Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsBenefitsFlexible benefitsPay & benefits

Employee experience gains importance in benefits offer

by Jo Faragher 15 Mar 2019
by Jo Faragher 15 Mar 2019 Free fruit and snacks are among the many expectations employees now have of their experience at work
Free fruit and snacks are among the many expectations employees now have of their experience at work

More than half of employers plan to develop their “employee experience” in a bid to boost engagement, recruitment and retention, according to benefits company Aon.

Its 2019 Benefits and Trends Survey found that 51% plan to work on their employer value proposition (EVP) or employee experience, compared with 16% last year.

Benchmarking benefits

XpertHR benefits and allowances survey 2018: Health benefits

How to benchmark your pay and benefits against those of other employers 

A significant majority of employers believe the strategy will bear fruit for engagement (65%), recruitment (63%) and retention (70%), Aon found. Almost a quarter already have an EVP in place, but around a third of these employers do not communicate it with their staff.

Nearly all (97%) respondents thought that employees’ expectations of their experience at work had changed. Some of the “nice-to-haves“ employers cited included flexible hours, mobile working, free fruit and snacks, emergency childcare support and help for mental health issues.

Employee experience is now a major determining factor in how companies structure benefits, according to Aon, with 72% of companies operating a single benefits strategy across all global locations.

However, only 13.5% have a global technology platform to support this, according to Aon, although 26% are working towards this objective.

More than three-quarters benchmark their benefits with peers. “Employers often use internal and external pay and benefits benchmarking as a core part of their strategy to help decision-making,” said Richard Morgan, principal at Aon. “However, this is an important part of an EVP which employers are seeing as increasingly effective to meet the unique needs of both the business and its employees.”

He said more organisations were designing benefits packages with employee experience in mind.

“For example, wellbeing, and particularly mental health, are key to the overall employee experience for many organisations, so it’s important to align benefits to support mental health strategies as well as to communicate them effectively to employees.

When it comes to communications, it is likely that employers don’t feel this is successful. They say the biggest challenge they have with benefits is communication, yet most have an annual communications budget of less than £5,000.”

More than three-quarters of respondents to Aon’s survey also felt that an employer should take some responsibility for influencing employee health and changing behaviours. Within that, 62.5% said employees’ financial wellbeing was the responsibility of the employer.

A multi-generational workforce also threw up challenges for employers – 50% felt they were meeting the needs of all generations in their workforce, but 89% felt they would have to change their offer to meet the needs of future generations at work.

Jo Faragher
Jo Faragher

Jo Faragher has been an employment and business journalist for 20 years. She regularly contributes to Personnel Today and writes features for a number of national business and membership magazines. She won the Willis Towers Watson HR journalist of the year award in 2015 and has been highly commended twice.

previous post
Legal guidance: Whistleblowing in the NHS
next post
Sharp decline in UK employee confidence

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

You may also like

Government childcare plans aim to reduce cost of...

4 Jul 2022

BT workers vote for strike action over pay

1 Jul 2022

Gender pay gap ‘won’t close until 2151’

27 Jun 2022

PwC to award inflation-busting pay increase

27 Jun 2022

Graduate salaries rise sharply as search for talent...

27 Jun 2022

‘Ministers must increase employee mileage rates’ as costs...

23 Jun 2022

Six findings from the national living wage review

22 Jun 2022

‘General strike’ threat looms as unions voice pay...

20 Jun 2022

The heat is on and so is some...

17 Jun 2022

Google to pay $118m to settle equal pay...

15 Jun 2022
  • The ultimate guide to payroll for small businesses PROMOTED | You’ve started a business that has expanded to the point of requiring more staff to meet demand. Congratulations!...Read more
  • NSPCC revamps its learning strategy with child wellbeing at its heart PROMOTED | The NSPCC’s mission is to prevent abuse and neglect...Read more
  • Diversity versus inclusion: Why the difference matters PROMOTED | It’s possible for an environment to be diverse, but not inclusive...Read more
  • Five steps for organisations across the globe to become more skills-driven PROMOTED | The shift in the world of work has been felt across the globe...Read more
  • The future of workforce development PROMOTED | Northumbria University and partners share insight...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+