Benefits friction can take many forms, from confusing communications and disconnected systems to limited visibility into programme performance and repeated administrative tasks for HR teams. It shows up when employees struggle to find answers during enrolment, need to navigate multiple systems to access benefits information or aren't sure where to go for support.
For HR teams, it can mean spending time answering the same questions, managing manual processes or trying to piece together data from different vendors and platforms. Individually, these moments may seem minor. Together, they can create confusion for employees, increase administrative burden for HR teams and limit the value organisations get from their benefits investments.
Leading employers are not treating these moments as isolated issues; rather, they're looking at the entire benefits experience, from strategy and communication to access, decision-making and measurement.
Here are seven ways these employers are reducing friction and creating better outcomes for employees, HR teams and their organisations. Along the way, we've included a few reflection questions to help you evaluate your own approach and uncover possible opportunities so your benefits become easier to access, understand and use.
While each action can deliver value on its own, the greatest impact comes when they're assessed as part of a connected experience, with insights from one area helping strengthen the next.
1. Make it easier for employees to find answers
Employee expectations have changed, no doubt about it. Today, people expect the same simplicity from their workplace benefits experience that they encounter in other aspects of their lives. When answers are difficult to find, employees don't always turn to HR. They may rely on assumptions, ask a colleague or seek information from sources that lack the context of their employer's programme, whether they're trying to understand plan coverage, eligibility requirements or how to access a particular benefit.
Leading employers are focused on creating a trusted, consistent experience where employees can easily access the information, guidance and support they need. For many organisations, that means bringing benefits information, decision support and expert guidance into one place through platforms such as Gallagher Guide, reducing the effort required to find answers and take action.
2. Design experiences around moments that matter
Benefits are most valuable when employees need them most. Whether someone is welcoming a child, caring for a loved one, managing a health condition or planning for retirement, these moments often shape their perception of the support their employer provides.
Leading organisations are looking beyond programme design and considering the entire employee experience, making it easier for employees to navigate benefits during life's most important moments.
When experiences feel intuitive, employees can focus less on navigating complexity and more on making confident decisions.
Learn how top employers make better benefits decisions in this on-demand webinar from Gallagher and Nationwide.
3. Give HR time back for higher-value work
Most HR teams want to spend more time supporting people and shaping workforce strategy, not answering the same questions repeatedly or managing manual processes.
Yet many organisations still operate across multiple systems, vendors and workflows that create unnecessary administrative effort.
Leading employers are looking beyond individual tasks and identifying the root causes of recurring friction, reducing the number of questions and processes that require intervention in the first place.
4. Use data to better understand employee needs
Every employee interaction offers insight. Questions submitted to service teams, enrolment decisions, utilisation patterns and engagement data can all help organisations better understand how their benefits programmes are performing.
The most effective employers aren't simply tracking activity. They're using data to identify where employees are struggling, where opportunities are being missed and where improvements will have the greatest impact. Just as importantly, they're combining those insights with expertise and workforce context so they can confidently determine what actions to take next.
While Gallagher Guide helps employees access and engage with their benefits, Gallagher Drive helps organisations understand what happens next. By bringing together benchmarking, benefits utilisation and engagement insights into one dashboard, leaders gain a more complete picture of programme performance and opportunities for improvement.
Research spotlight
In Gallagher's 2025-2026 UK People Strategy Benchmark Report, nearly one-quarter of organisations report they cannot confidently place themselves against the market. Without context, it becomes much harder to evaluate opportunities, prioritise investments or make decisions with confidence1.
Tools such as Gallagher Drive help organisations compare performance against peer benchmarks and uncover opportunities that may otherwise be difficult to identify.
5. Invest in communication before problems arise
For many organisations, employee engagement with benefits spikes during enrolment and drops off for the rest of the year. However, leading employers view it as an ongoing strategy. When employees understand their benefits, they're more likely to engage with them, make informed decisions and better understand the value of their benefits.
Unfortunately, communication is frequently underfunded relative to its importance.
Research spotlight
Gallagher's 2025-2026 UK People Strategy Benchmark Report found that two-thirds of organisations do not have a dedicated budget for benefits communication, despite communication being one of the most common areas identified for improvement1.
The lesson is simple: Communication is most effective when it's designed into the employee experience from the start, rather than added later as a corrective measure.
6. Create a clearer connection between benefits and business strategy
The organisations seeing the greatest success don't treat benefits as a collection of programmes. Instead, they start with a clear understanding of what they're trying to achieve for employees and the organisation.
A strong employee value proposition can serve as the foundation, helping align benefits, rewards, talent strategies and employee experience around a shared purpose. When programmes have clear intent, decisions become easier, communications become more focused and employees gain greater clarity about the support available to them.
7. Use technology and AI with purpose
Technology and AI are creating new opportunities across the benefits landscape, from personalised guidance to faster service and more efficient administration. But leading employers recognise that technology works best when built on a strong foundation of clear strategy, trusted data, well-designed experiences and human expertise.
The opportunity is significant, but successful organisations understand that technology is most effective when it reinforces a clear employee experience rather than attempting to define one.
Reducing friction starts with looking at the whole experience
Benefits friction rarely stems from a single process, communication or technology challenge. It tends to emerge across the entire employee experience.
That's why leading employers are taking a more connected approach to reducing benefits friction, bringing together strategy, communication, data, technology and expert guidance to create experiences that are easier for employees to navigate and simpler for HR teams to manage. Whether that means helping employees find answers through platforms like Gallagher Guide or helping leaders make more informed decisions with insights from Gallagher Drive, the goal remains the same: creating a benefits experience that delivers greater value for employees and the organisation alike.
The goal isn't to eliminate every question or automate every interaction. It's to help employees make confident decisions, give HR teams time back for higher-value work and ensure organisations realise more value from the benefits they already invest in.
The biggest gains often come when organisations stop treating these challenges as separate issues and start viewing them as part of a connected cycle. A clear benefits strategy helps define priorities, data and insights reveal where employees need support, and those learnings shape future decisions and improvements. With each cycle, organisations spend less time reacting to the same challenges and more time creating value for employees and the business.
