The employee benefits questions I’m asked the most (and my response)

Many of the clients and prospects that we speak to already have a pretty good idea about employee benefits. By the time they have contacted us they will have gone through a process of identifying their objectives, begun to plan a strategy and, more often than not, will have a good idea of the different employee benefits available and how they can be best used to engage and motivate staff.

This means the questions that are put to us tend to be pretty tactical, drawing upon our experience of working with companies of all shapes and sizes across a range of sectors to implement effective employee discounts, concierge, and reward and recognition schemes. Here are some examples:

Q) Shouldn’t I have an app for this?

Technology is often hailed as a silver bullet when it comes to employee engagement but there are pros and cons! The current trend seems to be that you can build an app for everything. It's something I am often asked about and my response is that there can be a danger of 'app overkill'.

The great thing about apps is the fact that they can be used on the move, allow for push notifications to be sent (for example notifying employees of an employee recognition award) and offer HR managers an innovative way of collecting and using data.

There are even apps that will utilise an employee's location to alert them of possible employee discounts and offers at nearby stores. In reality, many employees might view this use of their personal data as an infringement of their privacy.

We’ve also learned that a lot of this can be achieved at much lower cost by using things such as online discount portals. There's also something to be said about not overwhelming employees with loads of different platforms. Often simplest is best.

Q) How much of my HR budget should I dedicate to reward and recognition?

This depends on the size of your company and what you want to achieve, however, in our experience the industry average is between 1% and 2% of payroll. What’s important to remember is that there are many recognition initiatives that won’t cost you much. These can include simply saying thank you, giving your employees learning and development opportunities (in house) or even letting them have a sleep in.

Q) How can I use employee benefits to get one up on my competition?

I would argue that organisations should be paying more attention to their employees than their competitors. Of course, employee benefits are an effective of attracting and retaining talent but really the questions you should be asking are: what are the different demographics, cultures and motivations within my organisation? Which schemes and benefits are getting the most engagement? You’d be surprised at how much these can differ from company to company.

Q) How can I get managers on board with employee recognition?

This is something that many organisations struggle with and, without management buy-in, it can be difficult to create a genuine recognition culture. My advice is to involve managers from the outset. Once you’ve decided you want to implement a recognition scheme, host briefings to ensure they are on board, make it clear how it benefits them and then involve them in the process. It’s relatively common now for managers to be actively involved in the branding and messaging behind a reward and recognition scheme and this is an effective way of engaging them.