The benefits dashboard cannot tell the whole story
A well-timed counselling session may give someone exactly the support they need. If they then stop using the service, has engagement fallen or has the benefit done its job?
That question exposes a weakness in how our sector often reports value. We count registrations, logins, page views and downloads because they are available and straightforward to present. They tell us something useful, but they cannot tell us the whole story.
Benefits leaders need to know what sits behind it before drawing conclusions about whether an investment is working.
The starting point should be the purpose of the benefit. Without that, even a detailed dashboard can leave an employer unsure what success looks like.
Decide what you want to achieve
Different services serve different purposes, so they need different questions. Everyday discounts might help employees reduce regular household costs. Financial education might help people understand their options and feel more confident making decisions. Occupational health might support someone to remain in work or return safely.
A single measure of engagement cannot do justice to those differences. A discount programme may depend on repeated use, while another service may be valuable precisely because an employee needs it only briefly.
Benefits leaders should agree objectives with providers before deciding which figures belong in the review. The discussion needs to establish what the service can reasonably influence and what evidence would help judge progress.
That also makes it easier to identify limitations. A provider should be able to explain what its reporting demonstrates, where the evidence is incomplete and which conclusions would go beyond the available information.
Read usage in context
High usage can be encouraging. It may show that employees understand a service and find it useful. It can also reflect an underlying problem that deserves attention. The number alone cannot distinguish between those explanations.
Low usage needs the same care. Employees may not know the benefit exists, find access difficult or feel unsure whether it is relevant. Alternatively, the support may have helped them move forward and reduced their need to return.
Financial education offers a useful example. Activity may rise at launch and then fall as people become more confident. Treating that decline as failure could lead an employer to withdraw something that is working.
Review conversations therefore need context from employees and the people delivering support. What prompted contact? Was the next step clear? Did the employee get appropriate help? Feedback can add meaning to activity figures, although it should not be treated as proof of wider organisational outcomes.
Ask providers to account for their decisions
Measuring value also requires an honest conversation about the provider's priorities. Employers should understand how a partner invests in its services, responds to changing needs and supports the relationship beyond launch.
My Group became owned by an Employee Ownership Trust in 2022 and is now fully employee-owned. That creates a responsibility to invest in its people and the support it provides. Ownership is relevant to that conversation, but it is not evidence that a benefit has worked. Whatever the business model, providers should be accountable for the experience they deliver and the claims they make.
Connecting benefits to wider outcomes will take better information. Many organisations still lack a clear picture of workforce wellbeing, retention or the cost of turnover. Even where data exists, an improvement cannot automatically be attributed to one benefit.
A practical benefits review should always finish with decisions, rather than another set of figures filed away. If awareness is weak, agree how communication will change. If employees abandon the access process, examine where they encounter difficulty.
If the service is meeting its purpose, identify what should be maintained. Assign responsibility for those actions and revisit them at the next meeting. Reporting earns its place when it helps employers and providers improve the support together.
That complexity should make reporting more careful, not less useful. Agree the objectives, examine the evidence and be clear about what remains uncertain. The question at every review should be whether the support is helping people, and what needs to change if it is not.
Supplied by REBA Associate Member, My Group
We work with UK employers to bring these three things together, offering practical benefits employees use, human support that reaches the people who need it, and a measurable difference to how your people feel about work.
