St. Louis, MO – March 26, 2025 – Inclusively, the leading technology platform providing companies with a universal approach to supporting employee needs around workplace benefits, resources and accommodations, today released findings from its Q1 2025 survey. The Hidden Cost Of Workplace Complexity Report polled over 1,000 respondents from Inclusively’s Hire Platform and reveals critical challenges employees face when accessing support to be productive in their job.
Organizations invest millions in benefits that remain underutilized. The current process for requesting accommodations is fragmented and misaligned with employee needs, directly undermining productivity and job satisfaction. When employees must divert valuable time to navigate support systems, their focus shifts away from growth and development—ultimately compromising innovation and competitive advantage.
The data tells a compelling story:
- Resource Alignment Gap: Even among the 48% of respondents who report easy access to company offerings, more than half state that 50% or less of what they find addresses their actual needs. Only 11% say that available resources align with what they actually need.
- Time Burden: More than two-thirds say they spend up to 30 minutes to multiple days trying to find and access resources and benefits.
- HR and Manager Time Suck: Almost half 49% go directly to HR, and another 39% to a manager for help, instead of using technology or systems to get answers, taking time away from critical daily responsibilities.
- Innovation Drag: More than one-third believe system complexity directly hinders the adoption of new technologies like AI.
- Retention Risk: 64% of employees are more likely to stay in their job if their resource needs were met, underscoring the direct link between benefit accessibility and retention.
- The report encourages HR leaders to confront an uncomfortable truth: despite good intentions, the current approach to resource and benefits delivery is failing. But within this challenge lies an opportunity to transform the employee experience and unlock the full potential of workplace resources.
“These findings highlight a critical but often overlooked aspect of workplace effectiveness and personalized employee experience,” said Charlotte Dales, CEO of Inclusively. “When employees struggle to access the very resources designed to support them, it creates a ripple effect that impacts everything from day-to-day productivity to long-term innovation and retention. Our research shows that streamlining resource access directly influences talent retention, productivity, and a company’s capacity for innovation.”
The survey also revealed that the top categories employees wanted to access but couldn’t find were:
- Mental Health Support
- Work-Life Balance Resources
- Financial Benefits
This data comes on the heels of Inclusively’s first patent for its AI chat capabilities to improve workplace support technology. To learn more about Inclusively’s workplace planning platform and job search capabilities and read the report, visit www.inclusively.com.
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