EXCLUSIVE: More than half (53%) of employee respondents want their employer to communicate information about benefits to them around life events, such as marriage or childbirth, according to research by Thomsons Online Benefits.
Its Communicating employee benefits: driving the value of reward report, which surveyed 200 HR and reward professionals and 500 UK employees, due to be published on 23 January 2017, also found that 26% of employer respondents communicate benefits to staff around life events.
The research also found:
- 80% of employer respondents rank employee engagement as their top objective for their benefits programme.
- 66% of employee respondents want their employer to communicate information about benefits to them during salary reviews, promotions and after passing probation, and 24% of employer respondents communicate benefits during these events.
- 70% of employer respondents use printed literature to communicate benefits to employees, and 19% of employee respondents want to receive benefits communication in this way.
- 76% of employee respondents want their employer to communicate with them via one-to-one, face-to-face meetings.
- 46% of employer respondents who use segmentation in their communications and benefits offering find that employees are very or extremely engaged with their organisation.
- 75% of employer respondents measure employee engagement using general engagement surveys, 67% do so at exit interviews, 40% use an employee representative forum, and 30% use specific reward and benefits surveys.
Vicky Edwards (pictured), communications manager at Thomsons Online Benefits, said: “HR and reward professionals are achieving some successes when it comes to benefits communications, but most are falling short of best practice in places.
“There is no one size-fits all solution, but there are fundamental building blocks which deliver firm foundations for a successful strategy; frequency, variety, relevance and measurement. It’s critical that HR and reward professionals pay attention to each of these if they’re to create a communications strategy that really engages their whole workforce.
“In this digital age there is an opportunity for all employees to be reached through technology. Life is busy, and employees will increasingly look to their smartphones for information, wherever they might be. This highlights the opportunity to drive communication through digital. This format is accessible and measurable, enabling HR and reward professionals to demonstrate the effectiveness of their strategy and return on communications investment.”
