Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, said: “Getting the right benefits for staff is a huge investment for any company, so it does not make any sense that a fifth of employers seem to be letting them gather dust on a shelf, metaphorically speaking. Making practical and effective use of employee benefits needs to be a priority for all businesses.”

Recruitment and retention

Employee benefits are often used as a point of differentiation to attract staff during recruitment. However, GRiD warns that employees can be let down if that enthusiasm is not extended past the recruitment process to support retention. Employers need to be consistent, and where employee benefits play an important part in the recruitment process, that attention to them needs to be continued.

Valuing employee benefits via utilisation

Although it’s wrong to say that employee benefits will only be of full value if they are utilised, there is indeed a correlation between deeper use and improved appreciation. However, when employees are left to their own devices to sign up for employee benefits, they are less likely to fully understand everything that is on offer and therefore less likely to make full use of it.

As GRiD points out, employee benefits that are not used, or not used fully, will be the first to be cut when budgets are tight.

Moxham continued: “In the event of budget constraints, any employee benefit that has low take-up rates is at risk of being dropped, which is such a loss to employees but also to HR teams who will have worked hard to set out the case for the benefit in the first place, as well as selecting the right provider.

“Recruits are often most open to hearing about employee benefits programmes so employers should strike while the iron is hot with this group. However, employers wishing to improve utilisation may need to regularly revise their approach amongst longer standing employees to get traction.

“Encouraging the take-up of employee benefits really is a virtuous circle as employees who have a positive experience will also start to communicate the advantages to colleagues too. While employee-to-employee communication is a vital part of the utilisation jigsaw, employers should never become complacent and should always have a strategy in place to encourage take-up.”

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