Maximising the commercial returns from your employee benefits
We all need our people to perform and be engaged with the organisation – and to remain competitive and successful in today’s business and economic environment, it’s a given. To establish positive employee engagement in their organisation more and more employers are utilising benefits to support employee performance and motivation.
A new white paper from Accor Services (produced in association with its specialist online benefits company Motivano) considers the value of employee benefits when it comes to engagement and reviews how companies can get best value from them. In a preview to this report, Alistair Denton, UK managing director of Motivano, discusses why benefits are so important today and considers the payback organisations that invest in their people and their benefits can expect to see.
Organisations today are operating in a climate that means they need to make the most of the talent, resources and opportunities available to them. Yet the credit crunch and recession have tempted some employers to ‘play it safe’ when it comes to investing in their people; many are reluctant to acknowledge the potential there is to easily and effectively engage and support their people in these testing times.
Despite this, the pursuit of employee engagement continues to move up the corporate agenda. The push to secure the intellectual, emotional and physical commitment of individuals and the workforce as a whole is an objective that many businesses are realising they cannot afford to ignore. And when it comes to achieving employee engagement, the role of rewards and benefits cannot be underestimated.
A survey conducted last year by Motivano’s parent company, Accor Services, confirms this link. Although one in four employers surveyed rated benefits as a key driver in engaging employees, only 20% of employees reported they fully understood the value of the benefits offered by their employer and one third had no understanding of this value. This is certainly a call to action for employers, particularly when one considers that employees’ reported satisfaction with benefits; in the Accor Services’ study, only 25% of employees thought their benefits were competitive and 36% thought they were not competitive.
Of course, the reasons why an organisation decides to implement or update its employee benefits offering will vary depending on a range of factors, including the type of business, its size, the nature of its workforce, its organisational culture and the sector it operates in. As such, the return each employer and their employees can expect to see from their investment in benefits and reward will be unique, although it is likely to include all or some of the following.
- Cost savings – employer savings can be made through employer National Insurance contributions (via salary sacrifice and flexible benefits savings) which are applicable to selected benefits including childcare vouchers and cycle to work schemes.
- Realising best value – enabling employees to select their own benefits (through flexible or voluntary programmes) empowers them to get the best value from the available products and solutions.
- Control of benefits budgets – introducing voluntary benefits, for example, can protect employers against future rises in benefits costs that will be met by the employee rather than the employer. And by working with an experienced benefits provider, employers can access their market knowledge to get the best price and value for their benefits.
- Recruitment and retention – benefits can have a positive impact on recruitment and retention, supporting the employer brand and enticing individuals to want to work with you.
- Consumer brand implications – contented employees will contribute to improved levels of customer service which in turn, can positively influence your consumer brand.
- Streamlining reward and benefits offerings – employers can make their benefits offering more cost effective by reviewing and streamlining what’s currently on offer. By stripping out the ‘dead wood’, you will give new or revitalised benefits an opportunity to thrive.
- Employee engagement, motivation and performance – maximising the perceived and actual value of benefits will help employees feel valued and therefore more engaged.
When it comes to benefits and achieving positive employee engagement, now really is the time to take action. Whether you’re preparing your business for the arrival of those elusive ‘green shoots’, are intent on weathering the storm, are looking to support the ‘survivors’ of cuts and redundancies in your business or are facing the economic and business challenges head on, you really need to take action.
