How To Build a Competitive Employee Benefits Package
You know the old saying. A happy worker is a productive worker.
And what better way to put a smile on employees’ faces than with a comprehensive benefits package. After all, they are your most prized asset, and attracting, winning and retaining top talent requires more than just a bumper salary.
Research from employee benefits technology platform Zest has found that 46% of employees want an employee benefits package as part of their overall offering, with a stunning 68% wanting a personalised approach that suits them inside and outside of work.
It’s all about being flexible and perfecting your benefits strategy (time to find that competitive nature inside). Get this right and it’s a sure-fire way to increase employee engagement and happiness, which can ultimately have a positive impact on your company culture.
What Are Employee Benefits?
Let’s start at the beginning.
Employee benefits are the extra perks and advantages that you provide colleagues beyond their regular salary or wage. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, they’re part of a rewarding package that provides support inside and outside the workplace.
It helps them look after their health, wealth and self, and an impressive benefits package is often key to employee attraction/retention. It goes beyond biscuits and fruit in the office. Think flexible working arrangements, extra annual leave (above statutory minimum) and insurance products that provide additional cover.
Company benefits are key to improving physical, mental and financial wellbeing. They provide access to key savings, coaching and services, and can be used to help to reduce tax and/or National Insurance savings where possible.
Why Offer Employee Benefits?
There’s a number of reasons employers choose to offer benefits to staff.
Mirroring your strategic HR and business aims. Competing for talent in your industry. There’s always ways to ensure your company ‘benefit’. For example, one employer may have a desire to promote financial wellness, offering an enhanced pension contribution, bonus, financial advice, share schemes and/or savings (such as corporate ISAs).
Another employer may benchmark their benefits against competitors in the market, which in turn may reveal they don’t offer comparable health benefits, leading to an introduction of benefits such as Health Cash Plan, Dental Plan and/or Health Screenings. Oh, and not forgetting corporate volunteering.
You can draw upon your HR and payroll teams and may engage external specialists, including a benefits consultant to advise on the structure of your benefits package and levels of funding/flexibility. A broker may be engaged to negotiate terms with providers, e.g a medical broker who will request quotes from insurers and recommend different providers.
You may also want to use software/technology to support communication and administration of the various benefits. Our marketplace partner Zest provide benefit portals for the employer to bring all the benefits into one place for employee selections, communication, and administration.
Why Implement An Employee Benefits Platform?
The Rolling Stones once sang, ‘Time Waits for no one’. And boy were they right. The clunky, one-size-fits-all approach to reward packages is long gone. However you want to implement your employee benefits platform in the UK, Zest can help.
Zest have cracked the code. They’re not just another benefits technology provider – they’re the Technology of Benefits! With their holistic platform, they’re championing a new era of employee engagement through seamless, user-friendly, and unmatched flexible solutions.
They empower you to communicate and recognise your employees, create dynamic content, generate insightful reports, and navigate complex benefits schemes – all tailored to your unique needs.
And what makes them different from the rest? With their innovative technology, you’ll be able to:
Create and amend pages using our simple editing tool
Personalise imagery, add video and make tweaks to your branded colours/fonts
Manage different employer brands from one single system
It makes the complex simple. You’ll be able to manage your employee benefits schemes quickly and easily. From Devon to Dundee, their system is updated in real-time, which means the benefits data is always accurate and up-to-date.
So, it’s bon voyage to manual processes. This time you build the rules.
You can automate which benefits are available to each employee based on factors like job grade, location, salary or a change in the employee’s circumstances.
You’ll also be able to gain insights in order to make smarter decisions:
Measure how your colleagues use the platform, understand the benefits their choosing, identify the ones they’re not and how it changes over a period of time
Explore your data by drilling down into employee characteristics including age, department, gender and salary
Create and view a dashboard for HR on benefit team tasks
Quickly identify employees who have, haven’t or have considered making amends to their benefits.
Ready to take your employee engagement to the next level? Book a demo with Zest today.
Implementing Your Employee Benefits Platform
It’s important to find the perfect fit, fast!
Implementation is different for every company, and the time it takes to complete will depend on the complexity of your organisation and the benefits offered through your scheme.
This isn’t something that should be rushed. If you can provide the required information and feedback during the implementation process swiftly, naturally that will speed up the process.
Like finding a needle in a haystack, if an organisation is slow to complete the above, it will slow things down. If you need some help, or the technology, then Zest can help.
Benefits platforms can take multiple months to implement, but flexibility and experience is key to getting you up and running within a matter of weeks.
What Benefits Do You Need To Build a Comprehensive Benefits Package?
Naturally, we could wax lyrical about corporate volunteering, but other employee benefits are available.
But rather than walk you through the A-Z, we’ve selected a few key selections we believe are becoming increasingly popular amongst Zest’s customers.
Financial
💜 Life Insurance (additional cover for employee or their spouse/partner)
⛑️ Critical Illness Insurance
💸 Pension
Physical
🚴🏽♂️ Cycle to Work
🏋🏽 Gym Membership
🤗 Health & Wellbeing fund
So, if you’re looking to win the war on talent attraction/retention, perhaps building and implementing a competitive benefits package to impress current and future employees is the first step.
If you’re curious about how an volunteering policy could fit into your benefits package, and the costs involved, you can book in a chat and a demo of the Matchable platform here.