For the last 30 years, SHRM and MetLife have separately asked employers and employees the same hard questions about benefits. This year, for the first time, they're putting their findings side by side.
MetLife's 24th Annual Employee Benefit Trends Study finds that only 38% of employees consider themselves holistically healthy - but those who feel connected at work are three times more likely to thrive. SHRM's own 2026 Benefits Trends data shows a parallel problem from the employer side: many organizations aren't struggling to offer more benefits, they're struggling to help employees understand and use the ones they already have.
Join SHRM President & CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. for the 4th Annual SHRM Benefits Trends Virtual Retreat, in an exclusive conversation with Dr. Alex Alonso, SHRM's Chief Data & Insights Officer, and Todd Katz, MetLife's Head of U.S. Group Benefits. Together, they'll walk through what each organization's research shows and what it means for HR leaders heading into open enrollment.
Attendees will learn:
- What SHRM's and MetLife's 2026 benefits research each found
- How leading employers are managing rising healthcare costs, GLP-1 coverage, and personalization without adding to employee confusion
- What AI's growing role in benefits navigation means for HR teams right now
- Practical, data-backed steps to prepare benefits strategy and communication for open enrollment
Meet the Presenters
-
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr., SHRM-SCP, is President and Chief Executive Officer of SHRM. With nearly 340,000 members in 180 countries, SHRM impacts the lives of more than 362 million workers and their families globally.
As a global leader on the future of employment, culture, and leadership, Mr. Taylor is a sought-after voice on all matters affecting work, workers, and the workplace. Recognized as one of the “300 Most Influential Executives in Corporate America” for 2024 by Savoy Magazine, on the “Virginia 500: Power List” by Virginia Business, and as one of the “Most Influential People Shaping Public Policy” in our nation’s capital by Washingtonian Magazine, Mr. Taylor is frequently asked to testify before Congress on critical workforce issues and authors the weekly USA Today column, "Ask HR."
Mr. Taylor's career spans more than 20 years as a lawyer, human resources executive, and CEO in both the not-for-profit and for-profit spaces. He has held senior and chief executive roles at IAC/InteractiveCorp, Viacom's Paramount Pictures, Blockbuster Entertainment Group, the McGuireWoods law firm, and Compass Group USA. Most recently, Mr. Taylor was President and Chief Executive Officer of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
He is the author of the national bestseller, RESET: A Leader’s Guide to Work in an Age of Upheaval, which immediately upon its release in September 2021, was in the top three of The Wall Street Journal’s list of best-selling hardcover business books.
Mr. Taylor is a member of the United Way Worldwide Board of Trustees and serves on the corporate boards of XPO Logistics (NYSE: XPO), Flores HR, and Guild Education. He previously served on the White House American Workforce Policy Advisory Board and as chairman of the President's Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities during the Trump Administration.
Women Business Collaborative (WBC) named Mr. Taylor as one of its 2023 Trailblazers in Gender Equity and Diversity for his work to achieve equal position, pay, and power for all women in business. In 2020, he received the Distinguished Executive of the Year Award from the Academy of Management, and he was named 2021 ALA Professional Society CEO of the Year by CEO Update.
He is a Fellow of the National Academy of Human Resources and is licensed to practice law in Florida, Illinois, and Washington, D.C.
-
Alex Alonso
Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SHRM-SCP serves as SHRM’s Chief Knowledge Officer, leading the organization’s intelligence, insights, and innovation divisions. As leader of SHRM’s Thought Leadership & Business Intelligence operations, his total career portfolio has been based upon practical thought leadership designed to make better workplaces and grow revenue across industry. Alonso’s thought leadership has been featured in numerous media outlets including USA Today, NBC News, BBC, CNN, and more. He has served as a member of several speakers bureaus with more than 400 speaking engagements on human capital topics and driving productivity over the last decade.
His works have been acknowledged for their contributions to real-world human capital issues. This includes being recognized with the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP’s) 2007 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace for developing the federal standard for learning and development of healthcare providers; a 2009 Presidential Citation for Innovative Practice by the American Psychological Association for designing performance management systems; and the 2013 SIOP Distinguished Early Career Contributions for Practice Award for extensive applied research on the link between human resource management and organizational sustainability.
Throughout his career, Alonso has published works in peer-reviewed journals, authored several chapters on community-based change initiatives in workforce readiness, and authored books such as The Price of Pettiness, Talking Taboo: Making the Most of Polarizing Topics, and Defining HR Success: A Guide to the SHRM Competency Model in Practice. He has served on several advisory boards including The Secretary of Defense’s Defense Business Board (DBB) and the Zeal Capital Investor Advisory board. He is a Fellow of SIOP, Division 14, of the American Psychological Association.
-
Todd B. Katz
Todd B. Katz is the Executive Vice President for MetLife’s $24+ billion U.S. Group Benefits business, which serves over 55,000 customers and covers more than 50 million employees and family members, including 90+ of the top 100 Fortune 500® companies and over 85% of the Fortune 500® companies.
Over the course of his more than 35-year career with MetLife, Katz has been focused on the Group Benefits business. He began his career in sales and sales leadership before transitioning to management positions of increasing responsibility within the Group Benefits organization.
Katz serves on multiple boards internal and external to MetLife with a focus on the life insurance and group benefits industry. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics from Brandeis University.
SHRM certification has approved this webinar for 1 PDC toward SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP recertification. A program code will be provided at the end of the webinar.