General Sessions
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Marianne Roux
Packaging Benefits for Greater Employee Engagement
Figuring out how to get the right benefits to the right employees at the right time continues to challenge many benefits professionals. This is further complicated by the growing demand from employees for a more personalized benefits experience that includes more diverse offerings. What is next in the evolution of benefits navigation? This session will focus on creating a benefits navigation experience that allows employees to find what they need, when they need it.
Primary Focus: Employee Experience
Engaging Employees to Achieve Better Health and Well-being
Are we engaging, influencing and assisting our employees and their families to take full advantage of the benefits we offer? What are some best practices to ensure an understanding of the use, and value, of our programs? How do we best measure, analyze, and benchmark success based on the investments we are making? This session will focus on how we pull this all together and know if it’s working.
Primary Focus: Employee Experience
Staying Ahead of an Evolving Pharmacy Benefit Industry
Are rebate-heavy contracts disappearing, and how can we hold PBM’s accountable? Will biosimilars actually save money (and when)? Are Rx purchasing coalitions worth it? When will we all cover GLP-1 drugs beyond diabetes, and how will we know it’s worth it? This session will discuss these questions and others that will drive the future of pharmacy, a benefit that will soon be half of most plans’ healthcare expense.
Primary Focus: Health & Wellness
Navigating the World of Global Benefits
Multinational could mean two countries or the whole world. Managing global benefits entails balancing the pursuit and retention of the best talent, understanding compulsory benefits, managing financial risk, and selecting global partners. How do you get started? Should there be equity amongst different countries’ programs? What can be managed globally versus locally? When does multi-national pooling make sense?
Primary Focus: Global
The Evolving Role of a Benefits Strategist
How do you go about getting your strategy approved, how do you manage expectations, how do you discuss headwinds with your leaders? How are our roles evolving in a complex, ambiguous and fast changing context? What does it mean to be a strategist vs. a deep expert? What mindsets, skills and practices do we need to play our evolved role? How do we partner with others to better deliver impact at scale? How do we help our stakeholders make sense of the change and take them with on the journey? Have we seen any successful transitions to this new role?
Primary Focus: General
The Future of Healthcare
Healthcare trend is rising at a level that is nearly double wage increases and triple general inflation, consuming an increasing share of total rewards budgets. Are we reaching a point where healthcare trend is no longer sustainable? Is it time to redefine our healthcare commitment to employees and their families to be able to offer viable healthcare benefits in the future? We will discuss the following topics:
Let’s explore the evolving healthcare landscape and revisit how we manage costs and design the right plans for our employees and our organizations.
Primary Focus:
Future Landscape of Leave
Where as an employer you draw the line, what types of leaves people are thinking about (menopause, caregiver, bereavement, IVF, etc.), and generally how new legislation is impacting how employers design and administer their plans. We will also discuss the practicality of employer influence on legislation in this area as well as the outsourced solutions employers are using – are they working?
Primary Focus: Health & Wellness
How to Build a Culture of Financial Resilience
Employee financial resilience can range from experiencing severe financial stress to being financially secure. The issues may include managing basic needs, managing debt, saving for retirement, healthcare or unexpected emergencies or optimizing taxes or investing. Financial security means understanding and managing financial commitments, meeting financial goals, protecting against risks, coping with financial shocks, and saving for contingencies or future needs like parenthood, college, or retirement. How do we ensure we have the right financial resilience programs in place to support financial independence, and how do employees use these programs in order to make choices that empower them to be fully engaged at work?
Primary Focus: Retirement & Financial Security
AI in Benefits – How Far Should We Go?
What is our obligation with the massive amount of data we have? If we feed that data into generative AI tools, we could help them avoid major medical issues, get out of debt, and pick the right plans for their needs. We are also entrusted with that data – and mandated – to keep it secure and truly personal to the individual. Where do we draw the line between being helicoptering employers and letting them go it alone? Ethically, legally, and practically, we’ll explore the big question with AI in benefits, how personal is too personal?
Primary Focus: Technology
Optimizing Benefits Strategy, Plan Design and Participant Experience Using Data
Using data (claims, participant utilization, trends, & benchmarking) to inform and develop benefits strategy, total rewards design and delivery/operations, continually refining interventions on design and delivery to achieve organizational goals. Are we using data to our advantage? What should we be looking at beyond the typical data dashboards?
Primary Focus: Technology