Press Room

New York, NY – April 9, 2019 – New research from ALM’s Consulting Intelligence division, formerly known as Kennedy Consulting, reports that rising healthcare costs and employee demand are driving innovation in health and wellness consulting services. Additionally, the push for the transformation of wellness to holistic well-being is reaching a crescendo, and employers are eager for new ideas to bring offerings beyond physical fitness that include mental, social, and financial services.

“Healthcare payers and providers seek ways to keep their own costs under control to remain competitive in the market while striving to find the next innovation that places their customer experience a step above their competition,” said Matthew Merker, Senior Analyst, Management Consulting Research at ALM Intelligence. “Consequently, employers are faced with the burden of choice as an overwhelming catalog of options continue to flood into their domain. The ever-growing expectations from employees for best-in-class benefits and perks places additional pressure for thoughtful selection. In the perpetually present war for talent, the stakes for employers have never been higher as they try to differentiate themselves from their competitors and attract the top talent that will drive their own growth and success.”

ALM Intelligence explores demand drivers and how consulting firms are modernizing service offerings in response, including:

• Strategically balancing cost effective health plans that still provide exceptional service to employees
• Evolving wellness to holistic well-being to answer employee demand for physical, social, mental, and financial services
• Leveraging data and analytics to drive decision-making in health and wellness plan design through extensive workforce demographic analysis

The push for holistic well-being in addition to greater acceptance of a total rewards approach that encompasses health, retirement, compensation, and employee experience is raising the bar in terms of consulting firm breadth capability. Consequently, the divide between top performing firms recognized as Vanguard Leaders and those in the Challengers and Contenders placement is growing. Additionally, the delineation between firms that offer pure consultative support and those that pair it with exchange and other product solutions remains a key point of consideration for buyers of advisory services that seek assurances that advice given is objective.

Providers covered in the report include Aon, Buck, Capita Employee Solutions, CBIZ Inc., Craford, Deloitte, Exude Inc., EY, Gabriel Roeder Smith, Gallagher Benefit Services, JLT Employee Benefits, Korn Ferry, Lockton Benefit Group, Mercer, Milliman, Morneau Shepell, Punter Southall, PwC, The Segal Group, and Willis Towers Watson.

ALM’s Vanguard research series assesses firms in terms of their relative ability to create impact for their clients. In addition to its overall rating assessments of consulting providers’ depth and breadth of capabilities and best-in-class provider designations, this series includes detailed capability evaluations for each covered provider as well as a qualitative analysis of their consulting organization, approach, and service delivery model.

For more information or to obtain the full version of The ALM Vanguard: Health and Wellness Consulting, visit the ALM Intelligence website: www.alm.com/intelligence/consulting-industry

About ALM Intelligence

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