How businesses can attract the best employees for mutual benefits

ONE irrefutable truth about employee benefits is that they are only as valuable as each employee finds them to be. Much the same is true of whatever workplace pension an employer provides for their staff. 

Anne Lawson, part of the Acumen Employee Benefits team, points out that putting together a cost-effective benefits package and communicating its merits to employees is not a simple matter. Acumen has specialised in advising clients in this field since it was founded five years ago. 

“We advise both small and large companies across the whole range of employee benefits and pension options,” Lawson says. “We specialise in helping the employer to communicate these benefits to the workforce.”

Lawson notes that if an employer was spending the amount of money entailed in a workforce benefits and pensions package on something like a new IT system, management would be looking very closely at what advantages they were going to derive from that spend. In exactly the same way, employers need to know and understand what they and their staff are going to get from a benefits package. 

“You really need to know that the benefits you are investing in are appropriate for your staff. There are so many benefits solutions available on the market, covering a vast range of options and possibilities. 

“Choosing the appropriate options for your staff, and ensuring that the staff feel that those benefits really do speak to what they want and need, is critical in building strong relationships between the company and its staff,” she says. 

As well as putting together options that have real appeal to each and every staff member, organisations will also want to ensure that the final benefits package is in line with the cultural values of the company. 

“The key point to bear in mind is that you are trying to meet several objectives simultaneously. You want great buy-in from staff to the benefits package. You want your organisational values reflected and you want to ensure that you are getting value for money,” Lawson comments.

Anne Lawson, part of the Acumen Employee Benefits team

While all three objectives are important, no organisation wants to finish up with a benefits spend that management regards as excessive. “People are very focused after COVID on ensuring that they get real value for whatever they spend. This is as true of companies as it is of individuals,” she notes. 

However, the good news is that with the tremendous range of benefits options now available on the market, one can genuinely design an overall package that meets all three objectives, without being excessive.  That said, designing the right suite of benefits, including catering for staff pensions under auto-enrolment, is a job for the experts. 

“For ease of communication and to simplify the messaging, we often characterise benefits under three headings,  Health and Well-being, Wealth & Financial Fitness, and Leisure. These are not mutually exclusive headings, as for example, health club membership, as a benefit speaks to two of the three headings. 

“One option that companies are now increasingly interested in given the huge pressure that the rising cost of living is placing on family budgets, involves retail discount schemes and benefits delivered via salary exchange to deliver national insurance savings. 

“The retail discount platforms can drive discounts on every day retail purchases and there’s even a salary exchange grocery solution which is new to market and offers up to 12% on regular grocery purchases,” she says. 

Another popular option is discounts for holiday destinations. There is a huge range of options and employers really do need specialist advice to help them navigate through all these to come up with the best, most effective benefits package. 

One path that many employers favour, Lawson says, is the menu approach, where staff select a range of options from a menu, with each staff member is able to design the benefits package that best suits their needs.

These ‘flexible benefit platforms’ are internet based and that makes it really easy to give all employees the ability to put together their own benefits options, up to an agreed value. 

However, Lawson points out that this approach has been at the higher range of the cost spectrum however technological innovations have reduced costs significantly offering flex benefits as an option for many small enterprises.

For those, a more regimented approach, though still with some options, may be the way to go. “In addition to flex-benefits platforms, there are a number of other portals and platforms that simplify management’s task when it comes to communicating with staff about the available benefits options,” Lawson says. 

“We like to ensure that there is a great communications strategy in place before the actual benefits package is implemented. This will enable management to communicate with staff regarding the workplace pension options and the benefits options that will be coming,” she notes. 

“It is well worth management spending time and investing in really marketing the benefits package to staff, so that everyone comes along on the journey with them. 

“On top of this we include a staff survey once the benefits package is up and running, so that management can benchmark the package and gauge its effectiveness. You really want to get a ‘before-and-after’ picture, and you want to revisit the business of getting staff opinions on the continuing fitness of the benefits package as far as staff needs are concerned,” she explains.

It goes without saying that for the vast majority of organisations, their staff will be the company’s most important asset. So there is real value in spending time understanding the drivers for the business, as far as the implementation of a benefits and pensions package is concerned. 

“There is no substitute for engaging with benefits experts to ensure that the final suite of benefits products you buy for your organisation is fit for purpose and will do the job you expect,” she concludes.

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