For most CFOs, employee benefits are an unavoidable cost of doing business—and today, rising healthcare costs are putting real pressure on the bottom line. But by shifting perspective, CFOs can not only achieve cost savings but also turn these programs into important levers that shape workforce composition, productivity, and risk. The following three strategic questions can help CFOs unlock the potential of benefits programs in supporting their cost base, margins, and growth agenda.

1. "How will retirement risk, healthcare cost drivers, and benefits programs intensify pressure on our future P&L?"

Retirement plans, healthcare, health savings accounts (HSAs), reskilling and career commitments, severance arrangements, and other people-related commitments should not be the sole responsibility of HR. CFOs should view them as risks and costs with implications for both the balance sheet and the P&L. The risks associated with these programs can have significant impacts, such as:

  • Legal/fiduciary risks and associated remediation costs related to retirement plan design and investment oversight;
  • Healthcare risks driven by medical cost fluctuations, high-cost claimants, benefits inflation, and stop-loss thresholds;
  • Talent and reputational risks with cost implications, such as delayed retirements blocking promotions or unfulfilled reskilling commitments leading to regrettable attrition;
  • Long-tail financial risks from delayed retirements due to insufficient employee savings, increased healthcare spending, and upward pressure on compensation structures in later career stages.

To mitigate these exposures, CFOs must proactively examine how these factors affect costs, volatility, and workforce shape and size. From this perspective, CFOs can model how different risk-transfer strategies reduce earnings volatility and balance sheet sensitivity over time, and explore options such as lifetime income guarantees, risk-sharing plan designs, stop-loss, and pooling structures. This shift in perspective also helps CFOs decide which risks remain under the oversight of HR and benefits teams, which transfer to enterprise risk management, and which are outsourced to external partners under service level agreements (SLAs) with clear cost and performance guarantees.

2. "How do we reduce the complexity of people-related commitments and redirect freed-up capacity toward value creation?"

Managing the complexity of retirement and other benefits plans can become a time-consuming administrative burden, diverting highly compensated talent from high-value tasks. Rick Jones, Senior Partner at Aon, says: "Managing a 401(k) plan and its fiduciary responsibilities requires ongoing time from treasury, CFOs, legal, and CHROs—time that could be spent on core business." Outsourcing the administration of these plans allows CFOs to redirect resources toward activities that genuinely reduce future workforce, healthcare, and external hiring costs, such as:

  • Workforce planning and scenario analysis (What workforce size can we afford under different economic conditions?);
  • Analyzing retirement readiness and health trends by segment (identifying where future cost pressures are building);
  • Designing reskilling and internal mobility mechanisms to reduce external hiring spend and onboarding time;
  • Targeted financial wellness and navigation strategies to reduce avoidable claims and productivity losses.

Rather than managing high-touch, customized benefits plans internally, deliver them on a trusted partner's platform. For example, using a Pooled Employer Plan (PEP) to manage 401(k) benefits shifts the risk and complexity of managing retirement benefits to a pooled delivery platform that leverages economies of scale and improves efficiency. Moving to a PEP can save organizations 50-75% of the time previously spent managing their 401(k) plans, while improving outcomes for plan participants. For example, a U.S. government contractor with 900 eligible 401(k) participants and $80 million in 401(k) assets reduced costs by 59% after joining a PEP. Additionally, Aon found that companies using its PEP plan saw employee savings rates increase by 5% and participation rates rise by 9%. Jones says: "PEPs enable companies to offer customized, comprehensive, and well-managed 401(k) plans while reducing the workload on administrative teams, lowering compliance and fiduciary risk, and delivering better outcomes for employees."

3. "Where does every dollar of benefits spending generate measurable ROI? How do we shift capital toward the highest-value levers?"

To treat benefits programs as a human capital portfolio with clear, measurable returns, CFOs should establish and track metrics that demonstrate their ROI, including cost savings, productivity, retention, and workforce composition. CFOs can also assess the value of these programs through metrics such as financial security, health outcomes, and resilience. Understanding these measures helps identify opportunities to shift benefits spending from low-yield programs to high-impact levers, such as:

  • Strengthening employer contributions paired with auto-enrollment, auto-escalation, and income-oriented default options to improve retirement readiness and promote timely exits;
  • Healthcare design and navigation services that steer employees toward high-value care and support chronic condition management, thereby reducing future claims;
  • Reskilling programs tied to specific future roles and transformations to avoid the cycle of "paying people to leave."

Retirement risk, healthcare cost drivers, and workforce productivity have significant financial implications—and many organizations overlook the role of benefits programs as important levers for risk and productivity. Asking these three strategic questions can help CFOs shift their perspective and manage people-related commitments in ways that deliver measurable ROI for both the business and employees.