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+

BenefitsFlexible benefitsPay & benefitsSalary Sacrifice

Employers favour flexibility in benefits packages

by Sheila Attwood 21 Aug 2014
by Sheila Attwood 21 Aug 2014

Giving employees a choice over their benefits package can have a positive impact on their engagement. There are a number of ways in which employers can do this.

Research by XpertHR found that the most popular way of offering flexible benefits is to provide them on a salary-sacrifice basis.

Almost six employers in 10 (59.8%) allow employees to give up part of their salary in return for benefits, including childcare vouchers, additional pension contributions and bikes through a cycle-to-work scheme. Schemes can be administered in-house, and could attract national insurance savings for the employer.

Voluntary benefits packages are made available by around one-fifth of employers, and they do not necessarily require a significant input from them. Around 70% of the organisations surveyed by XpertHR that offer voluntary benefits use an external provider to administer the scheme, with only one in five managing it solely in-house. Benefits most likely to be available to employees in this way are retail discounts or vouchers, gym membership and dental insurance.

Flexible benefit schemes can, however, be complex for employers to administer. Just 12.3% of survey respondents have a fully flexible scheme, although many employers allow limited flexibility, such as the buying and selling of holiday. The top five benefits available in such schemes are:

  • childcare vouchers – offered in 87.2% of flexible benefits schemes;
  • pension contributions – 66.7% of organisations offer employees the option to vary the level of their pension contributions;
  • private medical insurance (PMI) – ordinarily PMI is often limited to higher-grade employees, but 66.7% of flexible benefits schemes include it as an option;
  • dental insurance – rarely a core benefit, but 64.1% of organisations include it in a flex plan; and
  • cycle-to-work schemes – often administered via salary sacrifice, they are included in the flex scheme at 64.1% of organisations.
Avatar
Sheila Attwood

Sheila Attwood is XpertHR's managing editor, pay and HR practice. She has more than 20 years' experience of working in a research and editorial capacity in a publishing environment, with a focus on the labour market, reward, industrial relations and HR practice. Sheila leads the team that is responsible for the HR and reward content on XpertHR, with a key responsibility for the pay settlement tracking service. She is an expert on company pay awards and is regularly called upon to appear in the broadcast and print media to comment on the level of increase in pay rates.

previous post
HR vs the line manager: how to make strategy a reality
next post
Can “recruiting for values” turn around the NHS?

You may also like

Personnel Today Awards 2023 shortlist: Health and Wellbeing...

27 Sep 2023

How to take an intersectional approach to pay...

19 Sep 2023

Auto-enrolment into savings boosts financial wellbeing

18 Sep 2023

How to compete on flexible benefits for non-office...

14 Sep 2023

Employee’s ill-health dismissal was by mutual consent, finds...

13 Sep 2023

Unions set to produce template for pay review...

13 Sep 2023

Pay growth catches up with inflation

12 Sep 2023

Pay confidence creating ‘perfect storm’

11 Sep 2023

Household income to fall in 2024

6 Sep 2023

Birmingham City Council effectively bankrupt after equal pay...

5 Sep 2023

  • Discover the value of CIPD accreditation PROMOTED | See how the CIPD can increase your earning potential...Read more
  • What does it mean to be an HR professional in 2024? (survey) PROMOTED | The world of HR is changing rapidly...Read more
  • The Contractor Management Mastery Pack: Everything you need to manage and pay global contractors PROMOTED | Answers to cross-border...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 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 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+