Since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, HR teams have become busier than ever. Plus they’re having to adapt their EVP strategy and delivery to suit a workforce spread across office and home locations. Discover how you could be harnessing the hidden potential across your organisation to deliver better outcomes for employees.
The HR function has always had a broad portfolio of responsibilities to address. But with changes to our working environment due to COVID-19, there has been a fundamental shift in roles and responsibilities. A recent survey of over 400 HR professionals found that the crisis response to the pandemic has resulted in even greater organisational complexity for HR teams to address1. This creates new challenges in how best to support our employee value proposition (EVP) at a time when many teams are busy fighting fires day-to-day.
Benefits – including salary packaging, health, work arrangements, and tuition – are an area of the EVP that is often underused and undervalued by organisations and their people. We look at three ways HR teams can ensure their employee benefits program is reaching its full potential.
Less capacity, more challenges
The shift for many HR teams to crisis management is clear to those on the ground. In a pulse survey conducted in May 2020, the Australian HR Institute found almost a third of HR professionals had experienced a 50%2 increase in their workload. Rapid change and uncertainty is likely to be ongoing as organisations pivot to meet the growing challenge of maintaining culture and employee wellbeing in an increasingly remote workforce. In the same survey, almost half (44%) of respondents reported that cultivating connectedness is harder now than it was before the pandemic.
This changed context makes addressing employee wellbeing an even greater challenge and one that requires an agile and collaborative approach. As a central part of an EVP, employee benefits can continue to play an important role in wellbeing but delivery models must adapt to suit each employee’s situation and preferences. With these factors in mind, there are three important elements of success in an employee benefits offer:
1. Collaboration with internal teams is key
A recent Harvard Business Review article points out the complexity of problems HR teams are now facing. Instead of linear thinking and reliance on policies and procedures to navigate these complex challenges, HR teams need to harness collective wisdom to come up with innovative solutions. This collaborative approach is even more important at a time when HR are feeling unprepared to tackle the challenges of 2021 and beyond.
When it comes to adapting employee benefits programs to this changed work environment, building relationships with internal stakeholders such as communications, digital and payroll teams is key. IT and procurement can assist with expanding your benefits offer to digital solutions and delivery while communication and marketing can support you with innovative ways to promote new or enhanced benefits. For smooth delivery and a better experience for all employees, engage payroll early if they’re to be involved in administering benefits, such as salary-sacrificing and novated leasing.
“HR functions tend to be vertical. To help businesses adapt and transform, HR must work horizontally, alongside the business as a true partner, ceding control and co-owning outcomes with other stakeholders4.”
2. Embrace digital to make progress
COVID-19 has accelerated digital adoption by employers, both for remote working and managing a safe return to the workplace. According to a 2020 Return to the Workplace survey from KPMG, 99% of employers are turning to technology to manage the challenges of reopening during a pandemic. For delivering employee benefits, digital solutions can offer a number of advantages, such as engaging with employees whether they’re office-based or working from home. A 2020 research report from technology provider Darwin found with digital delivery, 53% of employees believe they get the same benefits experience no matter where they are based.
Digital tools can also reduce the pressure on resources from HR and other teams by giving employees a self-service option as well as access to a wider range of benefits such as a rewards program. Easier access to a broader suite of benefits can also drive participation with benefits. With greater participation, both employees and employers can realise greater value from their benefits offering.
88% of organisations that use a best-of-breed digital HR ecosystem are above or on track to meet employee engagement goals5.
3. Measure performance and provide data
Data is your biggest asset when it comes to monitoring, measuring and demonstrating the value of all your programs, including employee benefits. Taking up digital solutions for employee benefits can help you measure engagement with different benefits for employees across life stages and locations. This can help you to further customise benefits to meet the needs of employees and even personalise to the individual employee – with a specific discount or reward for example.
In addition to specific benefits, there are other measures that can demonstrate the value employee benefits deliver to your organisation. Regular reporting on participation and the total value employees are receiving from benefits can build a compelling case for the role of benefits in attraction and retention. By benchmarking the performance of your employee benefits offering against peers in your industry, you can demonstrate how a best-practice employee benefits solution can help employees feel more rewarded in their workplace and more engaged as a result. Explore the essentials of a competitive employee benefits program to help compare your program features with a best-practice solution with Maxxia’s ultimate guide to employee benefits.
Maxxia can offer your organisation a full benefits assessment to measure the effectiveness of your current employee benefits offer. We can also put a dollar figure to the potential savings and efficiencies from running the program and compare overall performance with best-practice for your industry.
