Employee engagement isn't about where people work, it's about how leaders create environments where people can do their best work.

The conversation around hybrid work often focuses on where employees are working. Maybe the better question is: Are we creating the conditions for people to stay engaged?

In her latest Fast Company article, Alison Myers, Venbrook President of Corporate Benefits & Specialty Health and a Fast Company Executive Board member, explores why hybrid work isn't the real challenge, and what organizations should focus on instead.

As organizations tighten budgets, employees are bound to look beyond flashy office perks and focus on benefits that provide lasting financial security, wellbeing, and career growth. 

When HR professionals reevaluate their spending account providers, the most common trigger is not cost or contract terms. It is employee feedback. A survey of more than 300 HR professionals by InComm Benefits found that 73% cite employee feedback as the top factor when assessing spending account providers.

The finding has direct implications for benefits brokers. It positions employee satisfaction data as a direct entry point for renewal conversations about group benefits programs that include health savings accounts (HSAs) or flexible spending accounts (FSAs).

According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, employers are spending more on benefits than at any point in history, yet employees remain overwhelmed, distracted, and increasingly stressed. This affects employee morale and engagement, and impacts organizational productivity. Yet that disconnect rarely gets the scrutiny it deserves.

For decades, companies viewed benefits as an investment in organizational performance. They offered them to attract talent and retain employees. Every dollar spent on benefits represented a conscious tradeoff: Leaders believed that dollar would create more value than spending it elsewhere, whether through direct compensation, technology investments, or other business priorities.

Learn the skills no one teaches, but every manager needs.

Sometimes it’s about an employee recovering from a serious illness. Sometimes it’s about a family navigating the loss of a loved one. Sometimes it’s about protecting financial stability after an unexpected disability.

But claims often reveal another story—one that begins long before a claim is ever filed. Too often, employees discover they don’t fully understand the benefits they’ve elected, overlook coverage they already have, or realize too late that they declined protection they now wish they had.