Employee Benefits Administration: Meeting Changing UK Employee Demands
Gone are the days when company benefits were an optional extra. Today, an employee benefits programme is one of the most important aspects of any workplace and offering meaningful perks and rewards is more crucial than ever. A good benefits and rewards programme has the potential to positively impact both employees and their companies. By implementing attractive perks and effectively maintaining your benefits strategy, you can help your employees truly thrive and improve business performance in the process.
This is known as employee benefits administration, a fundamental process which ensures benefits adapt to employee needs, comply with regulations and are regularly refreshed. To get the most out of your benefits and rewards programme, effective admin is a must!
Join us as we explore the importance of employee benefits administration and its role in tailoring benefits to meet the changing needs of UK employees. With these insights, you can maximise your benefits strategy and deliver more powerful boosts. Exciting!
What is employee benefits administration?
Employee benefits administration is the process of implementing and managing the benefits available to a company’s employees. It’s much more than just taking care of the paperwork; it’s about maintaining a strong benefits offering that resonates with employees and meets their needs. Here are just some of the things benefits admin involves:
- Building an employee benefits programme
- Researching benefits and rewards
- Choosing and tailoring benefits
- Enrolling employees on benefits schemes
- Managing joiners and leavers
- Communicating updates to programmes
- Tracking the usage of benefits
- Updating the employee benefits programme
- Budgeting benefit and reward costs
- Evaluating the success of benefits programmes
- Ensuring employee benefits comply with regulations
Within a company, these responsibilities are carried out by the HR department or a benefits administrator in the HR department.
Why is employee benefits administration important?
An attractive employee benefits offering is more important than ever. Not only will it help you nurture your team members and give them the support they deserve, but it’ll help your company stand out in this competitive market.
When asked, 38% of employees stated that they were attracted to their roles by the benefits on offer, yet 47% of employees said their business’ leaders don’t truly understand what their employees want from rewards. This misalignment between what companies offer for benefits and rewards versus what staff want is the reason HR benefits administration is so crucial.
The role of an administrator is vital in ensuring benefits are relevant, effectively implemented and well organised. By staying up to date on trends and monitoring feedback from employees, HR can tailor their benefits programmes to meet staff needs. In turn this will drive motivation, productivity and engagement as staff feel supported and satisfied that their requirements are being met. Furthermore, a well-managed benefits scheme offers an impressive return on investment. By keeping your team happy, you’ll naturally improve your company culture which will reduce turnover and help attract top talent to your business. Simply put, it pays to boost your people with the benefits that make a difference!
Changing employee demands: The challenges
Introducing a benefits scheme is just the beginning. As employee needs change and trends emerge, you need to keep on top of benefits admin, adapting your perks and rewards when necessary to ensure they remain relevant. While some changes are less predictable, we’ve highlighted the main factors that will influence the benefits you offer your employees.
It’s no secret that financial stress impacts people’s wellbeing and puts pressure on them in all areas of life. As an employer, you can support your team by giving them access to benefits and tools that make a tangible difference. Factors such as rising living costs, increased utility bills and expensive childcare costs often force people to prioritise what they spend their money on, making certain benefits more valuable. When money is tight, your employees will likely want perks that help them make their income stretch further or help them relieve stress caused by their financial circumstances, such as staff discounts and childcare vouchers.
It’s also important to remember that rising costs can negatively impact your company’s finances, resulting in budget restrictions. Worryingly, 43% of HR professionals list budget restrictions as a primary concern with upgrading strategies. To ensure your benefits strategy is minimally impacted, you need to identify what works for your business and your people and tailor your benefits programme accordingly. After all, there’s no point in going all out on expensive perks if your employees won’t use them!
Rising costs
There’s been a huge cultural shift in attitudes towards work, with more employees seeking a healthy work-life balance than ever before. It’s easy to see why! A healthy work-life balance improves motivation, job satisfaction, wellbeing and much more. Plus, it allows people to make time for the things that matter to them like spending time with family or enjoying hobbies. As a result, benefits that encourage a good work-life balance are highly desirable and worth incorporating into your programme. From holiday sacrifice schemes to flexible work opportunities, there are plenty of options to choose from. The best part is that you’ll demonstrate care and consideration for your employees’ personal lives which will go a long way towards helping them thrive.
Better work-life balance
The world of work is consistently changing, shaping the needs of employees along the way. To help your team thrive and reach their full potential, you need to adapt your benefits offering to align with their changing needs. Find out what your people value and use those insights to tailor the perks and rewards you offer them. Whether it’s mental health support, recognition from peers, a health cash plan, flexible working or relevant discounts, you can give your people the benefits that make a difference. In doing so, you’ll boost them and your business.
