Every great benefits strategy eventually hits a moment of truth: is this still working?

Costs creep up. Regulations change. Employee expectations shift faster than budgets. And even the most thoughtfully designed benefits package can start to show its age — especially if it hasn’t been reviewed against today’s compliance standards, market data, or workforce needs.

That’s where an employee benefit plan review comes in. It’s the structured process of evaluating your organization’s benefits for compliance, cost efficiency, and employee satisfaction. More than a routine audit, it’s an opportunity to align your benefits with business goals and uncover ways to deliver more value to employees without overspending.

For HR leaders, CFOs, and business owners, a regular benefits review isn’t just good governance. It’s risk management, cost control, and culture-building rolled into one. And when paired with a strong benefits administration platform like Selerix, the process becomes faster, clearer, and easier to maintain year after year.

In this guide, we’ll walk through what an employee benefit plan review involves, when to conduct one, the key steps to get it right, and how technology can simplify every part of the process, from compliance tracking to employee feedback analysis.

What Is an Employee Benefit Plan Review?

An employee benefit plan review is an important part of effectively managing employee benefits. It is a structured evaluation of your organization’s entire benefits package, including everything from health and retirement plans to voluntary perks and wellness programs. The goal is to assess how well those benefits are performing against four key measures: compliance, cost, competitiveness, and employee satisfaction.

A benefits review should never be just a one-time project, but instead make it a regular checkpoint to be sure your programs are keeping pace with regulations and workforce expectations.

Review vs. Audit: What’s the Difference?

These two terms are often used interchangeably, but they serve slightly different purposes.

• A benefit audit is more technical and narrow. It focuses on the accuracy of data and financial reporting — for example, verifying ERISA filings or checking plan documentation for regulatory compliance.
  
• A benefit plan review is broader. It looks at the entire benefits strategy, including compliance and performance, costs, utilization, and employee perception — and understand whether your benefits are still the right fit for your people and your business.
  

Why Companies Conduct Reviews Annually

An annual review gives HR leaders and executives a clear, timely snapshot of their benefits ROI. It helps organizations:

• Stay compliant with evolving laws like ERISA, ACA, HIPAA, and COBRA.
  
• Identify rising costs before renewal season.
  
• Adjust benefits to match changing demographics or workforce priorities.
  
• Strengthen employee engagement by ensuring offerings reflect what people actually value.

A regular review is a powerful strategy tool. It helps you make smarter decisions before renewal pressure sets in and ensures your benefits are working as hard as your team does.

Why Regular Benefits Reviews Are Essential

Regular benefits reviews help organizations stay compliant and competitive, protecting your organization, and ensuring employees actually value what you’re investing in. For most employers, the cost of benefits is one of the largest annual expenses after payroll. Yet many organizations go years without taking a close look at whether that investment is paying off.

A well-structured employee benefit plan review gives you the visibility to manage benefits with the same rigor you apply to any other major business function: financial performance, risk, and employee experience.

1. Staying Compliant with Regulations

Laws like ERISA, ACA, HIPAA, and COBRA require regular reporting, documentation, and data accuracy. A benefits review ensures your policies, plan documents, and administrative practices meet current standards and helps you catch potential issues before they become penalties. It’s also the best time to confirm your vendors and internal teams are aligned on who owns which compliance tasks.

2. Managing Costs and Measuring ROI

Benefits costs continue to rise each year, and renewals often leave little time for deeper analysis. Reviewing your plan helps with measuring ROI of employee benefits and proactively allows HR and finance to:

• Compare total spend against utilization data.
  
• Spot low-value programs and duplicate offerings.
  
• Model new funding options or contribution structures.

By identifying what’s driving costs (and what’s actually delivering value) you can make smarter, data-backed adjustments before renewal season.

3. Improving Employee Satisfaction and Retention

In the 2025 Selerix Employee Benefits Survey, 73% of employees said benefits matter as much or more than pay when deciding whether to stay with their employer. Yet only 27% said they fully understand their benefits. That disconnect often comes down to poor communication and outdated programs.

A benefits review works with your benefits survey information to help close that gap by using feedback and participation data to realign offerings with what employees want most, and to ensure they actually know how to use them.

4. Benchmarking Competitiveness

Benefit expectations evolve quickly, especially with the rise of hybrid work, flexible schedules, and lifestyle perks. Benchmarking your benefits against peer organizations can highlight where you’re leading the market, or where you’re quietly falling behind.

By reviewing compliance, costs, and competitiveness together, you can see your benefits program for what it truly is: not a fixed expense, but a strategic asset that directly affects retention, engagement, and culture.

When to Conduct an Employee Benefits Review

Most organizations conduct a formal employee benefit plan review once a year, typically in the months leading up to renewal. But the most effective teams treat it as an ongoing process that is revisited any time a major business or regulatory change occurs.

Annual Review: The Best Practice

An annual review helps ensure your benefits are compliant, competitive, and cost-effective.
It’s the right time to:

• Verify all plan documents and filings (ERISA, ACA, HIPAA, COBRA).
  
• Compare current-year costs to projections.
  
• Analyze utilization and employee feedback.
  
• Evaluate new benefits or vendor options before renewal discussions begin.

Annual reviews are often timed for late spring or early summer, far enough ahead of renewal season to make meaningful changes without rushing.

When Regulations Change

A regulatory shift can alter eligibility rules, contribution limits, or reporting requirements. When new laws are introduced or existing ones are updated, a quick compliance check can prevent fines or operational disruptions.

For example, ACA affordability thresholds, COBRA notice rules, or HIPAA privacy standards can all change year to year. A mini-review ensures your internal processes and systems stay current.

