New Empathy research shows bereavement benefits drive retention, engagement and loyalty
Half of employees globally have experienced a significant life disruption in the past two years. Nearly half expect their employers to show up meaningfully when that happens. Most say their employers do not. That gap is no longer a soft issue, it’s a workforce strategy problem with measurable consequences for retention, engagement, and organizational resilience.
That is the headline finding of Empathy's 2026 Workplace Benefits Report, titled The Grief Tax — the company's fifth annual research publication, developed in partnership with Censuswide. The report surveyed 4,001 employees and 1,502 employers across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom between December 8 and 18, 2025, making it one of the more comprehensive looks at how workplace benefits are — and are not — meeting employee needs at moments of major life disruption.
The alignment gap HR leaders need to close
The report's most striking finding for HR directors is not about bereavement specifically. It is about perception. Sixty percent of employers believe their benefits are only somewhat or not at all aligned with actual employee needs. Fifty-two percent of employees agree. Investment in benefits is rising — 80 percent of employers expect their overall benefits budget to increase from 2025 to 2026 — but confidence that those benefits are landing where they matter is surprisingly low on both sides of the table.
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More telling is where the misalignment concentrates. C-suite executives are 1.5 times more likely than middle managers to report full alignment between their benefits offering and employee needs. More than 64 percent of senior and middle managers — the people closest to the workforce — say benefits are only somewhat aligned. The report describes this as a perception gap: leaders closer to strategy see intent and investment; managers closer to employees see friction, confusion, and unmet needs.
This is actionable intelligence for HR leaders. The challenge is not primarily one of budget. Employers are already increasing spend. The challenge is design, communication, and culture — ensuring that benefits address the moments that matter most, that employees know how to access them, and that the organizational culture makes it safe to do so. The report found that 27 percent of employees struggle to understand what their benefits include, 23 percent cite complicated access processes, and one in four Gen Z and Millennial employees say fear of stigma prevents them from using available support.
Bereavement: the category with the clearest mandate
Within the broader alignment challenge, bereavement and grief support stands out as the area of sharpest convergence between employer intent and employee need. Ninety-five percent of employees say bereavement-related benefits are valuable. Eighty-four percent of employers plan to expand them in 2026. Among C-suite leaders, that figure rises to 91 percent. One in five employers already identifies bereavement and grief support as among the biggest unmet needs in their current offering.
Ron Gura, co-founder and chief executive officer of Empathy, New York, frames bereavement as the life transition that benefits have been slowest to address — despite being the only one with a 100 percent probability of affecting every employee.
"The life transition that has been least addressed is the single one that doesn't skip any of us," Gura said in an interview with Insurance Business Benefits US. "The fact of losing a loved one is a 100 percent probability event."
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He places bereavement on the same trajectory as maternity leave, which left the catch-all employee assistance program (EAP) framework a decade ago to become a dedicated support category in its own right — with extended leave policies, specialized return-to-work programs, and standalone platforms. Bereavement, he argues, is following the same path.
The practical scope of what that support needs to cover is broader than most HR policies currently acknowledge. Empathy's platform addresses probate, estate settlement, funeral planning, account deactivation, grief counseling, and document management — delivered through an app, with 24/7 access to human support staff. The research quantifies why: serving as an executor or next of kin averages 500 hours of administrative work and approximately 18 months to complete — a second job layered on top of grief, a regular workload, and caregiving responsibilities.
Jay Kaduson, chief executive officer of Workplace Solutions at Voya Financial, New York, puts the employer imperative plainly in the report.
"Life insurance has long played a critical role at moments of loss, but the future of benefits lies in extending care beyond a single point in time," Kaduson said. "By including funeral and estate planning and bereavement support in their benefits package, employers are able to demonstrate a deep, tangible commitment to caring for their people before, during and after life's hardest moments."
What the data tells HR leaders about ROI
The business case for stronger life-event support is no longer theoretical. The Empathy report quantifies what employees say they would do differently if their employer provided meaningful support during a major life disruption: 82 percent say they would feel their employer truly cares; 81 percent say they would be more likely to stay; 79 percent would recommend their employer to others; and 78 percent report it would boost their motivation and engagement.
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Those numbers speak directly to the metrics HR leaders are accountable for — attrition, employer brand, and workforce productivity. The report notes that replacement costs for a departing employee range from 50 to 200 percent of annual salary, making retention-focused benefits investments measurably cost-effective even before accounting for the productivity losses associated with grief-related presenteeism and absenteeism.
Thirty percent of employers in the survey identify supporting employees during major life events as a top organizational challenge for 2026 — ranking it alongside rising healthcare costs and employee burnout.
For anyone building their benefits strategy, the Empathy findings suggest that life-event support is shifting from a differentiator to a baseline expectation, particularly among younger workers. Fifty-three percent of Gen Z employees expect formal employer responsibility for support during major life disruptions — two to three times more likely than Baby Boomers and Gen X to hold that expectation.
The report concludes with a framing that cuts to the organizational question HR leaders are being asked to answer: "The future of workplace benefits is not about offering more. It is about building systems that enable organizations to care for their people and navigate challenges, together."
For HR directors who have spent the past decade expanding benefits menus, that reframe — from breadth to depth, from volume to impact at the moments that matter — may be the most important signal in the 2026 data.
