Article
What is Workday Total Benefits? A guide to Workday's new benefits solution
What is Workday Total Benefits?
Employee benefits have become increasingly complex for both employers and employees. HR teams are often managing multiple vendors, regulatory requirements, employee questions, enrolment cycles, and disconnected systems, making benefits administration more time-consuming and costly than it should be.
Workday Total Benefits, is Workday’s latest AI solution designed to connect employee benefits into one experience. Rather than relying on fragmented systems and provider portals, employees gain a more seamless way to access and engage with their benefits. Organizations benefit from greater automation, improved connectivity and reduced administrative complexity across their benefits programmes.
What does Workday Total Benefits include?
Workday Total Benefits combinesfour capabilities designed to support both employees and benefits teams.
Workday Wellness
Organizations can streamline benefits administration by connecting providers directly to Workday, manage eligibility, enrolment, provider connectivity, automated workflows, reporting, and other core benefits administration activities within a modern platform.
Benefits Guidance Agent
Employees receive guided support to help them understand and select benefits, navigate life events, manage dependants and beneficiaries, and make more informed decisions about their coverage.
Life and Money Solutions
Additional services help support employee financial wellbeing through capabilities such as earned wage access, payroll-linked payments, verification services, and tax-related solutions.
Benefits Administration Services
Organizations can access specialised support through partners like Strada for areas such as in tenant administration, partner management, compliance reporting, application support, integration management, and employee assistance.
What are the 7 advantages of Workday Total Benefits for organizations and employee management
By connecting benefits, payroll, and HR processes more closely, organizations can:
- Simplify benefits administration ecosystem
- Increase adoption and plan utilization
- Improve employee self-service experiences
- Reduce manual effort and operational complexity
- Gain better workforce and benefits insights
- Improve compliance and governance
- Deliver a more connected employee experience
The result is a benefits model that is easier to manage for employers and easier to navigate for employees.
What is required to adopt Workday Total Benefits?
To take advantage of Workday Total Benefits, organizations will need Workday Human Capital Management (HCM) as the foundational platform, which includes the core Workday Benefits functionality.
At the heart of Workday Total Benefits is, Workday Wellness, an AI solution that provides visibility benefit adoption, perfomance and cost. ITprovides many of the connected benefits capabilities included within the offering. Customers looking to leverage Workday Agents, including benefits-related agent functionality, will also require Workday Flex Credits. For organizations seeking outsourced benefits administration services, Workday works with strategic partners such as Strada, which can provide deployment, benefits administration, application management and employee support services.
When is Workday Total Benefits available?
Workday Wellness is now available for Workday customers in the U.S with agent capabilities to follow in October 2027. Workday customers can leverage Benefit Administration services through Strada today. Life and Money solutions are also generally available with additional integrations to be available before the end of the year (includes forward looking statements where safe harbour applies).
Is Workday Benefits Cloud Connect being replaced?
Customer will begin to migrate from the Workday Benefits Cloud Connect solution to Workday Wellness. Strada is Workday Wellness certified deployment partner and can support organizations looking to make the transition.
The future of managing benefits administration complexity
As benefits administration becomes more integrated with enterprise AI strategy, organizations are looking for ways to connect technology, operations, and employee experiences within a single model. Workday Total Benefits represents a move in that direction, combining benefits technology, intelligent employee support, wellness solutions, and operational services to help simplify benefits delivery. By combining Workday's technology with Strada's benefits administration expertise, employers can simplify operations, improve employee support, connect HR and payroll processes, and get more value from their benefits investment, all within a more unified workforce ecosystem.
