One of the consistent things I have observed over the years is how poorly companies manage their benefits
#expensive,
Benefits cost companies anywhere between 15-35% of salary. For emerging markets, it is usually towards the higher end of the range. Yet, the way benefits are managed, and communicated is generally a poor show. Benefits communication alone is one of the biggest culprits around why benefits are underutilized, and under-appreciated.
The entire spectrum of benefits management is wide, from insured to non-insured benefits, company perks, executive benefits etc. Figuring out what is part of the employee total reward package to perks of working at a company can be challenging.
The total wellness trends that have emerged over the years and accelerated by the pandemic, means companies are now beefing up their wellness offerings and figuring out a way to lump up
#benefits and
#wellness offerings together. However, there is still a long way to go on wellness for many companies.
If you say you care about employee
#wellbeing, do your employees even understand basic benefits coverage i.e. their coverage in case of emergency (Who to reach & how to get support). How many companies regularly communicate their offerings to employees in a way that it impacts their understanding of their coverage and leads to higher utilization of some of these benefits?. You cannot expect something to be used or appreciated unless its communicated properly and regularly.
Apart from the poor practice of not communicating benefits programs to employees properly, not a lot of companies (I have spoken to) actually run any kind of benefits
#analytics. Whether its loss ratios, benefits spend, recurring high risk illnesses in employees, utilization rates, breaking this down by employee category etc. Data driven decision making remains a big gap then.
Depth needs to be built around cost management. How do you ensure you are optimizing runway from every $ you spend. A common misconception around new benefits is that it costs 1000s of $.
#Benefitsdesign and
#benefitsstrategy can help ensure that you are only spending on what matters and its cheaper. Maybe convert some to lifestyle offerings that caters to different employee population. It maybe low volume but very high value to concerned employees.
How does one then ensure that employees truly understand and appreciate the investment in all these offerings. More importantly, what is the so-called ROI on these. In today’s time where inflation is touching the sky, companies need to balance cost vs employee well-being, you must invest and build the right strategy, design and drive decision making using analytics.
If you are struggling with any of these, or want to discuss, please reach out to us.
