Is it Time to Refresh Your Benefits?

It is beneficial for businesses to have a regular plan of when new benefits should be introduced throughout the year. Align campaigns to key dates such as Easter, Christmas and the summer holidays. This will ensure the maximum benefit and engagement of a scheme. There should also be a consideration for the diversity of communication methods to meet the demographics of the ever-changing workforce.

In the world of digitisation and more millennials entering into the workforce, benefit changes should be regular and through a range of methods to ensure the best connection with your workforce. This could be done through video, newsletters, FAOs, and social media.

Communication is critical to continued staff engagement and it is important to be very clear about how the employees will ‘benefit’ from the benefits. There is no point continually reviewing your benefits programme if your current workforce is unaware of any new and exciting changes to the programme.

Often, some very simple changes can have a significant impact on staff morale. Throughout the time a single member of staff is with your business, significant changes can occur in their personal life. Such as marriage, children, or health issues. All of which may impact the value or requirements that employees might look for in a benefits scheme.

Line managers should be trained to look out for any new pain points or difficulties that their team may be facing, and discuss the relevant benefits that could help with this accordingly. By responding to staff needs in this way, and ensuring a personalised and individual approach is taken, it can have a significant impact on morale, engagement, and productivity.

It is important to monitor market developments when deciding what type of benefits to introduce to your business. The marketplace is ever-changing and new and exciting market tools can change the way employers engage with employees. As a result, companies should continually monitor changes to remain current. Not only for the benefits that they offer, but in the way those benefits can be communicated and made available to staff.

The key benefits that you should be offering

Although this really depends on the industry of the business and demographics, as a minimum, you should aim to offer competitive holiday and pension allowance, as this is critical and often considered essential by the talent on the market. Other benefits that are looked for in businesses are:

• Flexible/dynamic working policies
• Opportunities for professional development, such as support towards study
• Performance related bonuses
• Healthcare
• Sickness leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Wellbeing benefits
• Flexible benefits
• Pensions