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For years, HR leaders have been expected to do more with less. Now, many are being asked to do something more difficult: demonstrate clear commercial value while navigating AI disruption, rising employee expectations, and growing pressure around transparency and accountability.

That shift sits at the centre of Benifex’s latest global research report, Energizing Reward and Benefits: How HR, Reward and Benefits leaders can tackle the big five challenges of today.

Conducted by Insight Avenue in February and March 2026, the research combines 600 interviews with HR, Reward and Benefits professionals alongside 7,000 employee interviews across multiple international markets.

Across the research, five themes point to how quickly the expectations placed on HR, Reward and Benefits leaders are changing.

Join us live on June 24th to unpack the 5 key trends from the research!

1. Employees still don’t fully understand the value of their benefits

One of the clearest findings in the research is the growing disconnect between employer investment in benefits and employee perception of value.

While 64% of employers say they have introduced or expanded benefits over the past year, only 32% of employees believe their benefits offering has improved.

The issue is not necessarily the quality of benefits being offered. In many organizations, employees simply struggle to navigate fragmented systems, inconsistent communication, and complex information spread across multiple platforms.

That matters because benefits are increasingly expected to support retention, engagement, wellbeing, and financial resilience. When employees cannot easily see or access what is available, the perceived value of those benefits drops significantly.

2. HR leaders are under growing pressure to prove commercial value

Employees are not the only stakeholders struggling to see the value of reward and benefits investment. HR, Reward and Benefits leaders are facing increasing scrutiny from CEOs, CFOs, and Boards, who are demanding clearer evidence that people-related investments deliver measurable business impact.

The scale of this shift is clear. 98% of HR, Reward and Benefits leaders say that pressure to justify the value of HR has increased over the past two years. While 63% of organizations report that business cases for benefits and HR technology fail because the value of people initiatives is not expressed in metrics that senior leaders prioritize.

Breaking this cycle requires a shift in how value is defined, measured, and communicated. Organizations that succeed are those that explicitly connect people investment to workforce outcomes and, in turn, to business performance.

3. AI is changing expectations of HR itself

More than half of HR, Reward and Benefits leaders (51%) report increasing concern about their own job security, with AI cited as a core driver. At the same time, the research shows clear recognition of AI’s potential Employer perspective as an enabler rather than a threat.

As expectations rise, AI-enabled benefits technology is becoming a strategic tool for workforce planning, investment decisions, and risk management. Many HR and Reward teams now have faster access to workforce insight that previously required specialist analysis. Modern platforms can now forecast demand, model future spend, and test the impact of different benefits strategies in real time. That is changing how organizations build business cases for investment.

Instead of relying on retrospective data, leaders can use AI-driven insight to link benefits engagement to productivity, forecast costs, and model financial outcomes in ways that align more closely with Board and CFO priorities.

4. AI and the rising strategic importance of benefits

The research indicates that in organizations where wellbeing is prioritized, the productivity and performance gains associated with AI adoption are significantly higher (by as much as 15%), compared to environments where AI is implemented without parallel investment in employee support.

This suggests that wellbeing acts as a force multiplier for AI. When employees are supported to cope with increasing complexity, change, and performance expectations, organizations are better able to realize the full value of their AI investments.

However, 64% of HR, Reward and Benefits leaders say decisions around AI focus more on productivity gains. For HR leaders, this reinforces the growing importance of positioning wellbeing and benefits technology not as standalone initiatives, but as part of the infrastructure supporting workforce resilience, performance, and long-term organizational change.

5. Pay transparency is becoming a cultural challenge

The final major trend emerging from the research is the growing impact of pay transparency. Driven by legislation including the EU Pay Transparency Directive, organizations are facing increasing pressure to explain how pay and reward decisions are made.

Many employers acknowledge they are not fully prepared. Only 37% of organizations surveyed say they are ready to explain and justify differences in total reward. This is one reason total reward statements and benefits technology are becoming more valuable. By bringing together salary, pensions, benefits, and wellbeing support into a single view, organizations can help employees better understand the full value of their overall reward package.

Handled well, transparency can strengthen trust and engagement. Handled badly, it risks exposing inconsistencies organizations are not prepared to explain.

A more strategic role for Reward and Benefits

The five challenges explored in this new research highlight just how quickly the world of reward and benefits is changing. They also present a clear opportunity: organizations that can connect benefits, wellbeing, technology, and data – and translate that into meaningful outcomes for both employees and the business – will be best placed to lead in the next era of work.

For HR, Reward and Benefits leaders this represents an opportunity to move beyond administration, demonstrate real impact, and play a defining role in shaping how organizations navigate the next phase of work.

Read the full Benifex research report, Energizing Reward and Benefits for deeper insight into the trends reshaping Reward and Benefits.