HR’s Top Employee wellness & productivity, managing benefit costs and ACA compliance are dominant priorities for companies with 50-1000 Benefits employees. When asked to identify their top benefits priorities, HR respondents Priorities ranked improving employee wellness and productivity (83 percent), and managing benefit costs (76 percent) as top priorities. The more immediate issue of Affordable Care Act reporting, audits and general compliance was of lesser concern – only 58 percent ranked it a top priority. (See Figure 1) It’s the smaller organizations in the study, however, that appear to be feeling more pressure around these issues. Among those employing between 50-99 employees, 82 percent ranked managing employee benefits costs as a top priority, while only 66 percent of respondents from organizations with 500-1,000 employees consider it the top priority. Similarly, ACA compliance seems to be more worrisome to HR leaders in smaller organizations. It was ranked as a top concern by 69 percent of employers with 50-99 employees versus only 51 percent of those with 500-1000 employees. While the issues of cost management and ACA compliance varied based on organizational size, all three groups were united in their view of the importance of employee wellness and productivity: It was a top concern of 90 percent of the largest organizations with 500-1,000 employees; 81 percent of those with 100-499 employees, and ranked by 78 percent of the smallest organizations with 50-99 employees as the top priority. Figure 1. Top Employee Benefit Priorities Which of the following are top employee benefits priorities for your company in 2016? 90% IMPROVE EMPLOYEE WELLNESS & PRODUCTIVITY 81% 78% 66% MANAGE EMPLOYEE BENEFIT COSTS 79% 82% 51% COMPLY WITH AFFORDABLE CARE ACT (ACA) 57% 69% 50% EMPLOYEES ALIGN HR WITH BUSINESS AND OPERATIONAL STRATEGIES 41% 42% 500-1000 IMPLEMENT NEW OR IMPROVE EXISTING BENEFITS ADMINISTRATION 43% 100-499 TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM OR SOFTWARE SOLUTION 42% 50-99 29% Research Report | Employee Benefits Barometer: SMB Perspectives and Priorities in an Era of Disruption 4