Hub International Ltd. has released findings from its "Employee Benefits Barometer 2017: Why Human Resources Must Take a Long-Term View."

This second annual study in employee benefits surveyed over 300 employee benefits professionals across a number of organizations, varying in size from 50 to 1,000 employees. The study looked deeper into challenges that face benefits management and how planning for multiple years can help HR to better manage details in the long term.

Some of the key findings were:

***Sixty-five percent of participants spend less than a year's time developing annual benefit plan changes. 

***Additionally, 81 percent of respondents stated that managing costs was in the top three priorities for benefits, while 50 percent stated that their's was assisting employees with making wiser decisions about benefits. 

***Four out five companies claim they want to manage their benefit costs more wisely, but 40 percent do not have any plans of improving their cost management programs in the next year to 18 months. The remaining 50 percent of these managers believe they've already managed their costs as best as is possible. 

***Fifty-three percent of respondents believe technology can help alleviate their workload, but 36 percent of participants claim that the challenge is with the CEO's/chief financial officers' willingness to invest in such modernization. 

"As benefits are a major operating expense, HR leaders need to take a long term view of their benefits plans to really demonstrate the value they contribute in talent acquisition, retention, attraction, productivity and ultimately company performance," Mike Barone, president of Hub International's employee benefits practice, said.