EXCLUSIVE: 47% of employers say budget is the biggest barrier in improving engagement

Just under half (47%) of employers say their budget is their biggest barrier for not improving employee engagement levels.

The Employee Benefits research 2020, published in May 2020, which surveyed 269 HR decision-makers, found that this is little change from the 51% who found this to be a key issue in 2019. The gap between this and the second most common option, time or resources, has closed somewhat this year, with only four percentage points between them. This goes back to a similar picture to 2016, when budget (47%) and resources (44%) were closer together in terms of importance.

Despite one in three (29%) of respondents struggling to gain executive support for improving engagement, only 11% of HR decision-makers believe this is not an issue that needs to be addressed.

In addition to senior management reluctance, however, this year’s respondents stated that they have faced difficulties boosting engagement due to organisational culture (30%) and Digital and face-to-face communications have been the dual most popular methods of boosting employees’ engagement with their benefits since 2016, rarely straying more than 10 percentage points away from one another. This year, digital (67%) and face-to-face (65%) communications continue to be the most popular; this suggests that many employerssee value in a combined approach.

Printed communication materials have taken a sharp drop in popularity, possibly as a result of a renewed focus on sustainability. Having remained around the 45% mark for because they are facing a period of organisational change (22%).

With the considerable shifts taking place across all sectors and industries at the time of writing, due to the Covid-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic, it will be interesting to see how culture and the opinions of management shift over the coming months and years. It may well be that organisational change rises up the list of concerns and business agendas for many employers.