Just over half (53%) of respondents view flexible working as a key part of their overall employee wellbeing strategy, according to research by Aon.
Its 2015 employee benefits and trends survey, which is based on responses from 294 reward, compensation, pensions and benefits representatives, also found that 38% of respondents do not use any analytics to inform or drive their health and wellbeing strategy.
The study also found:
Health and wellbeing benefits:
- Around a quarter (23%) of respondents do not communicate to their employees around health and wellness.
- 42% have considered managing a known health risk, such as cancer or musculoskeletal issues, compared to a quarter (25%) in Aon’s 2014 survey.
- 72% of respondents do not currently have a specific budget for their health and wellness programme.
Flexible benefits:
- Almost all (93%) of respondents believe their flexible benefits programme has achieved the goals it set out to, either totally (29%) or to a degree (64%), although 26% are unsatisfied with the take-up of their scheme.
- 82% cite staff satisfaction as the main reason to introduce a flex package.
Pensions:
- Just under half (46%) do not know how retirements are currently managed in their DC scheme.
- A quarter (25%) of respondents use email to communicate their pension scheme to employees, 23% use an online self-service portal, with printed communications being used by 20%, and face-to-face communications by 16%.
- 45% have a formal pensions governance committee that meets regularly.
Communication and motivation:
- 68% state that communicating flexible benefits is their biggest flex-related challenge, but less than a third (29%) would outsource to boost their communications.
- Around a quarter (23%) of respondents cite driving staff productivity and engagement and retaining talent as their main reasons for offering benefits.
Total reward:
- 60% are planning to add new benefits to their programme over the next 12-18 months.
- 95% of respondents expect their benefit spend to either increase (52%) or stay the same (43%) over the next year, and 5% expect to see a decrease in benefits spending.
- 64% offer total reward statements.
Tobin Murphy-Coles, commercial director at Aon Employee Benefits, said: “By analysing the responses to the survey and the issues identified, we found there were key actions that employers can put in place to support their business goals and work around the common problems.
“There is, for example, a clear correlation between 75% of employers believing they are responsible for influencing employee health and changing behaviours, yet 38% aren’t using their own analytics to inform or drive their strategy.”
