Make anything a benefit - put even more choice in the hands of your people

As employees look to organisations to make their lives better, the employee value proposition has become increasingly important

Employee expectations of their experiences at work have been accelerating over the last few years, and HR and reward leaders are under increasing pressure to deliver greater choice and flexibility when it comes to the benefits package.

More than half (52%) of employees say their expectations of their benefits package have increased in the last 12 months. As a result, the role of the global reward director now reaches across reward, wellbeing and benefits.

Employees are looking to their organisations for support in areas of their lives that would have previously been out of scope; from fitness advice to mental health support, to help with navigating the cost-of-living crisis.

In Benefex’s Evolution research, employers rated their employer as a more trusted source of information than independent consultants, financial services, the government and the internet.

With employees looking for organisations that will genuinely make their lives better, the employee value proposition (EVP) has become increasingly important as something that stands out when attracting, engaging and retaining the best people.

With that in mind, benefits are a big part of creating the best experience.

Nearly nine out of ten (88%) employees say the benefits a company offers can help them decide if an employer aligns with their values, and 64% say the benefits provision is very important when choosing a new employer.

Demanding greater choice in benefits

Employees’ growing expectations are centred on choice and flexibility. This has always been the number one way employees say that benefits provision could be improved.

Employees want to be treated as individuals with their own unique needs and preferences.

Tension for organisations

The choice of benefits currently includes flexible benefits that are administered through payroll, and discounts/perks that help employees stretch their salaries further.

When employers want to offer their people greater choice, they add more flexible benefits to their offering. There are three main challenges to this approach:

Relationships must be established with each provider. The provider must be integrated with the platform and the new benefit must be communicated to employees. Many of the new benefits on offer are designed to serve specific groups and are thus going to have limited appeal.
The process of continuously adding new benefits one at a time doesn’t deliver a rapid increase in choice for employees.
If engagement is low, there tends to be a cut-off point at which the organisation decides whether the overhead is worthwhile.

Ultimate benefits flexibility and choice

Organisations are therefore trying to balance employees’ demands for more choice and flexibility with the need to reduce the admin, cost and resource involved in constantly adding new benefits to their programmes.

Acting on feedback from our customers – who wanted to be able to offer greater choice in benefits (reflecting the diversity in their organisations), reduce admin, and keep everything in one place – Benefex extended its benefits allowances offering.

As well as existing modules for reimbursement/spending accounts within OneHub, Benefex now also offers card-based benefit allowances via OneHub Wallet.

While flexible benefits and discounts are still valid, we see card-based allowances as a complementary category that sits between the two; used alongside benefits, it is a way to really make your proposition stand out.

To find out more about how benefits allowances enable the ultimate choice for employees, take a look at our report, Taking flexibility further.