According to research by CIPD, only half of employers explain to their employees how their employee benefits could be useful to them.
The same research found that just 57% of employers communicate to employees exactly what employee benefits are on offer.
At caboodle, we always maintain that it’s no use having a best-in-class employee benefits package if employees don’t know about it.
It’s also important that employees understand the true value of their benefits package.
Do your employees know how valuable your Bike to Work scheme could be to them? Or even how valuable an enhanced Life Assurance benefit, flexed up through flexible benefits, could be and how much money it could save them?
Communicating the value of employee benefits has many advantages.
Here are just a few of the most important ones.
A more realistic perceived value of employee benefits
Communicating the value of your employee benefits package better aligns the perceived value your employees have with the actual value of the benefits you provide.
Essentially, don’t undersell your employee benefits!
If the value of your employee benefits isn’t communicated, they may be underutilised and eventually cut from your benefits offering.
Whereas, with more effective communication benefits could be utilised more effectively by employees and the employer benefits from a more realistic view of how popular their benefits really are.
Improved benefits take-up
It sounds simple, but if employees know more of the value of the benefits available to them, they’re more likely to use them and get the benefit of them.
For benefits like salary sacrifice schemes, this can even translate to increased tax and NI savings for the employer.
A better flexible benefits experience
Flexible benefits are a great way to personalise the employee benefits experience for employees.
Employees can essentially choose which benefits they want to take advantage of the most and tailor their benefits to them.
Flexible benefits are hugely valuable, and so communicating their value effectively is incredibly important.
If, for example, employees know the value they can get from flexing up their life assurance through flexible benefits, and thus potentially saving on sourcing life insurance elsewhere, they’re more likely to utilise it and gain the benefit from it.
Improved recruitment and retention
Communicating the value of your employee benefits effectively with both your existing employees and new candidates can both improve recruitment and retention.
The benefits on offer are becoming increasingly important in candidates’ decisions on joining a new company.
Equally, a more valuable employee benefits package that has a real, tangible benefit for the employee and even their family can make a huge difference.
A better insight into the benefits that work
If employees aren’t utilising their employee benefits because they don’t know their value this may hinder the business when deciding which benefits to introduce, remove or improve.
If employees are fully aware of how their benefits work, the company will get a more accurate picture of how effective their benefits are and most importantly how popular they are.
How to better communicate benefits
We’ve written about this before in an article about communicating employee benefits, including quick and actionable tips on how to improve benefits communications and boost engagement.
Ultimately, no two businesses are the same and it’s important to find the right mix of communications channels for your business.
Effective employee benefits communication can drastically improve benefits take-up and enhance the employee experience.
How an employee benefits provider can help
At caboodle, we support clients of ours not just with standard marketing as part of their employee benefits platform package, but with bespoke benefits communications too.
We help clients with roadshows, events, workshops, emails, posters and much more to help employers effectively communicate their benefits and engage their team effectively.
We’ve developed bespoke branded brochures, banners and events marketing and worked with suppliers to help educate employees about the value of their benefits.
We also extend beyond this to support employees with any queries regarding their benefit schemes.
For more information, take a look at what we provide with our employee benefits platform options.