"Organisations that clearly demonstrate that they care about their staff by offering appropriate employee benefits are more likely to earn the loyalty of their people."
- Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson for GRiD
Of those surveyed (500), 66% of employers believe their staff ‘very much’ appreciate the benefits offered to them – this is nearly three times the level of appreciation that employees themselves say they feel (21%).
Group Risk Development (GRiD) has said these findings highlight three key takeaways for employers. Firstly, employee benefits are considered a standard part of the remuneration package and, to be appreciated, employers need to ensure they are actively highlighting where support goes that extra mile.
Employers also need to recognise that appreciation not only relies on awareness but also understanding; they need to constantly assess whether staff have a comprehensive grasp of everything they offer. Lastly, employers need to ensure that benefits can be accessed in a straightforward and efficient manner – this can be another stumbling block in terms of staff appreciation.
GRiD believes that if employers still find that staff appreciation is lacking, it may be time to rethink whether the benefits offered are the most appropriate.
The most popular methods of measuring staff appreciation for employee benefits were informal feedback and feedback/suggestion boxes – either physical or email – for employee benefits-related feedback (46%), followed by formal staff surveys (45%), employee benefits forum/working group/employee liaison group (40%), and online activities that measure clickthrough rates on certain topics e.g. on company intranet (39%).
“We know that communication and appreciation are inextricably linked, as employees tend to value benefits more highly when they have a good understanding of what is available. It’s good to see so much measurement in place but this must go hand-in-hand with communication,” explained Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson for GRiD.
She said: “Many benefits, particularly group risk change and are updated regularly so that the benefits meet current needs to support mental health, rehabilitation, and prevention so it’s important that this is made clear to employees.
“We saw how quickly employee benefit providers pivoted to offer support for COVID-19 during the Pandemic and, while this was an extreme situation, providers are constantly evolving their products to reflect employee and employer needs,” Katharine concluded.
