Forty-two percent of employees don’t know about or understand all their employee benefits. According to HRs:

• 25% are aware of them but don’t understand them all
• 11% are aware of some of them, and
• 6% don’t know about or understand any of them

Employers put in a lot of time, effort and resources to get the right benefits for their staff. For them to be valued, utilised and understood, it’s absolutely vital that companies communicate them.

Methods used to communicate benefits included apps, written and promotional campaigns, with the most popular being:

• Email, utilised by 37% of employers
• Staff welcome pack, utilised by 34% of employers
• Staff handbook, utilised by 29% of employers
• Noticeboard, utilised by 27% of employers
• Company intranet, utilised by 24% of employers
• Before day one of employment/offer letter, utilised by 22% of employers

Eight percent of employers admit to not communicating any employee benefits at all.

Employees themselves were asked how they like to have their benefits communicated, and the order of popularity largely mirrors what companies are doing.

• Email, preferred by 38% of employees
• Staff welcome pack, preferred by 25% of employees
• Company intranet, preferred by 22% of employees
• Staff handbook, preferred by 17% of employees
• Before day one of employment/offer letter, preferred by 16% of employees
• Noticeboard, preferred by 15% of employees

It’s great to see a wide range of communication methods being utilised. Different methods will resonate with different staff, so the best way to get the message across is to use a mix, including digital, written and in-person.

Pandemic

Forty-three percent of employers say they changed how they communicate their benefits in light of the pandemic. Sixty percent increased their activity, 53% placed more emphasis on their support for wellbeing and 45% increased their investment.

During the pandemic, people looked to their employers for support for health and wellbeing. This was an opportunity for employers to tell their staff about all the benefits they offered, from healthcare and group risk to all the embedded services such as access to virtual GPs and counselling – all the support that people needed and were struggling to get, but could access via their employee benefits.

This increase in activity to communicate employee benefits will pay dividends and we’d encourage employers to continue with this.