For many employers, employee benefits are built with good intentions. Plans are selected, vendors are trusted, renewals are managed, and over time, the process becomes familiar. Comfortable, even.
And that’s often where the problem begins.
“We’ve always done it this way” is rarely said with resistance in mind. More often, it’s shorthand for efficiency, predictability, or risk avoidance. But in the context of employee benefits, this mindset can quietly create costs that don’t always show up on a renewal spreadsheet.
Those costs show up in culture, inclusion, employee experience, and ultimately, business results.
Inertia Isn’t Neutral
Benefits strategies don’t exist in a vacuum. They reflect how an organization thinks about its people, how decisions are made, and whose voices are included in the process.
When benefits remain unchanged year after year, not because they are still serving employees well, but because “nothing is broken”; inertia becomes a decision in itself.
The workforce has changed. Expectations around flexibility, mental health, caregiving, financial stress, and usability have evolved quickly. Yet many benefits strategies are still anchored to assumptions made years ago.
The result is a widening gap between what benefits are designed to offer and how employees actually experience them.
Common Examples of “We’ve Always Done It This Way”
This mindset tends to surface in familiar, often well-intentioned ways:
· The same plan designs, every year
· One-size-fits-all benefits
· Benefits decisions made by the same small group
· Communication that hasn’t evolved
· Success measured by stability, not impact
Individually, none of these choices seem problematic. Together, they create a system that prioritizes familiarity over relevance, and convenience over experience.
Where a Benefits Broker Should Be a Strategic Partner
This is where many employers miss an important opportunity.
A benefits broker should not simply be the party that renews plans and negotiates rates. A strong broker can and should help employers actively challenge the assumptions behind “we’ve always done it this way.”
For example:
· Understanding what employees actually value
A broker can help employers gather meaningful employee feedback to understand which benefits are being used, which feels irrelevant, and what gaps exist so decisions are informed by insight rather than assumptions.
· Addressing frustrations with coverage
By identifying common employee pain points such as access, cost-sharing, or claims confusion, brokers can help employers explore practical solutions that improve the day-to-day benefits experience.
· Exploring carrier and network alternatives
Employers are often surprised to learn that similar provider networks may be available through different carriers at lower costs. A broker can benchmark options and surface alternatives that haven’t been considered.
· Improving the enrollment experience
From evaluating more intuitive enrollment platforms to simplifying the process, brokers can help reduce friction and make benefits easier for employees to understand and use.
· Supporting communication and strategy
Beyond open enrollment, brokers can assist with ongoing benefits education, clearer communication, and more creative approaches to benefits strategy including options outside the traditional fully insured market.
When brokers are engaged as strategic partners rather than transactional vendors, they become a critical resource in moving benefits forward with intention.
The Cultural Cost of Standing Still
Culture is shaped less by mission statements and more by repeated behaviors.
When benefits stay the same while everything else evolves, employees often receive an unspoken message: adaptation is expected from you, but not from the organization.
Over time, this erodes trust.
Employees may stop offering feedback, stop asking questions, or stop engaging with benefits altogether, not because they don’t care, but because they’ve learned their input doesn’t lead to change.
Benefits become something employees tolerate, not something that supports them.
The Inclusion Gap
Inertia also has an inclusion impact that’s easy to overlook.
Benefits designed around a “typical” employee often fail to reflect the diversity of today’s workforce. Different life stages, family structures, cultural expectations, and financial realities mean that employees experience benefits very differently.
When benefits strategies don’t evolve, inclusion becomes theoretical rather than practical.
True inclusion shows whether benefits are accessible, understandable, and responsive to real human needs.
The Results Employers Don’t Expect
The effects of benefits inertia tend to surface quietly:
· Low engagement with wellbeing initiatives
· Managers struggling to support their teams with limited tools
· Employees seeking solutions outside the organization
· Frustration during critical moments like onboarding, life events, or leave requests
Over time, these experiences shape how employees perceive their employer, and that perception drives behavior.
Evolution Doesn’t Mean Starting Over
Moving beyond “we’ve always done it this way” doesn’t require radical change.
The most effective benefits strategies evolve gradually, guided by listening, data, and intentional design.
Instead of asking, What have we always offered?
A better question is, Who are our employees today, and how well are our benefits supporting them now?
Small shifts supported by the right partners can create meaningful impact.
Questions Leaders Should Be Asking
To begin that evolution, leaders can start with reflection:
· If we were designing our benefits today, would we make the same choices?
· Whose voices are missing from our benefits decisions?
· How do employees actually experience our benefits and not just understand them?
· Are we measuring success by cost stability alone, or by impact and alignment?
These questions don’t require immediate answers. They require openness.
Moving Forward With Intention
The most effective benefits strategies are not the most expensive or complex. They are the most intentional.
They balance stability with relevance, structure with flexibility, and tradition with evolution. And they leverage trusted partners like benefits brokers to not just to manage plans, but to help employers think differently.
Letting go of “we’ve always done it this way” doesn’t mean rejecting the past. It means building it thoughtfully, in service of a workforce that continues to change.
For employers navigating today’s realities, that willingness to evolve may be one of the most valuable benefits they can offer.
Since 2013 SSA Insurance Services has been helping organizations of all sizes to promote and protect the health and wellness of their most important asset: their employees. Stephanie San Antonio and her team do this by working with employers to design, implement, and maintain a company culture that is in line with their mission and values, and building a comprehensive benefit package that attracts and retains their top talent.
Call SSA at (760) 203-4299 for a complimentary benefits package review, to make sure your group health plan is in compliance, and for help with establishing a wellness program for your employees to keep them healthy, happy and engaged.
