Employers reshape benefit strategy amid increasing focus on wellbeing and the employee experience

Benefits strategies for 2022 - Improving the employee experience

Main Drivers for Benefits

Number one external influence driving benefits strategies in the UK is the focus on inclusion & diversity according to seventy six percent of organisations.

External influences on benefits strategy are. Number two with sixty four percent increased remote working. Number three with fifty two percent with tight labour markets. Number four with fifty two percent increased focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance. Number five with forty one percent reporting advances in technology for benefits. Number six with thirty three percent reporting rising cost and insurance premiums. Number seven with twenty six percent reporting organisation restructuring. And finally number 8 with nineteen percent reporting rising incidence of claims.

Please note that the percentages indicate “To a great extent” or “To a very great extent”, and the source is the 2021 Benefits Trends Survey, United Kingdom.

Employers main concern for their workforce is employees stress, burnout and mental health issues, with eighty one percent reporting this.

Sixty five percent of companies intend to enhance mental health support in the next two years.

More than one third, or thirty nine percent, of respondents admitted that support around emotional wellbeing has been a weakness for them over the past year.

Digital approaches on the increase with thirty four percent of employers intend to focus on a digital approach to benefits, with forty six percent planning or considering adopting a digital hub.

Today the following percentages of respondents have shared their digital approaches. 

Twenty one percent said digital is not particularly relevant to our benefits programmes.

Fifty nine percent said they were at an early stage of digital adoption with basic digital capabilities.

Eighteen percent responded saying they have a digital approach that clearly supports their benefits strategy

Only two percent said that today digital is embedded across all benefits, differentiating them from other organisations and personalising the employee experience.

In the next two years organisations have responded to say they will change their approaches with.

Two percent said digital is not particularly relevant to our benefits programmes.

Seven percent said they were at an early stage of digital adoption with basic digital capabilities.

Eighteen percent responded saying they have a digital approach that clearly supports their benefits strategy

Seventy three percent said that today digital is embedded across all benefits, differentiating them from other organisations and personalising the employee experience.

Enhancing management information, review of providers, and cost and risk management are key objectives for managing benefits. 

Fifty percent will enhance management information.

Forty four percent will perform a strategic review or providers and advisors.

Forty two percent will optimise cost and risk management.

Did you know from our emerging trends in healthcare delivery survey that sixty percent and fifty six percent of organisations planned to use data and analytics in the next two years to help understand employee perceptions/utilisation of benefits and trends in employees’ health and wellbeing, respectively.

What is happening in the future?

Eighty percent of respondents cited that focusing on improving the employee experience was a key priority.

Employee experience, communication and engagement are intrinsically linked, but there is a disconnect between intent and action.

Eighty percent of employers say engagement is a key priority, but fifty six percent say it’s the least effective area of benefits.

Fifty three percent will offer market competitive benefits.

Twenty seven percent will Address the individual needs of our workforce.

Twenty six percent will offer significant flexibility and choice in benefits.

Please note that percentages indicate “To a great extent” or “To a very great extent”. 

The source for all of this is the 2021 Benefits Trends Survey, United Kingdom.