Published in the Peterborough Telegraph on the 18th March 2021
I wonder, have businesses taken a look at their employee benefit’s package recently? Would reviewing their benefits offering even be on the agenda at this time? Based on some of the content of recent job adverts, I would suggest there is definitely merit in organisations looking at the jobs they are recruiting for and seeing if the organisations benefits, match the role. Especially now, when more organisations are wanting working from home permanency for roles, does citing ‘bike to work scheme’, ‘free on-site parking’ and ‘on-site free vended drinks machines’ as part of the benefits attract the right applicants ? Probably not in this instance, as surely advertising benefits that a candidate would not be able to realise, is a turn off at application stage ?
Employers should be visibly acknowledging that their benefit offering is a differentiator in securing the best candidates applying for their organisation’s roles instead of losing out to their main competitors.
I work with clients to shape their employee benefits in the term of ‘enablers’. I get them to ask the question ‘what will this employee benefit, enable my employee to do ? The greater an employee is enabled to deliver their role to the best of their ability, then the flow leads directly to greater organisational success.
At any time, an organisations benefit offering needs to be fit for purpose, and this is more relevant than ever today. Employee’s needs have significantly shifted over the past twelve months and this has impacted on what employee’s desire from their employer, alongside a fulfilling role.
Relevancy is key when reviewing a benefit offering and hearing directly from the employees is a great way to tune in. Communicating with employees direct, and /or through the employee consultation group is an excellent starting point, and then work can begin for categorising the ideas into whether it is a benefit for all, or a bespoke group.
For example, we all know how impacted working parents have been during the past twelve months and this is not an insignificant percentage of many organisations’ employee cohort. With an organisation acknowledging this and looking for ways to support this group, demonstrates to these employees the organisation values their contribution and wants to enable it to continue.
Just review, identify and repeat for other employee cohorts, large and small to keep striving to be an employer of choice.