Nowadays employment benefits are no longer seen as a ‘nice to have’ but as an essential part of the total reward package. Sometimes they can even be the deciding factor in recruiting or retaining talent when compared with competitors. Here are some key points worth considering when looking at making our reward offerings as accessible as possible.

A key question: what is important?

Based on the growing importance of the overall reward package it’s crucial that you know what your employees actually want and value, so ask them. Hold focus groups and use surveys – named and/or anonymous - and remember that a one size doesn’t fit all.

Different demographics of employee are likely to want different things and lean on certain support and protection products or services at different times. Younger employees may be more interested in flexi holidays, discounts for eating out or eco-friendly incentives around walking or cycling to work, or e-bikes. Employees nearing retirement may want more focus  on their pension, health products and flexible working. Only by asking the entire workforce will you be able to build a clear picture of your overall requirements.

Raising awareness: Education

How should we be letting people know how much they could be saving? What are the best ways to visualise to people how easy it can really be? It all starts with education, and to do it right you need to draw an employment timeline that stretches right back to the beginning. Employees are most engaged with their pay and benefits when they first start, so make sure that part of their recruitment and induction is showing them all the benefits they have access to, how they can use them and where they should go if they have any problems or questions. Beyond this, the EVP can be re-activated at various key touchpoints throughout the year, either on an individual basis or as a group via quarterly or annual reviews, employee conferences, monthly meetings, one-to-ones. Again, there is no one-size-fits-all to this.

Finally, giving managers visual tools like those available in PayLab can also help them to spell out far more effectively to employees the pay aspects of reward. Using these tools they can promote far greater transparency, make better decisions around pay adjustments and use the dashboards to demonstrate to employees exactly where they stand in the organisation and against the market.

Communications Calendar

Related to the education piece is another key part of making reward accessible – effective communication. Each HR department can easily build a comms calendar advertising the various benefits throughout the year. This will look different for each organisation but there are certain things that will hold true for most and may look something like this:

January – March – with many people focused on resolutions and purging after a bit of over-indulgence, focus on your health and wellbeing-related benefits or making the most of your health cash plan.

April - May – to mark the start of the financial year you could concentrate on financial wellbeing, all that is in your EAP, how to make the most of your pension, a reminder on policies around holiday entitlement.

June – August – To mark the beginning of the second half of the year you could focus again on holiday entitlement reminding people to use their days or take any TOIL owed; also reiterating any flexibility around buying and selling annual leave if that is something you offer. With the days now longer and the weather hopefully at its best, you could also push any benefits and incentives around walking or cycling to work, or schemes enabling people to purchase bikes via salary sacrifice.

September – For those back-to-school weeks where the uniforms need updating and pencil cases need replacing, push any discount vouchers or offers with high street brands.

October – November – as the nights draw in, the sun goes away and the mood becomes a bit more sombre, help maintain morale by kick-starting comms around your recognition scheme, celebrating positive behaviour and generally promoting a good work ethic.

December – in the long run-up to Christmas, again push any discounts and offers you may have to help make salaries go a little further. This is also a good time to sign-post the financial and mental health support in your Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). This may not be relevant to many, but it can be a crucial safety net for the few - people who find Christmas and all of its excess stressful and overwhelming.

The Power of Digital: Accessibility and Convergence

 The final piece to this jigsaw, and potentially the most powerful, is using new technology to draw a string around it all and provide employeess with 24/7 access to their benefits. Using an HR smartphone app like HAPI you can literally put every benefit in every employee’s pocket, wherever they are and whenever they need it – on the bus, on the factory floor, out shopping, watching TV at home. And by bringing everything together in one safe place behind a single sign on (SSO), it can also skip the need for multiple logins to websites, intranets and payroll systems. Secure, quick to use, easy to access and in the palm of their hand - what could be more accessible than that?

To talk with me about any of these ideas or digital products, email me at holly.coe@innecto.com

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