Insights from the March 2026 Employee Benefits Forum

What are the trends in employee benefits, what can data tell us about human behaviour, and what messages should intermediaries be sharing with their clients right now? Find the answers in this highlights package of the March 2026 Employee Benefits Forum webinar, hosted by Old Mutual Corporate.  
 

Our featured guests were Lindiwe Sebesho, Managing Director of Remchannel,  Izak Odendaal; Investment Strategist at Symmetry; Ishaan Singh, Business Development Manager: Group Risk at Old Mutual Corporate; and Michelle Acton, Chief Customer Officer at Old Mutual Corporate.     
 
Want to stay in the loop with the latest updates, insights, and ideas around retirement, investment, risk, health, and wellbeing on LinkedIn? Follow the Old Mutual Employee Benefits page for practical insights and fresh perspectives. 

Transcript

Insights from the March 2026 Employee Benefits Forum

[00:00:00] Host: 2026 has been a year for expecting the unexpected. Given the ongoing global uncertainty, your role as an intermediary has never been more valuable. Employers are grappling with geopolitical unrest, the tight talent economy and balancing cost with competitiveness. You play a pivotal part in helping employers and their employees navigate this climate. 

[00:00:26] That’s why we held the recent Employee Benefits Forum and webinar. Here is an audio round-up of some of the presentations from the forum. Lindiwe Sebesho, Managing Director of Remchannel, shared findings from the Remchannel Employee Benefits Guide. This features insights from 60 organisations, employing over 400 000 individuals. 

[00:00:52] It shows significant shifts in the benefits landscape – we’ve moved from post-pandemic experimentation to a more structured environment, where employers are trying to balance cost and competitiveness. They are seeking to understand what top talent really values. The research shows that health benefits are ranked number one in importance by employees. 

[00:01:18] This is in line with global trends, where more niche health offerings are coming to the fore. These include fertility programmes, perimenopause and menopause support. Retirement benefits are also ranked highly. The survey further shows that more organisations are moving toward a retirement age of 65. However, few are providing adequate support structures for retiring employees. Lindiwe said 25% of organisations do not provide any assistance with medical aid planning, and 20% of members still receive no pre-retirement counselling.  

[00:02:00] Lindiwe Sebesho: So we are seeing the retirement age creeping upwards, largely experience or skills, um, you know, demands for the people that could serve at different levels, but also allowing for more time to save, uh, for retirement. What was concerning though with this slide is the level of support that is provided by organisations to people that are transitioning. 

[00:02:23] Host: Intermediaries have a pivotal part to play in guiding employers to integrate the benefits and products that will keep employees well and financially secure – during their working tenure and beyond it. And in spotting gaps. For example, some companies may offer outdated golf benefits but have insufficient cancer cover.  Top talents are seeking competitive benefits and attractive salaries. However, Lindiwe shared the current war in the Middle East is causing some wait-and-see wariness when it comes to salary decisions.    

[00:03:00] Lindiwe Sebesho: So we are getting into, again, that cost-constrained environment and we don't know how this will change. So the 5.3 to 5.6% was a bit of good news because obviously inflation, which is the reference point that a lot of organisations base their budget at the three to, um, 3.1% average, meaning that there is a bit of real, um, growth there.  

[00:03:22] Host: The fact that salaries have stayed above inflation shows employers’ commitment to doing right by their people. However, the gap between what employees are demanding and what employers are giving is wide, which makes it even more critical that employers understand what benefits really matter to their people as part of a holistic proposition. Moving from local data to a global outlook, the next speaker has spent the past decade helping investors make sense of markets. Izak Odendaal is an Investment Strategist at Symmetry. He feels that despite recent shocks, the world economy is proving to be fairly resilient.  

[00:04:06] Izak Odendaal: So if you think about the world, it's got these choke points, it's got these bottlenecks. China as monopoly on critical mineral supplies, rare earth mineral supplies, et cetera. So there is this underlying weakness, but at the same token, we've seen an incredible resilience because despite these five shocks, you know, the world economy has, has proven to be a fairly strong year. 

I think the, the consensus among economists was that the outlook is pretty optimistic both internationally and domestically. So that speaks to a world that can adapt to these kind of shocks. It speaks to a flexibility in the way that businesses are run.  

[00:04:40] Host: The conversation then moved to the future of employee benefits group risk. Ishaan Singh is Business Development Manager for Group Risk at Old Mutual Corporate with over 20 years' experience across insurance and reinsurance.  He elaborates on the importance of data in the evolution of group risk. 

[00:05:01] Ishaan Singh: So group risk, it's no longer, it's becoming a core of organisations. Wellbeing strategies. Data enables us to understand workforce risks better, anticipate challenges earlier, and provide value to members long before a claim arises. For employers, this represents a strategic opportunity. Using data to focus investments into more targeted prevention initiatives to maximise workforce health and long-term sustainability.

[00:05:36] Host: Ishaan shared that group risk has become a predict, prevent and rehabilitate model based firmly on data. Crucially, it’s an integral part of keeping a workforce well and a competitive leverage for employers. Diving into Old Mutual’s data, he shared that risk is highly nuanced. For example, 30% of orthopaedic claims are driven by motor-vehicle accidents. Conversely, 62% of psychiatric claims are linked to major depressive disorder and 15% from bipolar disorder. These are frequently driven by lifestyle-related risks and work-related stress. We also see clear variation at an industry level – cancer and psychiatric claims are most prevalent in the financial and insurance sectors, while orthopaedic claims are highest in mining. 

[00:06:32] So, risk is not uniform; it varies materially by industry, by role, and by workforce.  

Data was also a buzzword of the final speaker, Michelle Acton, Chief Customer Officer at Old Mutual Corporate. As a retirement reform thought leader, she played a key role in rolling out the Two-Pot retirement system at Old Mutual. She says that, to date, Old Mutual has paid out over R6 billion across 500 000 claims, across all income levels and ages. Why? We can learn a lot from data that’s hot off the press from Old Mutual’s client research of about thirty-seven thousand members who withdrew from their savings pot.  

[00:07:20] Michelle Acton: You can see there's an overwhelming top three of why people are claiming their money. Number one, it's basic living needs. And when we ask people what are basic living needs to you telling us people are using their savings pot money for food, for water, for transport. So there is day-to-day basic expenses that are being covered by this money. Secondly, they're telling us.. I used it to settle debt. And I think what's important is how we define debt. For a lot of people it was paying my mother back, paying my family member. But I think with a formalised debt of a paying off my personal loan, paying off my credit card as a small part, but it actually, I think there's a lot more funding on informal loans and debt, which still is debt in the world, in people's lives. And then the other one was emergencies. So actually around medical expenses, home repairs, [02:08:00] vehicle repairs. 

[00:08:23] Host: Michelle acknowledged people are struggling but remained focused on the evidence that the Two-pot system is delivering on its design. Members can access their money in moments of pressure, while ensuring most of their retirement savings stay invested. The next step is to apply the same design thinking to participation and contribution levels, so more savings stay in the system.  

Thanks for tuning in to this wrap up of the March 2026 Employee Benefits Forum webinar. In a time of extreme uncertainty, our experts are focused on cutting through the noise, analysing what the markets are telling us, and offering real support to employers and employees.  

[00:09:10] Right now, we need to focus on our adaptability and resilience. Intermediaries’ messages to clients should be rightfully reassuring. The road may feel rocky, but as Izak said, we’re facing small rocks right now, not boulders. We’ve been through chapters of uncertainty before.