5 Thoughts That Cross Employees’ Minds When Employee Benefits Are Mentioned

Talking about employee benefits is something that employers simply have to do if they want their expensive benefits programmes to be worth the investment, yet employees are rarely thrilled when their employer starts harking on about benefits.

Here are 5 thoughts that most employees will think when a discussion on employee benefits begins.

1. “Is this going to mean more work for me?”

Employee benefits are great and valued by employees – so long as they don’t have to do anything to get them. Any time there are several hoops to be jumped through in order to access a particular employee benefit, staff are much more likely to be put off.

By making it clear right at the beginning of any discussion on benefits that the effort required from the employees is minimal, the uptake is likely to be higher.

2. “Is this relevant for me?”

There is nothing worse for an employee than being presented with an employee benefits package that they have no interest in using. If the benefits have nothing to do with their lifestyle or priorities then it is obviously going to be difficult to keep that particular employee interested in their benefits.

By making sure the employee benefits your company offers are relevant to each individuals, employees will automatically pay much more attention.

3. “Why are my benefits not improving?”

Most employees expect their employee benefits to improve over time as recognition of their contribution to the company. When there is an obvious lack of improvement in their benefits package, staff will unsurprisingly be unpleased.

What’s even more frustrating for staff is when employers try to present cut-backs to employee benefits (or instances of no change in them) as improvements. Employees weren’t born yesterday and immediately see through any attempts to make that new cycle to work scheme seem like just compensation for halving the pension contributions.

4. “Why is it so complicated?”

This is another common thought and, to be fair, an often justified one. Employees don’t want a complicated process for registering for or claiming employee benefits, yet the process so often is complicated. Making it simpler to access benefits will make staff keener to participate.

5. “Why is the material so dull?”

So often, a presentation or leaflet about a company’s employee benefits is very poorly presented. We’ve seen powerpoints try to encourage staff to sign up to pension schemes that have had nothing more than a white background and black Time New Roman text.

While any content used to talk about employee benefits has to have substance, presenting it in a fun and colourful way is definitely worth doing to keep employees from losing all interest in any explanations. Pensions may still be boring to some, but an engaging presentation might just keep hold of attention spans for a little longer. Putting lipstick on a pig is still a mile better than not even trying.

_{Photo credit goes to falequin}