Under a third (32%) of employer respondents communicate to their staff about employee benefits at least once a month, according to research by Ellipse.
Its survey of 1,150 UK employees and 1,001 UK employers also found that only 7% of employer respondents do not communicate with their staff at all about employee benefits.
The research also found:
- 28% of employer respondents communicate with their employees once a year about employee benefits.
- 34% of employee respondents receive messages about their employee benefits on a monthly basis.
- 17% of employer respondents who work in a micro business with one to five employees communicate monthly about the employee benefits available, and 24% never communicate.
- 35% of employer respondents who work in organisations with 250 or more staff communicate monthly about employee benefits, compared to 3% who do not communicate about benefits at all.
- 44% of employer respondents with less than 10 employees tend to communicate to staff about their benefits using verbal messages delivered by managers, compared to 49% of employer respondents with more than 11 employees who use email as their main communication method.
Chris Morgan (pictured), chief marketing officer at Ellipse, said: “High quality, frequent communication about the benefits available from the workplace is crucial for employee engagement which is in turn needed for employers to receive a decent return on investment. Monthly communications are ideal, and overall our research shows that most employers are communicating well. I’d urge the third of employers who communicate less frequently to consider their approach.
“Small [organisations] may have less resources to devote to benefit communication, but even simple strategies can be effective. Basically, if employees are not aware of their benefits, the employer is not getting full value from their investment. Small [organisations] simply cannot afford not to communicate.
“With no single overwhelmingly preferred method, employers should vary their communications depending on their workforce. Benefit managers must think like marketers by using targeted messaging via multiple channels so that this important messaging has the best chance of getting through.”
