Why bother tailoring and targeting your benefits?
Many of the employers we work with are taking a more strategic approach to voluntary benefits. That’s not to say that they’re not offering a wide choice of benefits, but they are making sure that the options available are relevant to their employees and meet the strategic HR objectives of the organisation.
For example, if they have specific HR strategies around health and well-being they can use a voluntary platform to support this. Things like health checks, fitness clubs, and fruit hampers spring to mind.
But this isn’t just about the number and type of benefits on offer it’s also about communication. You can keep a vast array of choice as long as you are targeted in how you communicate it. So, if you have a large number of employees with families you could use targeted communications to highlight family days out and family holidays, whilst keeping a wide range of other benefits for employees without families.
How is a more tailored approach beneficial?
It’s just common sense really. Everyone likes to feel their personal needs are being catered for. I’m much more likely to respond to a timely and targeted communication than I am to a blanket e-mail. I suppose it’s the Amazon approach to employee benefits…’Sally we know you like exotic travel so here’s 6% off lastminute.com holidays to Dubai.’
The more tailored and personalised voluntary benefits become, the higher the perceived value of their benefits is to the employee and as a result they will feel more valued.
What are You at Work offering to help employers implement and run a more tailored scheme?
It’s all about understanding as much as possible about their employees, and then targeting them with benefits that are most likely to be of interest. With the right data employers can start to segment their audience. For example, a 20-year old employee getting started on their career path with a large student loan hanging over their head is going to have different priorities and needs from an ‘empty nester’ looking ahead to retirement.
We work closely with clients to think not only about tailoring the benefits scheme but also tailoring the communications to meet the needs of all employees. That requires the right information, so we understand the profile of the employees we're talking to, and the right technology to ensure we can differentiate and personalise the message.
Do you think these schemes can be run by employers successfully in-house?
There’s no reason why not, if you have the right resources in place. And this is key. Before embarking on setting up an in-house voluntary benefits scheme employees should ask themselves a few critical questions like:
Who will source the offers?
- that includes selecting reputable suppliers and agreeing appropriate terms and conditions.
Who will benchmark the offers?
- to make sure they stay relevant and competitive.
And, of course, if you’re going to take a more strategic approach you need to make sure you have the appropriate tools to do it
- How will we keep employees engaged all year round?
- Will there be a website? Who will build it? How will we manage the content? How will we tailor the content?
- What other communications tools should we use and who will manage them? E.g. posters, booklets, regular email updates, SMS.
It’s easy for an in-house voluntary benefits scheme to become a cottage industry all of it’s own - eating into the resource of a whole team of people. Employers should think carefully about whether running an internal voluntary benefits scheme is the best use of their people – especially given how stretched most HR departments are. Part of that of course is a consideration of the cost and whether it might be more efficient to use outside help and the resulting economies of scale that brings.
Sally Winter is Head of Marketing and Communications at You at Work.