For small and medium-sized business owners, strong employee benefits packages can effectively attract and keep skilled workers. Cost shouldn’t be a barrier, as there are many affordable benefits out there. SMEs have the ability to create tailored packages that meet the unique needs of their staff, fostering a high-performance, enjoyable, and productive work environment.
A recent survey carried out by Aon Hewitt into trends for employee benefits found some interesting insights into various UK business approaches.
Of those surveyed, the majority of employers were focusing on their preparations for auto-enrollment. Additionally, when it came to pension schemes and their participation, defined-contribution schemes had grown greatly since 2012.
Flexible Benefits
The results also showed the flexible benefits programmes are still a key factor for many businesses, and they are continuing to deliver excellent levels of staff satisfaction, which is crucial for employee engagement and the business’s bottom line.
In bigger organisations, flexible packages are still leading the way and bringing the biggest results. Around 50pc of these large employers are using flexible schemes, and the approach is now considered to be mature, prevalent and best practice.
In fact, flexible benefits – often referred to as ‘flex’ – are a growth area across all business segments. In 2011, only 20pc of respondents were offering flexible benefits schemes, but by 2012 the figure had rose to 52pc. This year’s results showed that 44pc of business respondents with staff of 500 or more offered flex, and an additional 44pc of businesses were planning to implement such schemes within three years.
Flexible benefits schemes are also increasing in popularity amongst SMEs with workforces of fewer than 500 staff, and predictions suggest that rapid growth will continue. These benefits include things such as the ability to buy and sell additional holidays, to make increased pension contributions, to buy shares in the employer’s business, to buy tax-efficient childcare vouchers, computers or other items, to receive special offers on local products and services and to work from home or agree flexible working arrangements. Private healthcare options are also popular, as well as various insurance packages and benefits for employees’ families.
Making Flex a Success
Respondents agreed that communication has a vital role to play in the success of these schemes, and yet around 20pc of businesses still fail to issue personalised communications to their staff. Naturally, there is a strong level of interest in measuring ROI on schemes’ effectiveness and measurables such as health, attendance and attrition, but employers largely feel less confident that they can yet gather the right data to do this effectively.
There was also a sense that some employers are missing out on chances to cut the costs associated with running such schemes, which included a failure on many employers’ parts to take up value-add offers from insurers to cut risk-benefit premiums.