Are you reviewing or implementing your employee benefits scheme in 2018? Learn from some of these top tips our clients told us were what made the best employee benefits schemes for them this year.
- Cut scheme administration to a minimum with the right platform that gives you robust workflows that make processing benefit choices quick and easy. Time spent on admin scuppers ongoing scheme improvements to keep staff engaged.
- Know how your employee benefits software is billed from beginning to end of the contract. What’s your monthly costs, and what costs may surface that you haven’t planned for? The best employee benefits schemes use fixed fees and you are always on the latest version of the software.
- Know your workforce and match benefits with each demographic and life stage. For example, millennials may be more interested in gym membership and discounts, whereas families often value holiday buy and sell, childcare vouchers and health cash plans.
- Make sure the scheme reinforces your company values and strategic goals. If family values are at the heart of your culture, deliver on your promises with benefits like enhanced maternity, paternity or shared parental pay, and health and wellbeing benefit choices.
- Bring disparate benefits into a single, integrated platform. Make it easier for staff to consume benefits and they will use more of them, and scheme admin is significantly reduced with simpler workflows and reporting.
- Involve your staff when introducing or refreshing your existing scheme. Staff are more likely to engage if they feel it’s their scheme. Focus groups and surveys are a quick and low-cost means of gathering insight into what benefits and discounts people actually want.
- A strong, ongoing communications plan is vital for high adoption. How will you build excitement and anticipation in the run-up to a launch or relaunch of the scheme? What’s the easiest way for your employees to consume information during the work day? Messaging on pay-slips, posters around the business, desk drops, and the company intranet are often overlooked but really complement common channels such as email.”Roadshows or seminars for selected benefits, explaining what savings employees made and why they should consider it now, worked for us, especially for financial benefits often overlooked because of lack of understanding”
- If you run employee surveys make sure you include employee benefits for ongoing feedback and ideas. It’s a quick source of information and keeps the scheme front of mind.
- If you have peak times of the year, try introducing instant rewards to keep staff motivated. These could be in the form of free food and drink in the offices, massage or haircuts or perhaps vouchers for a night out. They’re low cost and go a long way during busy periods.
- Consider what insight you want from the scheme, and the measures of success you and the executive team require. Make sure the reporting functionality is flexible enough with standard reports and bespoke reporting so you can analyse data and trends, see what works and what doesn’t so you can make changes with confidence.
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