Attracting and retaining talent is the top objective for four in five (82%) global benefits professionals, according to research by Thomsons Online Benefits.
The latest Global Employee Benefits Watch, which surveys 497 benefits professionals responsible for 4,009,500 employees globally, also found that over 66% of global employers have now adopted human capital management (HCM) in one or more countries, and more than 70% have adopted benefits management software in some countries.
Chris Bruce (pictured), managing director and founder of Thomsons Online Benefits, said: “Business leaders are waking up to the potential of benefits as a key enabler of people and business strategy.”
However, only 10% of employers have implemented HCM software across all countries, and just 4% have rolled out benefits management software in all locations.
Bruce said: “At present benefits professionals are too focused on the operational elements of their role to really unleash the potential of benefits analytics to provide the truly tailored schemes desired by today’s employees.”
The survey also found that approximately a third of global employers offer employees access to their scheme from their mobile device in one or more locations, but that only around 5% have implemented this in all countries.
Over a third of those organisations that have implemented mobile access in all countries receive employee engagement scores above 80%, as opposed to just over a fifth of organisations that have implemented mobile access in just some countries.
“Benefits professionals are reaching a tipping point,” Bruce continued. “Evolutions in technology are affording benefits teams unprecedented insight into their workforce and the means to create and deliver schemes with a real strategic impact.
“The question now is how quickly benefits teams will embrace data analytics to grasp this opportunity and really prove the value of benefits at the boardroom table.”