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Will the flexibility of benefits help retain and engage employees in the ‘new normal’?
Is it a case of returning to normality? Or will a lot of people be making work and personal life adjustments as a result of the pandemic? How can organisations retain and engage employees; especially when the new normal could be working for home or different shift patterns and especially when budgets are tight. There’s currently a trend towards “benefit fairness”, for example, one size fits all packages, but when it comes at the expense of flexibility can it really be the answer?
There’s now a growing realisation that the ‘new normal’ might well be articulated by constant change. So, retention and engagement will ultimately require reinvention. It will require the kind of flexibility, reach and efficiencies that only technology can facilitate; especially where employee benefits are concerned. And that flexibility should apply as much to the benefits themselves, as to the delivery mechanism.
The transformational effect of technology
A recent study found that those organisations that manage to use technology to transform products and services are 4.3 times more likely to accomplish high levels of customer satisfaction.1
We’re already seeing this with access to frontline GP services, where technology in the form of video appointments have now become a convenient alternative to face-to-face appointments. Use of online GP services, and other services like Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), has increased exponentially.2
Such technology is here to stay, as it clearly has value beyond the pandemic. So how can organisations further build on this success?
Employers need to get back to basics
Employers can look at their current employee benefit and wellbeing programme. Does it address the basic needs of their employees? And is it flexible enough to ensure relevance to all employees?
Let’s look at what really matters to people when it comes to benefits, health and wellbeing. As mentioned earlier, the availability of healthcare support when needed are now front of mind.
Our recent research found that employees, especially women, recognise the value of products such as group income protection in the current climate with regards to pressure on public health services. Over a quarter (27%) of women who said that group income protection was relevant to them said this: ‘in the current climate, I am concerned about the pressure on NHS services so want to protect my health the best I can’.3
The same goes for finances of course. Injury or health issues including Covid-19, together at 21% represented the top reason for debt in 2020, ahead of unemployment or redundancy (18%).4
So, with salary protection in the event of long-term illness or injury, personalised return to work programmes and added value services, such as eldercare support and EAPs, there’s a strong argument for group income protection to be considered a basic essential.
Full circle back to technology: the enabler
So, why doesn’t group income protection form part of every benefit and wellbeing programme? For a start, there’s a misconception that it could be expensive. It doesn’t have to be. It could be implemented on a cost neutral basis, where no additional cost will apply to the employer. The second argument has more legs though: traditional group income protection could be perceived as quite inflexible. There are limited options to personalise the benefit to need.
As mentioned earlier, in a bid to meet diversity and inclusion goals, there’s now a noticeable trend towards fairness of benefits, with some companies introducing a minimum level of group life and / or income protection for all. This is an improvement. But when fairness is prioritised to the exclusion of flexibility, it does nothing to empower those who want to scale up and down benefits to suit their needs. In other words, it doesn’t truly support diversity and inclusion goals.
However, next generation group protection – like Protect – is designed to combat this. Bringing to employees’ mobile phone enabled group life, income protection and critical illness cover, it’s inherently engaging. It also provides employees with choice and the ability to make changes to cover levels 24/7, dialling up or down cover to suit their needs.
Retaining and engaging employees in the pandemic economy – let’s ditch ‘new normal’, necessitates a considerable rethink. But getting the benefit and wellbeing basics right might just represent the perfect starting point.
Sources:
1Josh Bersin Academy, The Big Reset Playbook: Returning to the workplace, Nov 2020 https://joshbersin.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Big-Reset-Playbook_Returning-to-the-Workplace_Josh-Bersin_2020.pdf
2GRiD, 2020 Group Risk Claims press release https://grouprisk.org.uk/2021/05/14/employer-sponsored-group-risk-benefits-pay-record-claims-to-employees-during-2020
3Legal & General commissioned Opinium to carry out research, involving 1,087 UK employees who have access to either IP, CIC or EAP, Dec 2020
4Step Change, A snapshot of UK persona debt statistics in 2020 [Accessed May 2021] https://www.stepchange.org/policy-and-research/2020-personal-debt-statistics.aspx?utm_source=linkedIn&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=stats-yearbook
Substantiation
- Big-Reset-Playbook_Returning-to-the-Workplace_Josh-Bersin_2020.pdf (joshbersin.com) – page 9
- Employer-sponsored Group Risk benefits pay record claims to employees during 2020 – GRiD – Group Risk Development
- https://wellbeingnews.co.uk/news/the-gender-paradox-group-protection-benefits/
- StepChange Statistics Yearbook 2020 – page 4
