Only 36% of employers have a benefits communication strategy in place, despite the fact that 90% of them say increasing employee engagement in, and understanding of, benefits is important. This is one of the key findings of the latest annual survey from.
The main reason organisations implement online flexible benefits is to increase employee engagement, followed by a desire to offer employees choice and to improve staff retention. The most popular benefits in a flex scheme in 2017 are:
The low priority given by employers to benefit scheme governance (only 11% cited this as an objective in implementing flex) makes it difficult for employers to understand if a scheme is fit for purpose, or whether wider objectives in launching a flex programme, are met.
Jeff Fox, principal at Aon Employee Benefits, said:
‘It is surprising that governance was one of the lowest-rated objectives . . . Our view is that this needs to change as a lack of governance makes it very difficult to know whether the scheme is fit for purpose or if objectives are met. It is also very difficult to prove return on investment. Indeed, a third of respondents weren’t sure how or if they were measuring the success of their schemes.'