Nearly one in five companies leave benefits take-up to employees to initiate themselves instead of actively encouraging staff to use them.
And only around half of employers believe their staff have a good understanding of the full range of benefits they provide.
The findings come in two sets of research which highlight the potential waste of time and resources in investing in benefits at all if utilisation is not encouraged.
The first was initiated by GRiD, the industry body for the group risk sector, whose spokesperson, Katharine Moxham, emphasised the importance of getting the right benefits for staff is a huge investment for any company,
Moxham: strike while the iron’s hot
“It does not make any sense that a fifth of employers seem to be letting them gather dust on a shelf, metaphorically speaking,” she said. “Making practical and effective use of employee benefits needs to be a priority for all businesses.”
Employee benefits are often used as a point of differentiation to attract staff during recruitment. However, GRiD warns that employees can be let down if that enthusiasm is not extended past the recruitment process to support retention. Employers need to be consistent, and where employee benefits play an important part in the recruitment process, that attention to them needs to be continued.
Katharine Moxham continued: “In the event of budget constraints, any employee benefit that has low take-up rates is at risk of being dropped, which is such a loss to employees but also to HR teams who will have worked hard to set out the case for the benefit in the first place, as well as selecting the right provider.
Encouraging the take-up of employee benefits really is a virtuous circle as employees who have a positive experience will also start to communicate the advantages to colleagues too
“Recruits are often most open to hearing about employee benefits programmes so employers should strike while the iron is hot with this group. However, employers wishing to improve utilisation may need to regularly revise their approach amongst longer standing employees to get traction.
“Encouraging the take-up of employee benefits really is a virtuous circle as employees who have a positive experience will also start to communicate the advantages to colleagues too. While employee-to-employee communication is a vital part of the utilisation jigsaw, employers should never become complacent and should always have a strategy in place to encourage take-up.”
Clark: benefits are effectively wasted
Similar research published by Towergate Employee Benefits shows that only around half of employers believe their staff have a good understanding of the full range of benefits they provide.
One of the reasons is that communicating health and wellbeing support is becoming more difficult due to hybrid working and many employers believe that making communications relevant to a diverse workforce is more complicated:
Debra Clark, head of wellbeing says: “Benefits are effectively wasted if they are not communicated, and it is clear from our research that employers need some help in doing so, due to the shift in work settings and diverse employee profiles.”
Although the research shows that employers are finding it harder to communicate health and wellbeing support well, the figures do also reveal that they are moving with the times and adapting their benefit communication to meet changing needs, such as the frequency of communications, which has has increased:
Debra Clark added: “There are lots of ways for employers to communicate their full range of health and wellbeing support. Particularly with the emergence of digital platforms, there are now many communications options which can be a great way to help a benefits package provide value for money and a return on investment.”
