what's working, what's failing, and what leaders are finally willing to say out loud. This year, the temperature revealed something most of us already suspected but rarely had the data to back up: the benefits system isn't broken because of bad plans. It's broken because employees can't access, understand, or act on what they've been given.

Session after session, the same thread ran through the event. Organizations are spending more on benefits than ever before. Employees are leaving them on the table. And the gap between what's being offered and what's actually being used is costing everyone — in dollars, in time, and in trust.

Simon Sinek said it plainly:

"Companies that invest in their people over time will outperform other companies time after time."

‍Benefits are one of the most direct expressions of that investment. But investment alone isn't enough if employees can't access what they've been given.

The good news? The solutions aren't theoretical. The path forward was named clearly on the SHRM floor, and the tools to walk it already exist.

Here's what the data said — and what it means for the way we think about benefits going forward.

"An investment worth making [is a] single source of truth. . . an employee-centric portal for information needed in real time." — The Baldwin Group

Ask any HR professional what takes up most of their day, and benefits questions are rarely far from the top of the list. Which plan covers this procedure? How do I find an in-network provider? What's my deductible again? These aren't complex questions — but they're being asked over and over because employees have nowhere reliable to go for answers.

Oprah Winfrey, in her keynote address, reminded the room of something that cuts to the heart of why this matters:

‍"There is not a single person you will encounter who does not want to be seen at their core."

When an employee can't get a straight answer about their own healthcare, they don't just feel confused — they feel unseen. Like their needs didn't matter enough to make it easy. That experience quietly erodes trust in leadership, in HR, and in the organization as a whole.

The Baldwin Group put language to something HR teams have lived for years: what employees need isn't more information. It's one place where the right information lives, in plain language, available the moment they need it.

The single source of truth isn't a nice-to-have. For organizations serious about benefits utilization, it's the foundation on which everything else is built.

"80% of employees don't open or read benefits materials. 29% say they struggle to find information. 31% don't perceive value in their benefits." — The Baldwin Group (IFEBP 2022 Employee Benefits Survey)

These three numbers, presented together, tell a story that should stop every CFO in their tracks. Benefits packages are among the largest line items in any organization's annual budget. And by these measures, a significant portion of that investment is functionally invisible to the people it's meant to serve.

This isn't an awareness problem that better brochures will fix. It's a structural gap between how benefits information is delivered and how employees actually make healthcare decisions. People don't research their benefits in advance. They need guidance in the moment– when they're sick, when they're confused, and when they're standing at a pharmacy counter wondering if this medication is covered.

Rather than hoping employees remember what they read during open enrollment, members need to be met where they are, and receive guidance toward the right care at the right cost when a real decision is being made.

When employees don't perceive value in their benefits, the problem isn't the plan. It's that no one helped them use it.

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"100% engagement isn't possible. Instead, make information available in different ways." — The Baldwin Group

"There can be 50% improvement in plan perception with monthly communication." — The Baldwin Group (MMA, 2019)

These two quotes deserve to be read together, because together they reframe the entire engagement conversation.

Chasing 100% engagement is a losing strategy, and it's one that leads organizations to double down on the same open enrollment playbook year after year, hoping the results will be different. The Baldwin Group offered a more honest framework: stop measuring success by whether everyone engaged and start measuring it by whether the right people could access what they needed, through the channels that work for them.

That shift in thinking has real consequences for brokers and the clients they serve. Benefits advisors who help their clients move from an annual communication model to a year-round engagement strategy aren't just improving employee satisfaction — they're improving the numbers that matter at renewal. A 50% improvement in plan perception doesn't happen because an employee read a booklet in October. It happens because they received consistent, relevant, accessible information throughout the year.

Year-round communication makes that possible. Across multiple channels, tailored to where different employee populations are and how they consume information. Behavior change doesn’t rely on one moment of engagement– it thrives on dozens.

Woven throughout all of these conversations was a deeper acknowledgment of the people who hold this work together. Oprah Winfrey didn't mince words when she addressed the HR professionals in the room, calling them:

". . .the masters of human potential, the custodians of culture, silent warriors, and the unsung heroes of the workplace."

It was a moment of recognition that landed — because it named something that HR professionals rarely hear said back to them. The work is hard. The stakes are human. And the tools they're given to do it need to be worthy of that responsibility.

Medefy is built with that standard in mind.

Medefy helps employers get more out of the plan they’re already paying for. Most employees forget what’s available within weeks of open enrollment, they don’t use the programs, and HR ends up doing triage. We put everything in one app with AI-supported Care Guides who help people find the right next step and follow-up after. We also stay in front of your employees year-round with proactive outreach— so that when they need something, they already know where to go. The result is better utilization, lower costs, and real data at renewal. 

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Chat with an expert to learn more.

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