Adapting to employee needs
One of the most important aspects of employee benefit administration is ensuring company perks and rewards stay compliant with laws and regulations. If your business fails to comply, you’ll be at risk of costly legal issues and damage to your reputation. So, make sure your HR team stays up to date with changing laws and regulations, making updates where necessary. They should also understand any minimum regulatory requirements or tax implications associated with your benefits so they can communicate this with your employees when needed.
Compliance management
5 steps to master the administration of benefits
Setting up and managing an employee benefits scheme isn’t easy. But don’t worry, we’re here to help make the process as simple as possible. Read our five steps to mastering employee benefits admin below:
To get the most out of your programme, it needs to resonate with your employees and give them plenty of reasons to use it. The best way to achieve this is to get to know your team, what they value and need from their benefits, and then tailor your scheme accordingly. Start with the basics and cover mandatory benefits like a pension scheme, then start researching more specific benefits to suit your team such as corporate gym discounts or a health cash plan. You can use employee demographics and surveys to help you identify the most relevant perks to offer.
1. Choose an employee benefits programme
Before you launch or update any benefits, you need to make sure they comply with laws and regulations, so you don’t end up facing costly legal issues down the road. Check you’ve covered mandatory benefits (such as an employee pension scheme) and are aware of how different benefits are taxed and regulated. A good employee benefits provider will also be able to advise you on this, which is why it’s always worth getting their input.
2. Do your compliance check
Once you’ve covered the basics, it’s time to launch your benefits! Ensure all your employees are enrolled on your programme and that they can easily access their benefits and rewards. To drum up excitement and encourage your people to make the most of what’s on offer, you also need to educate them on how things work. When asked, 91% of employees said they want to receive more personalised communications about rewards. So, whenever you share a new perk or update existing ones, communicate with your employees via a range of channels to keep them in the loop. Not only will this drive engagement, but it’ll help your people enjoy the boosts they deserve!
3. Enroll your employees
Success looks different for every business and its benefits programme, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less important to measure the success of your own. By setting clear goals and keeping track of how your benefits are performing, you can identify areas of improvement. For example, if you monitor the number of employees who have engaged with and used each of your benefits, you’ll see which ones are worth focusing on and putting more resources into. Similarly, these insights can also help you identify which benefits are underperforming and could use a boost.
4. Monitor the success of your benefits
Did you know that more than half of employees state they are never or rarely consulted on shaping reward and recognition schemes? Worrying since they’re the people using them! Instead of guessing what your team want, encourage them to provide feedback on their benefits programme and use it to make meaningful changes. Through surveys and feedback forms, you can easily identify areas for improvement. Whether they’re suggesting a new benefit or letting you know something doesn’t work well, take the time to look into things. Not only will it make your benefits scheme more effective, but it’ll help you build a stronger relationship with your employees, ultimately driving engagement too!
5. Encourage feedback and make changes
Choosing the right benefits programme
There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to choosing a benefits scheme. Every employee is different and what’s ‘right’ won’t look the same for every business. But with a tailored employee benefits programme that aligns with the values and needs of your people, you can deliver meaningful boosts that make all the difference. Using a combination of feedback and research, identify the benefits that your team want and the features that will encourage engagement. To help your people get the most out of their scheme, offer an extensive range of benefits to suit all needs and ensure they’re easy to access and use. With the help of an employee benefits app, you can give your people access to all their perks on the go, making it even easier for them to get boosted. In short, there are plenty of ways to tailor your scheme, you just need to work with your people to choose the things that matter!
How can Boostworks help?
As we’ve said before, setting up and maintaining a benefits programme can be challenging. It’s crucial to ensure that your company’s perks are compliant with regulations and that they genuinely help your team thrive. Otherwise, you won’t see the results you’re after!
Whether you’ve already launched a benefits scheme or you’re thinking about introducing new perks, we can help you and your people get the most out of what’s on offer. We’ve spent over 20 years collaborating with companies to deliver tailored, flexible benefits schemes that deliver boosts that last. From rewards and peer-to-peer recognition tools to corporate gym discounts and wellbeing benefits, we offer a fantastic range of perks so you can hand-pick the ones that will resonate with your team. We’d love to show you how it all works! Why not book a demo with one of our people experts and see our solutions in action? At the very least, it might give you some helpful inspiration!
