Key Summary
- Focus: Employee benefits consulting helps organizations design, manage, and optimize benefits programs that align with business and people strategies.
- Why it Matters: With economic uncertainty and rising employee expectations, strategic consulting helps employers maximize impact from existing benefits investments.
- What’s Included: Group benefits, employee savings plans, and corporate wellness initiatives work together to form a holistic total rewards strategy.
- How It’s Different: Unlike brokers, consultants provide ongoing data analysis, equity-focused plan design, and alignment with organizational goals.
- Key Outcome: Consulting turns benefits from a cost centre into a strategic driver of culture, retention, and performance.
Introduction: The New Reality of Employee Benefits
The expectations around workplace benefits have shifted dramatically. Today’s CHROs are under pressure to balance cost control, compliance, and employee wellbeing—all while competing for top talent in a complex, hybrid economy.
From corporate health and wellness initiatives to financial wellbeing and retirement savings, benefits now serve as both a strategic differentiator and a culture signal. Yet, managing these programs effectively requires more than vendor coordination, it calls for expertise, insight, and foresight.
That’s where employee benefits consulting comes in.
What Is Employee Benefits Consulting?
Employee benefits consulting is the strategic advisory service that helps organizations design, implement, and manage comprehensive employee benefit programs covering health, wellness, savings, and total rewards.
A benefits consultant doesn’t just source plans; they align benefits with your organization’s people strategy, equity goals, and business objectives.
In Canada, that often means working across multiple domains, including:
- Group Benefits (health, dental, disability, and life insurance)
- Group Retirement and Savings Plans (Group RRSPs, RPPs, Target Benefit Pension Plans and DPSPs)
- Corporate Health and Wellness Programs
- Employee Education and Engagement Strategies
- Data Analytics and Predictive Plan Modelling
By viewing benefits through both a financial and human lens, consulting transforms what can often be a transactional process into a strategic, data-informed partnership.
The Role of an Employee Benefits Consulting Firm
An employee benefits consulting firm partners with HR and finance leaders to ensure benefits programs deliver measurable value – financially, operationally, and culturally.
Consultants act as your strategic advisors, offering support across three critical areas:
- Plan Design & Benchmarking: Assessing the competitiveness of your benefits and savings programs against market data and industry peers.
- Governance & Compliance: Ensuring plans meet CRA requirements, provincial standards, and evolving employee needs.
- Optimization & Engagement: Using predictive analytics and employee feedback to refine plan performance and participation over time.
For CHROs, this partnership provides clarity, accountability, and forward-looking insight—the kind of value a traditional broker model often cannot deliver on its own.
Why Strategic Benefits Consulting Matters More Than Ever
In a market where compensation budgets are stretched and employee expectations are higher, strategic advice helps organizations do more with what they already invest in benefits.
Here’s how consulting transforms outcomes—and how it differs from the traditional broker model:
- Improves ROI: Consultants identify cost containment opportunities, leverage data analytics, and reallocate spending toward high-impact initiatives—where brokers may focus primarily on annual renewals.
- Enhances Wellbeing: Integrated programs link corporate health and wellness, mental health, and financial literacy for greater engagement and reduced absenteeism.
- Drives Equity & Inclusion: Consultants ensure benefits reflect diverse family structures, health needs, and accessibility requirements, not just standardized plan options.
- Strengthens Employer Brand: A strategically designed plan communicates care and modernity—essential in today’s talent market.
In short, an employee benefits consultant helps you view your benefits plan as a living system that evolves with your workforce, not a static expense negotiated once a year.
Group Benefits and Savings Plans: The Core of Total Rewards
There are many types of group benefits plans, each contributing to a holistic total rewards strategy.
A comprehensive offering can include components such as:
- Health and Dental Coverage
- Disability and Life Insurance
- Wellness and Mental Health Support
- Virtual Care and Lifestyle Spending Accounts
- Employee Savings Plans, including Group RRSPs, Registered Pension Plans (RPPs), Target Benefit Pension Plans and Deferred Profit-Sharing Plans (DPSPs)
When viewed together, these programs represent more than compensation—they form the foundation of an organization’s commitment to employee wellbeing and financial security.
A consultant ensures these elements are aligned, data-informed, and sustainable, so they not only meet current needs but also anticipate future ones.
The Benchmark Approach: Consulting That Drives Change
At Benchmark Benefits, we go beyond traditional plan management. Our consulting model combines data analytics, predictive modelling, and human-centered design to ensure every benefits dollar drives measurable impact.
With a team that brings over 135 years of combined experience across industries—including financial services, technology, manufacturing, education, and non-profit—Benchmark delivers both depth and diversity of insight. This broad perspective allows us to design solutions that reflect real organizational challenges and workforce dynamics.
We collaborate closely with CHROs to:
- Benchmark plan design and utilization data against peer organizations
- Anticipate cost trends using predictive analytics
- Integrate ED&I frameworks into plan structures
- Support leadership through governance reporting, education, and renewal strategy
Our goal is simple: help employers “Leave It Better”—for their teams, their culture, and their bottom line.
Conclusion
Employee benefits consulting isn’t about selecting plans—it’s about strategically designing total rewards systems that drive performance, inclusion, and loyalty.
By partnering with an experienced consulting firm, CHROs can create benefits programs that truly reflect their organization’s purpose, culture, and care for employees.
To understand more about how consulting differs from brokerage models, read our related article: “Employee Benefits Broker vs. Employee Benefits Consultant: 5 Key Differences That Matter.”