About the Trends

 
Across the market, solutions are evolving. New systems are emerging and existing systems are being revamped with advanced features that benefit workers, employers, and other stakeholders. Workers now have access to portable solutions that provide personalized insights and detailed data to inform the way they approach their jobs and careers as they manage non-work-related responsibilities. Employers, established and startup solutions providers, and investors are driving the market forward. Here are a few trends—identified through our research and through the process of interviewing and selecting Innovators to Watch—that are impacting the way employers provide wraparound supports for all workers. 

Wraparound supports that improve employee access to essential services like health care and transportation aren’t enough on their own to expand pathways into better-paying jobs and career advancement opportunities for Black workers. Employers are recognizing that it’s also important to offer programs, tools, and services that facilitate skill-building and networking, which can expand people’s professional social capital. These types of offerings can complement and enhance the impact of other supports, increasing the likelihood that Black workers will be able to succeed in their current jobs and move on to careers in growing industries with promising opportunities for career advancement. 

Some emerging solutions use AI-supported skill and personality assessments to provide nuanced quantitative measures of job applicants’ abilities. These assessments then match candidates to open jobs based on how well an individual’s skills and experiences align with the requirements listed in job descriptions. However, widespread adoption of these tools remains some distance in the future.  

AI offers the potential to analyze employees’ demographic data and assess their patterns of usage of existing benefits to inform employers’ decisions about future investments in benefits and supports. As employers expand their use of these types of systems to handle administrative and process-oriented tasks, HR professionals will have more time to focus on strategic initiatives and personal engagements with employees.  

Moreover, employers will be able to use generative AI to tailor messaging to employees and thereby improve the employee experience and build more inclusive and welcoming work environments.  

In a world where remote and hybrid work arrangements are the norm in many sectors of the economy, it will be increasingly important for the technical tools that enable the delivery of wraparound supports to be available via cloud-based platforms and mobile applications. Making the supports easy to use should increase utilization among workers, and providing real-time connections will improve collaboration and communication between employers and employees. This will also streamline data collection, thereby making it easier for employers to track usage and improve people management processes. 

The number of tech-based wraparound supports has grown in recent years, and this is especially true of tools designed to help people manage their personal finances and mental health.  

Investments in both startups and established companies offering those types of solutions have increased in response to several trends. For example, the number of telehealth services has grown and there’s been an increase in demand for mental health treatment that’s driven at least in part by a reduction in the stigma that once surrounded mental health concerns. In addition, younger professionals are burdened by tremendous levels of student debt while at the same time dealing with rapidly rising housing costs.   

While newly emerging solutions can improve an individual’s ability to manage various challenges, employers must recognize that workers may have difficulty navigating a complex array of offerings and find it challenging to discuss mental health issues in the workplace. Research conducted by the Hartford and the National Alliance on Mental Illness reveals that Black workers—despite being more likely than white workers to experience circumstances that affect one’s mental health, including exclusion, hostility, a culture of inequity, microaggressions, and workplace discrimination—are more likely to express difficulty discussing mental health at work due to their race, ethnicity, cultural background, and gender identity. This can hinder workplace equity, diminish the value of certain benefits, and contribute to increased administrative challenges for HR departments.   

Navigation support services, such as those provided by WorkLife Partnership, help ensure that workers can make the most of the benefits available to them while simultaneously reducing HR administration challenges and fostering workplace equity.  

Employers, workers, and providers of platforms and services are gaining a better understanding of the features that are essential in solutions that help employees manage challenges such as financial, mental health, and transportation needs. In response, providers are swiftly developing more sophisticated solutions and acquiring complementary products, aiming to deliver more wide-ranging offerings that take a broader approach to problem-solving. 

For instance, a personal savings tool could evolve into a platform that workers use to find mortgages or other financial products. This push for consolidation—a trend that investors are keenly aware of—can lead to the development of all-in-one systems that, among other things, offer employers enhanced data collection capabilities. With the integration of diverse systems and services, employers will be able to streamline employee management, which will save them time and cut costs.  

Startup providers, in particular, will be able to expedite the process and cut the cost of developing new solutions by integrating complementary tools with their existing offerings. This will enable them to focus on innovative approaches to meet the evolving needs of the workforce.  

Employers say they find it difficult to recruit Black talent to fill entry-level jobs if they don’t have diverse middle management and executive leadership teams. At the same time, they struggle to diversify at higher levels of their organizations without a steady supply of new Black workers in entry-level positions who remain with the organization in hopes of advancing throughout their careers.   

Many companies have found that the solution to this catch-22 is to invest in mentoring programs and solutions designed to promote opportunities for workers, and Black workers in particular, to build professional social capital. This approach enables employers to build more welcoming and inclusive environments for Black workers. A crucial next step to further improve supports for Black workers will be for providers to develop wraparound support solutions that are highly differentiated, possibly by industry, job role, or region.