Why HR managers must tailor their workplace benefits
As businesses and their employees settle into a new routine, it’s the perfect time to take a step back and assess your employee engagement.
As businesses strive to deliver exceptional experiences, easier access, and more streamlined journeys for their customers, it’s critical that managers and leaders check in with those that serve those customers – the workforce.
Recent findings by MetLife UK showed that 74% of workers would work harder for an employer that provided more individualised benefits. Likewise, 50% of employees even claimed they would sacrifice more of their basic salary in favour of more personalised workplace rewards.
This suggests, for whatever reason, employers seem to be missing the mark in terms of providing the right perks for individual employees.
The prominence of personalisation
Happy staff make for happy customers. However, in a world where customer experience is becoming the mot du jour, business leaders are focusing on customising their products, support services, marketing, and buyer journeys to suit the individual customer. As organisations put more budget, and more processes in place to personalise the experience for customers, they are in danger of neglecting those who reap the rewards for their business every day – their staff.
Customising your workplace benefits, in the same way as we try to customise experiences to meet individual customer needs, values and desires could have a huge impact. In short, it’s time to start holding your valuable talent on as high a pedestal as your customers.
How to personalise your workplace perks
For many employers and HR leaders, especially those that oversee a large workforce, the concept of individualised rewards might seem daunting. But with the right practices in place, and workplace rewards solutions on your side, it’s easier to deliver more choices to your staff when it comes to their work benefits.
Involve your employees
Helping your workers to feel involved in the selection and customisation of your workplace rewards could hugely improve their sense of connection and association with the organisation, and ultimately your employee engagement.
Canvass for opinions
It’s crucial for leaders to tap into the sentiments of their workforce if they want to make meaningful changes. Knowing what your employees value the most isn’t something that can be presumed or approximated. Regular polls or surveys that canvass for opinion in the workplace can help employers truly understand the organisations’ strengths and weaknesses from their staff’s perspective.
Listen and react
Giving staff a platform to voice these views, whether, via staff surveys, one-to-ones or simply by managers keeping an ear to the ground, listening to what employees want enables HR leaders to assess staff desires and make the incremental changes that matter. Simply asking workers for their opinion can help them feel heard, valued, and invested as part of the organisation’s bigger picture.
Develop more personalised options
Whether it’s an in-house creche, subsidised childcare vouchers, medical insurance, or financial support to help guide them through the cost-of-living crisis, it’s important to listen to employees’ needs, and build a portfolio of benefits that appeal to all demographics. Don’t forget, your benefits offering shouldn’t be viewed as a one-size-fits-all strategy. Different age groups within your workforce will have different priorities and values, likewise, men and women will have different perks that appeal to them. Implementing a broader selection of workplace benefits and allowing better flexibility and freedom for each employee to choose those that work for them, will empower your staff, and make them feel better connected with your organisation.
Providing the right rewards for each employee is about having the best tools on your side, which should allow your staff to customise their benefits package to suit their needs and desires.
Strait Logics’ Flexible Benefits solution provides you with the comprehensive software to hand-pick and manage your portfolio of chosen benefits. In turn, your employees benefit from an easy-to-use hub where they can access a range of benefits to suit their lifestyle, age, and stage of their career. While streamlining the process of offering workplace rewards, you’ll also be able to truly offer more customised perks that drive stronger employee engagement for the future of your business.
