{"id":19616,"date":"2025-12-02T08:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T13:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/compt.io\/?p=19616"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:04:50","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T20:04:50","slug":"employee-benefit-plan-audit-signs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/compt.io\/blog\/employee-benefit-plan-audit-signs\/","title":{"rendered":"When to Reevaluate Your Employee Benefits: 6 Signs Your Program Needs a Refresh"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Benefits age faster than budgets do. You\u2019ve probably felt that more than once in your own organization. Employee needs shift long before the next budget cycle rolls around, and renewal season has a funny way of exposing everything that hasn\u2019t quite kept up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take work-life balance. In 2020, flexible work and leave surged in importance but were still viewed as pandemic responses. Half a decade later, Randstad\u2019s Workmonitor 2025 research<\/a> finds that work-life balance now outranks pay as the top job factor for 85% of employees worldwide \u2014 and for the first time, it also surpasses pay as a motivator for 79% of respondents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why here at Compt, we believe so strongly in the power of lifestyle benefits<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Countless other examples exist; I\u2019ve watched this play out across almost a decade in the HR and benefits space. Companies don\u2019t fall behind because they\u2019re careless. More often, they fall behind because benefits are deceptively \u201cset it and forget it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s fix that with today\u2019s guide, which details the six signs it\u2019s time to reevaluate your employee benefits. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is an employee benefit plan audit?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

First things first:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An employee benefit plan audit<\/strong> is a structured review of your benefits program to see whether it still meets your employees\u2019 needs and your company\u2019s broader goals. It\u2019s essentially a health check that tells you what\u2019s still working and what\u2019s outdated.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is <\/strong>NOT<\/em><\/strong> an ERISA audit.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A benefit plan audit is a strategic review of your benefits package. It\u2019s got nothing to do with your retirement plan filings or fiduciary responsibilities under ERISA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019re looking at the full picture here: health plans, wellness perks, stipends<\/a>, leave policies, and the everyday extras you give your employees, with the goal of understanding whether what you offer still aligns with their personal and professional priorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why run one in the first place?<\/em> Two reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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  1. Your workforce evolves faster than your benefits.<\/strong> People get older. Some start families. Others relocate. Most face new financial pressures. Maybe they care more about professional development<\/a> today than they did three years ago.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Falling behind (not so) quietly hurts recruiting and retention.<\/strong> In the 2025 release of Gallup\u2019s annual Employee Retention and Attraction report<\/a>, they revealed “Pay\/Benefits” is the most common single reason<\/em> Americans left their jobs in 2024.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Well, is it time for <\/em>your<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong>company to run a benefit plan audit?<\/em> If you tick any of the following six boxes, the answer is \u201cDefinitely.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    When to reevaluate your employee benefits program <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    Nine times out of ten, your employees aren’t going to tell you outright they aren’t thrilled about their benefits package. Most people feel awkward giving that kind of feedback unless something is truly broken; I know I would.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    So it\u2019s the quiet warning signs that show up first. Look close enough and you\u2019ll see them in your data, in broader market trends, and in the way employees actually use (or ignore) what you\u2019re offering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Here are some potential triggers to watch for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sign 1: Your survey or open enrollment feedback shows declining satisfaction.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    Of all the signs your benefits program is outdated, this is the clearest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you send out an employee benefits survey<\/a> and more than one-third of your company says they\u2019re \u201cdissatisfied\u201d or \u201cextremely dissatisfied\u201d with their options, it\u2019s clear as day: you need an employee benefit plan audit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If you\u2019ve just wrapped up open enrollment, that\u2019s another easy place to look. See which plans people avoided and which questions kept coming up to HR. Those are the benefits categories at which you\u2019ll want to look closely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Pro tip:<\/strong> It\u2019s best to survey your team annually; that way you can benchmark changes from one year to the next. When you make the YoY comparison, it\u2019ll be even more obvious whether your benefits are aging out of alignment with what your employees actually care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Sign 2: Top talent leaves, and benefits come up in exit interviews.<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    When strong performers leave and they bring up benefits during exit interviews \u2014 even indirectly \u2014 you\u2019ve got living, breathing proof your current setup is actively hurting retention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Of course, turnover seriously disrupts team dynamics. But it\u2019s also something that should concern your CFO; Gallup found that, on average, replacing someone in your org costs 40% to 200% of their salary<\/a>, depending on their role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    If improving your benefits package could potentially turn that around, it\u2019s certainly worth looking into.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    To actively capture and record this info, create a simple tracker for every exit interview. Nothing fancy, just a table with columns like:<\/p>\n\n\n\n