The strategic shifts changing benefits and leave management
Your 2025 snapshot of trends, tech and transformations redefining the modern workforce
December 17, 2025
2025 redefined what it means to support a modern workforce. We saw employers make bold moves toward smarter benefits, more human-centered leave and tech that actually works for HR. Together, these shifts signaled a new era: solutions built for real employee needs and designed to keep organizations ahead.
Top 3 reasons
Musculoskeletal and injury led disability claims, followed by pregnancy and behavioral health.1
9-day norm
Employees now average nine days to care for a family member when taking caregiver leave.1
#1 leave challenge
Employers’ biggest compliance hurdle in 2025 was navigating state and local leave laws.2
Workforce majority
Gen Z and Millennials now exceed 50% of employees, shaping benefits and workplace expectations.3
Most wanted
Medical, dental, vision and paid family medical leave topped employees' most desired benefits this year.4
Key ADA request
Remote work was the top ADA accommodation, with requests rising 112% compared with last year.1
A workforce in transition
Longer leaves, smarter returns
- Short term disability leaves stretched 2.5 days longer than in 2023.1
- Behavioral health absences hit a new high — averaging 72.6 days, up 3.6 days in the last two years.1
- Musculoskeletal like back or other injury recoveries took an extra 3.3 days on average.1
Bottom line: Employees are taking the time they need to heal before coming back to work, making smart return-to-work strategies matter more than ever.
The care crunch is real
More than 60% of employees are now caregivers,5 and in 2025, they took an average of nine days for caregiving reasons.1
Workers from Gen X and Millennial generations are part of the “sandwich generation” and could be supporting both children and aging parents. For this group, caregiving isn’t just a personal responsibility but a professional balancing act.
Between medical appointments and elder care coordination, these individuals are managing full-time jobs on top of full-time care. 47% of employees said they’d switch jobs for better caregiving support6 — making flexible schedules and intermittent/extended leave options some of the new essentials shaping work-life balance.
Benefits got smarter and employees leaned in
Smarter, tech-enabled benefits kept employees engaged this year. And even with costs climbing, employees saw value and choice as reasons to enroll in more benefits. Participation grew with 33% of employees saying expanded no-cost benefits pulled them in,7 while 31% opted in because they wanted choices that felt more tailored.7
Navigating the new world of work: benefits, compliance and complexity
Four generations, one workplace and a variety of benefit expectations
Older workers (Gen X and Baby Boomers) place the highest value into core benefits like medical, PTO and retirement.7
Younger employees (Gen Z and Millennials) want more flexible, modern perks that meet their real-life needs.7
Gen Z and Millennials already make up half of today’s workforce — a share that will surge to two-thirds by 2031.3 As they take the lead, the definition of “essential benefits” is getting rewritten in real time.
HR’s biggest question: Do we need a law degree for this?
Looking back, 2025 often felt like the year HR needed a legal degree just to keep up. Between FMLA, PFML, ADA and a growing patchwork of state and local mandates, leave management shifted from people operations to full-on regulatory navigation. It’s no surprise that 79% of employers said state and local leave laws were their top challenge2 this year. ADA telecommuting requests also continued their upward climb, rising by 112% from 2024 to 2025.1
We also saw a cross-generational surge in reasons for leave. Gen Z took the lead, with 35% reporting they’ve taken a leave already, the highest of any generation.7 Mid-career Millennials stood out in behavioral health-related leave, with most claimants coming in around age 40.1 And Gen X went on the most leave for injury and musculoskeletal reasons, with claims averaging age 51.1
The cost of complexity
As regulations piled up and employee needs continued to diversify, many organizations looked to third-party support to help lighten the load and bring some clarity, compliance and compassion back to managing employee absences.
Top reasons employers turned to outsourcing in 2025:2
- Lighter admin burden (57%)
- Cost effectiveness (57%)
- Better integration across other benefits (55%)
How employers took a people-first leave approach in 2025
Empathy for life’s biggest moments
Trusted presence during every absence
Support for smoother, caring returns
The new playbook for leave programs
From 2024 to 2025, fewer employers named retention as the driving purpose of their leave programs, with interest dropping from 52% to 38%.2 At the same time, priorities around productivity and employee wellbeing grew. The focus on keeping workers healthy rose from 44% to 50%,2 and the push to minimize disruptions to productivity jumped from 30% to 44%.2
These shifts show that leave programs aren’t just policies anymore but a lens into the future of the employee experience, shaping how employers support health, manage absences and drive productivity across the workforce.
Most-loved 2025 tools
The most-clicked now powering another year
Subscribe to HR Trends
Stay ahead with expert-driven insights, in-depth analysis and commentary from top HR minds and industry leaders.
1 Unum internal data, 2025.
2 Unum Market View, The Rapidly Evolving Leave Landscape, 2025.
3 LIMRA, Harnessing Growth in Workforce Benefits: The Next Horizon 2025 Workforce Benefits Study.
4 LIMRA, Workforce Benefits Study, 2025.
5 Bank of America, 2025 Workplace Benefits Report.
6 SHRM, Care and Careers: Navigating Caregiving and Work Responsibilities, 2025.
7 Unum Market View, Benefits Perceptions of Today’s Workforce, 2025.