Need to know:
- Offer deals that deliver valued savings to employees, and which are not available at a better rate elsewhere.
- Create a year-round communications plan to promote benefits at the times when they are likely to be most relevant to staff.
- Provide a broad range of voluntary benefits to appeal to different demographics, and harness technology to personalise offerings for each individual.
Voluntary benefits are a mainstay of many employee benefits packages, helping staff to make their pay go further by offering savings on day-to-day costs and big-ticket items.
But how can organisations ensure employees make the most of the deals available to them and drive engagement with voluntary benefits schemes?
Ensure it truly provides a benefitIt does not take long for the savvy consumer to search for, compare, and decide upon the best deal on the market, so if the discounts and savings available through a voluntary benefits programme can be beaten elsewhere then employees are unlikely to engage with them. Regularly reviewing and benchmarking their offering can help employers ensure that the benefits included in the scheme provide true value to staff. Manesh Patel, senior consultant at Aon Employee Benefits, says: “It’s about benchmarking not just in the employee benefits industry, but in the consumer [market], and providing benefits that are a bit more creative.”
Make it relevantProviding a broad-ranging suite of voluntary benefits can support the varying needs of a diverse workforce, while staff feedback can be utilised to ensure that this range encompasses schemes that appeal to employees across an organisation. Involving employees in the programme’s development, whether that be through staff surveys or focus groups, can also drive engagement both with the benefits scheme itself and more widely. James Malia, director of employee benefits at Sodexo Benefits and Reward Services, says: “For the employee, it also feels then [like] they are helping to create something within the business, which is always fairly invaluable.”
Through technology, relevancy can also be taken down to the individual level. A voluntary benefits platform can display deals that are personalised to each employee based on data such as past purchases, for example. Saurav Chopra, chief executive officer at Perkbox, says: “The programme that [an organisation] offers needs to be rich enough to cater for the needs of every individual, and the technology should be smart enough so that it automatically delivers the right perk to the right user at the right time.”
Get the timing rightConsidering what benefits are most pertinent to employees in each season of the year can also boost take-up. This could include a focus on promoting bikes-for-work schemes during the spring and summer months or communicating the retail discounts available through the programme in the run-up to Christmas.
Patel says: “Make [benefits] relevant to the time of year, but also make them relevant to the things that are going on in society and our world.”
Creating a 12-month communications calendar can be an effective way of making sure that messages are delivered to employees at the right time, adds Patel. This calendar would include three overlaid strands: the international and national calendar, such as Christmas and public holidays; national events, such as the London Marathon or Bike Week; and the organisation’s calendar, such as pay reviews. Related benefits would then be communicated accordingly.
Workplace events, such as health and wellbeing days, can also serve as an opportunity to highlight voluntary benefits. Bringing a bicycle supplier on site or offering free taster sessions for gym membership, for example, can demonstrate the voluntary benefits that can support employees’ health and wellbeing while providing a tangible and interactive experience. “The more of those [an organisation] can get in-situ and actually provide the ability for people to try out and see for themselves what’s on offer, then the more likely [it is] to get people involved and engaged,” says Malia.
Communicate strategicallyAs with all benefits communications, concisely conveying the key messages and providing a clear call to action can better prompt employees to engage with a scheme. Varying the manner in which messages are conveyed could also increase the number of employees who relate to them, says Malia. “A lot of the time with voluntary benefits [we] are talking about saving money in some shape or form, whether that’s on a bike, on childcare or on groceries," he explains. "Some [employees] will understand what percentages mean, other [employees] will understand what X [number of pounds] off something would mean, and others will understand a destination or an actual product, so it’s about having that varied message. Not everyone will respond to the same style of messaging so keeping it varied is absolutely key.”
Because many of the deals available through voluntary benefits programmes can also provide savings for employees’ households, partners and families, communication materials that can be shared with loved ones, such as a letter home or an induction pack, can be an effective way of boosting engagement, adds Malia. “If [an employer] can engage family in the benefits of somebody working at an organisation then not only do they become part of feeling proud for that organisation, but they are potentially the ones that would do the spending as well,” he says.
Consider the user experienceEnabling employees to access their voluntary benefits scheme through their device of choice at a time that is convenient to them, whether that be from a computer during the working day, via mobile devices outside of the workplace or for non-office based staff, can help to remove barriers to take-up.
Chopra says: “Relevance is not only about the right perk for the right user at the right time, it’s also about the right channel.”
With many employees accustomed to visiting e-commerce sites through mobile devices and apps, mobile is now a critical component in supporting multi-channel access to a voluntary benefits platform, he says. “If the channel is mobile then [organisations] have got to make sure that [they’re] making an experience that’s amazing and very honed into the mobile channel,” adds Chopra.
Whichever device an employee chooses to access a voluntary benefits scheme through, providing a seamless user experience and a format that staff are familiar with could encourage higher take-up. “Treat [an employee] as a consumer,” says Patel. “Give them the platform in a way they are used to interacting with, [such as] a shopping cart type of structure, and let them go through that mechanism to buy what they want to buy because then they will probably be more inclined to do so.”
