Ask Our Expert gives you an opportunity to ask questions, get answers, and gain insights from our thought leaders on the latest trends in HR. We address a variety of strategic areas that impact employers and their employees around the world.

To answer your question on integrated benefits programs, we've asked our expert Andy Hiles, Hewitt's Southeast Market Group Leader. If you'd like to ask a question regarding this topic or on any pressing human resources challenges you might be facing, email us, and we'll share responses to selected questions on a regular basis.

 Ask Our Expert: Managing an Integrated Benefits Program

Question:  I've just been promoted to VP of Compensation and Benefits. As a result, I have responsibility for all rewards, including benefits. My focus is on the big dollars of retirement and health care. How should I tackle these two separate, but equally important, benefits to put my "stamp" on this new role?

Answer:  Congratulations! For many large companies, the management of health plans is separate from the pension and savings plan. It's also common to have the responsibility for other important benefit plans like paid time-off plans, insurance, and work/life programs spread among several people.

It's really helpful to have all benefits within your span of control. For most large employers, benefits aren't meeting organizational objectives. Employees are feeling the pinch too, with rising costs and a diminishing safety net. When added to the complexities of a rapidly diversifying workforce, it's clear that it is time to step back and rethink what benefits can deliver to the organization.

During the past decade, employers have responded to the challenges of today's benefits on a piecemeal basis, making incremental improvements each year benefit-by-benefit. This has been helpful, but it's clear that it is time to take a broader, more strategic approach to how overall benefits fit into the rewards picture. 

In your new position, start by thinking about the role of all your benefits and how they fit into the overall set of employee reward programs. Step back and ask yourself: 1) Given the kind of company we will be in three years, what do I need from the employee benefit programs? 2) How much of a unique contribution do these programs make toward supporting our culture and meeting our company's goals? and 3) How do we best get there from here?

Developing and adopting a "total benefits strategy" is the first step you can take to assert control over the entire benefits portfolio and begin to manage each component of the benefit plan in harmony with others. With the total benefits approach, you can create significant value by looking across as well as within each individual benefit plan to determine where you're getting the most return on your investment. Take an honest look at where you are today through input from all key stakeholders (employees, executives, internal and external benefits experts). Then, map out a vision for how benefits could optimally serve the organization, and build a plan to get there.

About Our Expert

Andy Hiles has worked in a variety of roles at Hewitt in the past 13 years, including Total Benefits Solutions Leader, Southeast Market Regional Client Leader, Atlanta Market Manager, and Account Manager. He currently serves as our Southeast Market Group Leader. Andy is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and has a BA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.