ARAG
By Lisa Wolf
As 2026 unfolds, uncertainty has become a dominant feature of today’s workforce. ARAG’s 2024 workforce study identified “future unknowns” as one of the top issues keeping employees up at night—and the newest data shows those concerns have intensified.
Even with signs of stabilization in certain parts of the economy, many workers are still bracing for volatility. Increased household expenses, uneven wage growth, shifting policies, healthcare affordability challenges, and growing caregiving pressures have created an environment where some employees may feel they’re just one unexpected event away from disruption.
Compounding this is a growing disconnect between the numbers and the national mood. Markets may be trending upward and economic indicators improving, but consumer confidence remains near historic lows—levels only seen during the COVID-19 pandemic. As Dana M. Peterson, Chief Economist at The Conference Board, recently noted, “Confidence collapsed in January, as consumer concerns about both the present situation and expectations for the future deepened.” Employees may be hearing good news from economists, but they aren’t necessarily feeling it in their day-to-day lives.
And these pressures don’t remain neatly outside the office door. They follow employees into the workplace, affecting their focus, productivity, engagement, and overall energy.
How Can Benefits Strategy Help?
For brokers and HR leaders, this raises a critical question: How can benefits strategy help employees feel more prepared, more supported, and more confident navigating what comes next?
Benefits as a Stabilizing Force
While benefits professionals cannot eliminate the economic, political, or personal uncertainties employees are navigating, they can influence how supported people feel as they face them. When benefits are designed with flexibility and real-world pressures in mind, they help employees move from feeling vulnerable to feeling prepared.
This moment also invites a broader rethinking of how benefits contribute to building stability. Beyond adding new options or adjusting existing ones, organizations can focus on ensuring the benefits ecosystem is flexible enough to help employees adapt when the unexpected happens. Consider how these approaches could fit within your broker toolkit and overall benefit strategy.
- Strengthen Financial Wellbeing as a Core Stability Lever. Financial insecurity remains one of the most persistent and disruptive stressors for employees. According to the 2025 Bank of America Employee Financial Wellness Study, 66% of employees report being stressed about their finances, and 76% say the cost of living is rising faster than their income. That strain presents itself in the workplace in the form of distraction, reduced productivity, and lower morale. Financial coaching, budgeting tools, credit counseling, and personalized planning platforms can help employees better manage financial challenges with confidence. Additionally, emergency savings programs, matching contributions, and loan repayment support can serve as buffers that reduce financial vulnerability. Whether employees are paying off debt, managing childcare expenses, or preparing for retirement, this support is meaningful and relevant for most of the workforce.
- Expand Caregiving Support to Reduce Daily Strain. Employees caring for children, aging parents, or other dependents often struggle with shifting schedules and emotional strain. This can boost stress, increase absenteeism, and lead to burnout. In addition, silent caregivers—those who don’t see themselves as a caregiver or want to publicly admit that they’re a caregiver—struggle even more. For employees in a caregiving role, there can often be the need to be two places at once. These employees spend time at work thinking about their caregiving challenges, and time with their family or those they provide care for thinking about work. Extending caregiving benefits, such as childcare referrals, eldercare navigation, backup care, lifestyle accounts, or dependent care stipends, gives employees options when unforeseen situations arise. Legal benefits that include caregiving guidance can streamline complex decisions and provide employees with a clearer path forward. Offering adaptive benefits and support recognizes that caregiving needs will evolve over time.
- Prioritize Mental Health and Build Emotional Resilience. The emotional toll of persistent uncertainty—whatever its driver—can erode motivation, well-being, and performance. Expanding access to counseling, offering virtual therapy options, and enhancing EAP resources give employees immediate pathways to care. Mental health navigation tools and digital platforms help employees identify the right level of support. But benefits alone are not enough. In ARAG’s 2025 Work-Life Balance Study, employees report mental fatigue and burnout as top distractions that impede their ability to focus at work. But only half of employees say their direct managers support their need for better work-life balance. Managers must be trained to recognize stress, encourage open dialogue, and create psychologically safe environments—and a healthy work-life balance. Destigmatization campaigns, storytelling, and leadership visibility all contribute to a culture where employees feel comfortable seeking help.
- Offer Risk Mitigation Benefits. Make available additional, specialized coverages that help insulate employees from outside risks to health, finances, and security. Supplemental health plans, disability coverage, legal insurance, estate planning, identity protection, and pet insurance afford added protection for employees and their loved ones.
- Simplify the Benefits Experience. In an environment already defined by complexity, employees value clarity. When benefits feel fragmented or complicated, employees can be overwhelmed and less likely to use them. Consider promoting the ‘better together’ value of complementary benefits, such as legal services and identity theft protection or health plans with travel assistance. Unified portals, coordinated vendor support, and streamlined communication reduce administrative friction and increase utilization. For HR teams, this creates operational efficiencies; for employees, it creates a better experience.
While uncertainty will continue to shape the broader environment, employers still have the ability—and responsibility—to create stability within their organizations. And brokers are uniquely positioned to guide that effort, helping clients make benefit decisions that balance cost pressures with meaningful employee support.
By investing in a more holistic ecosystem—one that strengthens financial wellbeing, supports caregivers, prioritizes mental health, simplifies the benefits experience, and mitigates risk—organizations can build a workforce that is more resilient, more engaged, and better equipped to adapt. Employers that embrace this opportunity will weather uncertainty more effectively and will empower their people to thrive in spite of it.
While benefits professionals cannot eliminate the economic, political, or personal uncertainties employees are navigating, they can influence how supported people feel as they face them.
Lisa Wolf is Director of People & Culture at ARAG Legal Insurance. With 20+ years of HR experience, Lisa oversees talent acquisition, organizational design and effectiveness, performance management, employee relations, compensation and benefits, succession management, and team member learning and development. Lisa is fiercely dedicated to creating and protecting cultures where team members and organizations thrive.