Does your company offer any employee benefit schemes? Companies that do are gaining a competitive edge over those that don’t, as employee benefits are a key tool for attracting and retaining top talent. Article by by Richard Ellis, Connected Benefits.
That said we know that implementing an employee benefit scheme is not always straightforward. You’ll need to get executive sponsorship for your recruitment and retention strategies; and most crucially buy in from employees and candidates. Here we share common friction points and outline ways to make implementing an employee benefit scheme as smooth as possible.
A common friction point many HR managers meet is the assumption that employee benefit schemes will cost the company money. Employee benefits can involve an out of pocket cost, for example if your company offers life insurance for employees, however there are many employee benefit schemes that are zero cost to the employer. Salary sacrifice schemes are a good example. They provide employees with cost savings on a range of goods and services without the employer incurring any costs at all. Instead, monthly payments are deducted from the employee’s salary for goods that they obtain as part of the scheme.
Running an employee rewards scheme internally can take time and resources depending on the nature of the scheme. Fortunately, there are many 3rd party providers who can run the scheme for your company without adding to your admin burden. Naturally there will be some minor set up processes involved at the start, but once in place many employee benefit schemes run without any significant admin tasks. Remember too that the whole point of offering employee benefits is to help with recruitment, retention and employee engagement, any additional admin can be offset against the cost of recruitment and employee churn.
Perhaps the most common mistake companies make when offering employee benefits is to provide the wrong ones. Before implementing any scheme it is important to understand what benefits and rewards your employees or prospective candidates will engage with. There is no one size fits all solution. Demographics will play a part such as age, gender, marital status, interests etc.; what appeals to a Millennial at the start of their career may not appeal to a Baby Boomer on the cusp of retiring. It’s a good idea to poll your staff and get input from the start, give them the benefits they want and you’ll get buy in when the scheme is implemented.
Another common issue is that of communication. Employee benefit schemes need to be promoted proactively to employees to get take up. You’ll need to remind employees regularly about the benefits available, and choose the best way to communicate with them. One of the advantages of using a 3rd party provider is that they can help you do this by providing content to share with employees.
Having clear objectives for the scheme and setting targets is vital if you want to measure success. First off, you’ll need to define what those objectives are e.g.: improve recruitment outcomes, reduce employee churn, increase employee engagement etc. Then you’ll need a benchmark before introducing the scheme. When selecting an employee benefit scheme, your objectives will help you to identify right scheme. Talk to providers about their schemes and how they have been implementing in other companies, particularly those with a similar culture to yours, and the same objectives. Their experience will help you decide whether a specific scheme is a good fit for your company.
