How to Implement an Employee Benefits Strategy

December 18, 2019

When your employees are happy, they tend to be more engaged, which in turn, boosts company productivity. In addition, engaged and motivated employees can also have a positive effect on your recruitment strategy, with brand ambassadors doing wonderful things for your brand and company reputation.

In summary, offering relevant employee benefits packages can improve your business's bottom line by attracting new talent, engaging your workforce and boosting productivity. Once you've decided you want to implement an employee benefits strategy into your business, you might find yourself wondering where to begin:

Stage One: Implementation

Selecting which benefits you should offer can be one of the most difficult factors of implementation.

Employee benefits technology has revolutionised this through online portals or platforms which track benefits usage while communicating efficiently to your workforce.

If your business has budgetary constraints, offering voluntary benefits which are personalised and flexible may appeal to the many needs of a diverse team. Voluntary benefits are paid completely or mostly through your employee's salaries, so can offer an element of flexibility and choice at low cost or no cost to the employer.

To help promote the voluntary benefits, the installation of an online platform such as Smart Hive can help as it shows your employees the range of potential benefits which are available. Employees can use the platform to request information or in some cases, take up the benefits they are interested in.

As an employer, you may know what benefits excite your workforce and as such, can implement them into your offering. For example, if many of your workforce cycle to work, you can offer a cycle to work benefit. If you are unsure, we can help analyse your employee demographic and offer suggestions supported by recent academic research.

Research has shown that different generations may have different benefit preferences. You may find that younger generations prefer more immediate benefits such as retail discounts or health cash plans whereas older generations may prefer pensions or private health insurance. You can then create an employee benefit strategy that has maximum impact. Find out more about what employees want from their benefits schemes.

Stage Two: Communication

Educating your employees on the types of benefits you are offering or have available is imperative as part of your employee benefits strategy. If your employees don't know or understand the benefits of the different schemes you are offering, they are not going to take them up.

Communicate with your employees to let them know about the benefits you are offering. You can do this through noticeboards, meetings, leaflets or our very own Smart Hive, which shows employees exactly what employee benefits your business offers.

Communication must be a two-way street. Although you are telling your employees about your benefits strategy and how to get involved, it's vital that you listen to feedback. Employee opinion surveys are an excellent way to measure the level of understanding and satisfaction that your employees have about the benefits strategy you have in place.

Stage Three: Update & Develop

The employee benefits landscape is constantly updating, with new trends emerging every year. Current trends in employee wellbeing you should know about include personalised benefits, financial wellbeing, and the importance of data. Although these factors will remain important in the future, these trends are likely to shift as new emerging movements and patterns enter the industry every year.

Stay ahead of the curve and regularly adjust and update your employee benefits strategy. You should always revolutionise your offering to see what new trends are important. Your workforce may have changed from when you first implemented your benefits, so make sure you stay on top of their needs. You can do this by analysing your take-up from Smart Hive and seeing what benefits are being used and when. Find out more in the analysis and development of employee benefits.

Providing adequate benefits for your employees is crucial to not only recruitment but is also engaging and motivating your workforce. Adopting a digital approach for your employee benefits could be a cost-effective approach given the level of smartphone ownership in the UK. To find out more about implementing and communicating an employee benefits scheme for your workforce, call us on 0330 333 9100.

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