Only 4% of employers provide staff with a flexible allowance to spend on wellbeing, but those that do see a 23% uplift in employee engagement rates. This is the headline finding from the latest benefits report from Thomsons Online Benefits.
Organisations struggle to transform outdated approaches to benefits towards ones that fully support employees’ financial, physical and mental wellness. Over half of staff responding to the survey would prefer to be offered a flexible allowance to support wellness needs, but very few organisations provide this and three-quarters are not even considering such an approach. However, for the first time in the research series, improving employee health and wellbeing emerges as one of the top three positive impacts employers want from their benefits programme.
The report covers 500 UK employers and 200 UK HR professionals and identifies a number of disconnects between what employees want and the employer’s provision; for example, 90% of employers offer group life cover yet only 5% will fund initiatives to support staff wellbeing. Similarly, 65% of employees want broad financial wellbeing education and support yet only 7% of organisation provide it.