When Your Business Changes

Significant organizational changes are another signal to revisit your benefits. This might include:

• A merger, acquisition, or restructuring
  
• Workforce expansion or downsizing
  
• Shifts in employee demographics or locations
  
• The addition of new business units or subsidiaries

Any of these changes can affect plan eligibility, costs, and vendor contracts, making it crucial to reassess coverage, enrollment processes, and compliance obligations.

When Engagement Drops

Low enrollment or lack of employee awareness is often an early warning sign. If participation in key programs has declined or employee surveys show confusion about benefits, it’s time to dig deeper. A benefits review can uncover whether the issue is cost, communication, or misalignment with employee needs. 

A benefits plan isn’t static — it evolves with your workforce. Treating reviews as an ongoing practice, rather than a once-a-year task, keeps your program responsive, compliant, and cost-aligned year-round.

5 Steps to Conduct an Employee Benefit Plan Review

A thorough employee benefit plan review brings together your HR, finance, and compliance teams (along with your broker or consultant) to evaluate every aspect of your benefits program.  Here’s how to structure the process for clear insights and measurable outcomes. 

Step 1: Start with Compliance and Legal Requirements

Begin by confirming that all plans and processes meet federal and state regulations, including:

• ERISA (Employee Retirement Income Security Act): Ensures proper plan documentation, disclosures, and fiduciary oversight.
  
• ACA (Affordable Care Act): Verifies affordability, eligibility, and timely IRS reporting.
  
• HIPAA: Confirms data privacy and security protocols for employee health information.
  
• COBRA: Reviews notice timelines and procedures for continuation coverage.

Even a small compliance gap can trigger penalties or employee disputes. Reviewing your documentation annually — including SPDs, plan amendments, and notices — keeps you protected and audit-ready.

A benefits administration and compliance platform like Selerix can help you automate ACA tracking and streamline COBRA communication, reducing the risk of human error in compliance tasks. 

Step 2: Conduct a Financial Analysis

Once compliance is confirmed, turn to the numbers. Review all cost components, including:

• Premium contributions (employer vs. employee)
  
• Carrier or vendor fees
  
• Administrative costs
  
• Utilization rates for each benefit

Calculate cost per employee and analyze trends over the past few years. Look for low-value programs that consistently underperform or overlap with other offerings, and work with your broker to see the patterns and potential fixes. The goal isn’t always to cut benefits but to redirect spend toward programs that deliver real impact. 

Step 3: Audit Operations and Documentation

Operational reviews often reveal hidden inefficiencies.
Check how benefits are being managed day to day:

• Are enrollment and eligibility processes accurate and timely?
  
• Are payroll deductions aligned with carrier data?
  
• Is documentation stored securely and accessible for audits?

Technology plays a big role here. If your team is juggling multiple spreadsheets or disconnected systems, it may be time to consolidate onto a single platform that ensures data accuracy and seamless integration. 

Step 4: Benchmark Against the Market

Comparing your benefits package to peers helps you stay competitive, especially when talent markets are tight. Gather benchmarking data from industry surveys, associations, or your broker to assess:

• Plan design and coverage levels
  
• Cost-sharing models
  
• Emerging voluntary or lifestyle benefits

If your offerings lag behind your competitors’, a benchmarking review gives you the data to justify adjustments before renewal. 

Step 5: Gather Employee Feedback

Numbers alone can’t tell you how employees feel about their benefits. Use surveys, focus groups, or pulse polls to learn:

• Which benefits employees use most
  
• Which benefits they value least
  
• What they wish the company offered

This qualitative feedback is often the missing piece between plan design and real-world experience. It helps you identify communication gaps, underutilized programs, and unmet needs.  

A full benefit plan review offers better compliance, but also gives you a complete picture of how your investment in people is performing. Once you’ve completed these steps, you’ll be ready to make strategic changes with data and confidence on your side.

How Technology Simplifies Benefits Reviews

Even the most experienced HR or finance team can struggle to keep every part of a benefits review organized. Compliance data lives in one system, cost analysis in another, and employee feedback in a survey tool that no one has time to consolidate.

That’s where a benefits administration platform like Selerix helps. Technology can’t replace strategy, but it can give you the structure and visibility to manage it better.

Here’s how modern software can simplify the review process from start to finish.

1. Compliance Without a Paper Chase

Automated ACA tracking, COBRA notifications, and eligibility reporting keep compliance tasks running quietly in the background. Real-time alerts help you stay ahead of changing regulations instead of reacting after the fact — all from within your benadmin platform.

2. Centralized Data for Faster Financial Reviews

When enrollment, payroll, and carrier data live in one place, analyzing costs becomes simpler and more accurate. You can quickly see participation by plan, cost per employee, and overall utilization — which are the numbers you need for smarter budgeting and renewal decisions.

3. Streamlined Operations and Documentation

With automated workflows and digital storage, every policy, file, and update is tracked and auditable. That reduces manual effort and ensures your team is always audit-ready, whether for internal review or a regulatory check.

4. Integrated Employee Feedback

Software can connect survey data directly to enrollment and utilization metrics, showing you where communication gaps exist and what benefits employees actually value. This combination of data and insight turns feedback into measurable action.

5. Clearer Communication and Engagement

Through Selerix Engage, HR teams can send targeted, automated messages to remind employees about benefit updates, enrollment deadlines, or underused programs — all in the channels they value most. The result is higher engagement and more accurate data for your next review. 

A strong benefits strategy depends on more than compliance or cost control. It depends on clarity and the ability to see, measure, and communicate what’s working. That’s the role Selerix plays: helping HR and finance leaders simplify the complexity behind benefits, so the strategy you’ve built actually delivers the outcomes you intended.

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