Round up of the CIPD's latest reward management survey

The first CIPD Reward Management research report for a few years was recently published and focuses on employee benefits. The research surveyed almost 600 HR professionals and assessed the extent of benefits that UK organisations offer. We have summarised some of the key points for you in this article.

Employee benefits in decline?

​While highlighting the availability of a wide range of benefits, it suggests that the range of benefits being offered is gradually declining. There are also signs that there is limited appetite for the introduction of new benefit offerings in the year ahead. 

...or the potential to better engage with employees?

Nevertheless, there are huge opportunities for organisations to make more effective use of their benefits spend and to communicate these better.

There are some surprising statistics that show huge room for improvement in the provision of employee benefits:

• 1 in 6 organisations surveyed do not communicate the benefits on offer to their staff.
• Just 1 in 10 tailor their benefits communications to staff.
• 3 in 4 organisations don’t bother to assess the value for money of their benefits provision.
• Fewer than half offer some element of choice in their benefits.

Given these figures, it is probably not a surprise to see that benefits packages are being allowed to stagnate in many organisations. Often, we see companies launch a benefits package with good intention, expecting employees to take up what is on offer, only to be disappointed by a lack of engagement further down the line.
 
Benefits need to be re-communicated regularly, particularly as employees’ requirements change with time, so they may not be aware of benefits which weren’t relevant when they were launched but are now. 

In conclusion - an opportunity for you to add value

​The report makes a persuasive case for HR professionals to make more of employee benefits:

1. Demonstrate the value of your employee benefits
The value that benefits add to an employer are tricky to evaluate, so building a business case for spending time and money on them can be hard. Find out whether the resources invested in benefits is having a positive impact on staff and the organisation - of course, the challenge is how to analyse benefits.

2. Improve the communication of employee benefits and the accessibility to them.

• What is the take up of each benefit, overall and by age, gender and ethnicity?
• Can you make benefits more adaptable and give an element of flexibility? 
• Can the communication of benefits be improved?
• Can line managers be empowered to promote and manage the implementation of some benefits?

3. Build stronger links between financial wellbeing and work-life balance
This can help employees to think through the benefits choices on offer to them and reduce the impact of money worries on their mental health and ultimately on their performance at work. (See our recent article on the prevalence of financial wellbeing for more on this.)  

Making a case...

​Can you put forward a meaningful case to your organisation’s stakeholders to persuade them that they can make more of the benefits they offer?
 
Alongside the opportunities spelt out in this research, we've worked with clients to devise a robust set of employee benefits to help them stand out from the crowd, so we think that making the effort to develop a good set of relevant benefits will help you to recruit and retain the people your organisation needs to flourish.
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However, relevance is key - your employee benefits need be part of a well-rounded offering that reflects your organisation's wider goals.

The CIPD's Reward management survey report is available here.