Reward leaders share five top learnings on building a flexible benefits scheme
Just under half of HR and reward leaders (45%) say employees are demanding more flexibility and personalisation when it comes to benefits, according to research by Benefex. And although this adds pressure on organisations to enhance their benefit offerings, it doesn’t necessarily equate to high engagement. So how can you make sure your flexible benefits scheme is meeting the needs of all employees?
Here Ema Urlic and David Wood share their five top experiences and learnings on building a flexible benefits scheme:
1. Employees are demanding greater flexibility and choice in benefits – and HR and Reward teams are responding
With 48% of employees saying their benefits could be improved if employers offered more flexibility and choice, employers are adapting their strategies in response. Both iPSL and WBD have introduced flexible benefits to help them address the diverse needs of their employees.
Ema Urlic at iPSL said that despite already having a flexible benefits offering in place, it wasn’t accessible to all employees. As well as introducing 10 new or improved benefits, the company implemented a new flex fund to support benefits equity.
“The flexibility piece was the biggest challenge that we were looking to target. We realised that in our 2022 window, only 19% of our employee population within the lower pay ranges were actively taking up flexible benefits,” said Urlic. “We wanted to look at making our package truly inclusive for employees who didn’t have as much disposable income. As well as amending some of our core employer-funded benefits, we introduced a £300 flex fund for every employee – which was the same amount for every individual. And our engagement increased up to 92%.”
David Wood at WBD said employees want benefits that are personalised, can be selected year-round, and support wellbeing.
“We want to create a benefit offering that people can flex to suit their lifestyle and particularly to suit their financial requirements. The whole point of having a successful benefits platform is so that people can personalise and customise it to their lifestyle and to suit their own individual circumstances," he said.
2. Creating a single home for flexible benefits allows employers to level up their experience
Like many organisations, iPSL's benefits were scattered across different systems before they implemented a benefits tech platform, making access difficult for employees. To address this, they implemented a single, easily accessible platform for benefits where employees could find everything they were looking for in one place.
“It was quite challenging to get that simplistic view of what was where, what we had on offer, how to access it. One of our key drivers was to make it as easily digestible and simple to use as possible.”
Wood also emphasised that with a platform now in place, WBD has been able to remind employees of available benefits they may have overlooked, while making their benefits more accessible, digestible, and customisable.
"The primary expectation from our employees was for their benefits to be easy to access, easy to find in one place, and more technologically available. We wanted the employee journey to feel as seamless and easy as possible.”
3. Define what success looks like for your flexible benefits strategy
Urlic and Wood said they look at typical metrics such as employee logins, benefits selections and measure satisfaction with their flexible benefits offerings to gauge success.
"Last year we introduced a flex fund, and our engagement rate increased up to 92% within that first year of people actively going in and making physical selections to either flex up or down... The key part for us is to understand what that engagement looks like and make sure that it's not stagnant," said Urlic.
Wood added: “I think what success looks like has changed in the last couple of years. I think a very straightforward way to measure the success of a flexible benefits annual window would be to look at the take up and the MI that's available in the take up of benefits. But I think what demonstrates true engagement is the ability for people to make their own decisions and flex their own benefits based on their current lifestyle.
“For a lot of people, being able to pause, cancel or reduce the cost of the benefits to add to their take home pay may well be the right decision for them. And although it makes it more difficult to measure, what that demonstrates is a high level of engagement."
4. Don't forget to communicate the value of benefits
A robust communication strategy was integral to the success of both companies' benefits initiatives. "We worked with Benefex to introduce OneHub Home last year. This provides that employee platform where they could not only get access to their benefits, and their reward and recognition tools, but also to allow colleagues to share information with each other,” said Urlic.
Wood highlighted the importance of having multiple channels such as its intranet, TV screens in communal areas, and in-person visibility to engage with as many people as possible.
"There's a lot of different ways to communicate and there's no one perfect way that's going to engage everyone – that's why having a bit of a variety [of channels] is the best approach,” he said.
Also, regular feedback from employees is important to ensure the package is meeting their needs.
“We went through a diverse consultation process with internal stakeholders, speaking to colleagues via workshops, using our employee feedback surveys, and so on, to identify our biggest challenges," said Urlic.
5. Secure buy-in for flexible benefits
Urlic stresses the importance of clearly defining key drivers and objectives when building a benefits strategy from scratch.
Wood emphasises the importance of aligning flexible benefits with broader organisational goals. By linking the benefits strategy to tangible outcomes such as increased productivity and reduced turnover, WBD were able to present a strong case for the investment.
“Demonstrating that alignment of benefits with what we're looking to achieve as a business in terms of our purpose, our vision, and aligning what we're offering with our ethical framework and other core strategies is for me probably the biggest hook for our board.”
To learn more about how you can introduce flexibility and choice into your benefits strategy, watch the full on demand webinar.
In partnership with Benefex
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