"Benchmarking is vital for recruitment & retention, and it’s not about spending more money, it’s about cost-effectiveness and smart spending."
- Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Employee Benefits
Of those surveyed (500), 26% of employers confirmed that they still aren’t benchmarking the employee benefits on offer to their workforce against other companies. Notably, less than half (40%) benchmark by sector, followed by location (37%), and company size (30%).
When asked what value employers gain from benchmarking employee benefits, the majority (58%) said it helps with recruitment & retention since it shows the package on offer is competitive. Worryingly, only 46% of employers highlighted that it helps to direct benefits spending, whilst 45% said it assists them in making informed decisions on which employee benefits to offer their workforce.
Recent research commissioned by Group Risk Development (GRiD) found almost a quarter (24%) of employers don’t measure the impact of supporting the health & wellbeing of their workforce. GRiD emphasised that measuring this impact is an extremely effective method for adjusting which benefits are available, to improve outcomes. Without measuring the impact, it’s difficult to establish improvements (or deterioration) in employees’ health & wellbeing.
Almost all (99%) employers who’d measured the impact of health & wellbeing benefits for their workforce said it had positively impacted their business. 43% said it’d influenced a positive return on investment/financial impact, while a further 43% said it had increased productivity.
At the time, Katharine Moxham, Spokesperson for GRiD, said these services contribute to “real and tangible difference to the physical, mental, and financial wellbeing of employees,” and that offering support without measuring its success makes it difficult for businesses to learn, improve, and stay ahead of the market.
READ MORE: GRiD finds only 49% of organisations consider benefits that support the entire workforce
“Companies that aren’t benchmarking their benefits are missing out. But the 74% that do benchmark would do well to take a second look at the comparisons in analysis – is it a bit of a ‘finger-in-the-air’ and a quick trawl of the search engines or is it research provided by experts in employee benefits?” concluded Debra Clark, Head of Wellbeing at Towergate Employee Benefits.
