By Damian Stancombe, Barnett Waddingham
There are a number of curious terms and technical expressions that populate the world of employee benefits. Some, like ‘protection’ (insurance), can easily be deciphered. Others, like ‘wellbeing’ (with an emphasis on living a positive and a healthy life), are a bit more ethereal.
This therefore creates a challenge for employers. How can they connect with their workforce about the employee benefits on offer?
Organisations must be able to effectively communicate with employees. If people don’t understand what’s on offer they risk making poor decisions that won’t satisfy their needs and wants. More and more employers are now recognising this. It’s a key reason our employee and other digital benefit platforms continue to grow.
Employee choice and the ‘right’ benefits
We work on a simple process. How can you enable people to understand their own situation? How can they then be supported to Learn, Play and Plan around the suite of benefits available?
By talking about benefits in an engaging way you can help provide the benefits that people really need.
The result? More employees actively review the range of benefits available to them and, with a helpful nudge, select those that suit them best.
This approach is at the heart of digital world of employee Discounts, Choice and Wealth.
Discounts aims to help people utilise their pay. Clicking on a digital dashboard helps them spend less on the things they need and want in their daily life, both on the high street and online.
Wealth, on the other hand, provides interactive tools to help employees improve their current financial wellbeing and to plan for their retirement. We help employees plan for the today and for the tomorrow.
Choices recognises that people have diverse needs at different points in their live. So it’s important to tailor benefits that suit their age, life-stage, family status, health and financial needs — and point them in the right direction.
The future of employee engagement
Empowering people through effective engagement is essential. People are empowered when they’re directed to things that make a positive change to their circumstances.
Happier, more empowered employees are also more productive — so the employer also wins.
When you give employees the opportunity to choose benefits they need, you’re showing how much you value their physical, mental and financial wellbeing.
