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No. 10Benefits Economics · 2026

The Off-Ramp.

When benefits budgets contract, the decision is not whether to spend less. It is whether the care employees rely on can be preserved while the model beneath it changes.

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Key finding

54% of employers now name cost as the most important factor in benefits decisions, up from 38% in 2025.

Benefits strategy
6 min readAlexa Varsavsky
No. 09Workforce Strategy · 2026

The Capacity Collision.

Leaner teams and AI adoption are both on the rise, and both run through the same managers. Arriving at once, they compete for the same limited capacity.

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Key finding

41% of employees said their organization had cut management layers, with managers taking on 20–40% more direct reports.

Mental health at work
6 min readAlexa Varsavsky
No. 08Total Rewards Strategy · 2026

The New Scorecard for Total Rewards.

Market competitiveness remains essential. But Total Rewards leaders are increasingly being asked a second question: what did this investment change for the organization?

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Key finding

Strategic alignment with organizational goals now outranks market competitiveness as the top reported driver of reward effectiveness.

Benefits strategy
6 min readAlex Ito