Now is the time to encourage your employees to use their workplace benefits

With wage growth failing to keep up with the rising costs of living, your employees’ wallets may not be stretching as far as they used to. And with tightened purse strings comes an increased desire to find ways to save money.

Workplace perks could be the answer.

Workplace benefits can offer access to financial benefits like discounts, cashback on everyday spends, affordable tech, employee loans and financial education services. That’s in addition to lifestyle, health and work benefits.

However, an estimated 10 million employees across the UK have access to discount shopping schemes but rarely use them.

So how can you encourage employees to save money by taking advantage of their benefits?

1. Ask your employees for their feedback

To check you’re offering the benefits your employees value, it’s important to regularly survey your workforce to capture their opinions and feedback.

Each organisation has unique needs based on their employee demographic. For example, if 95% of your workforce live within walking distance of your office, not many are likely to embrace a travel loan or cycle-to-work scheme.

Once you understand your audience’s needs, asking them to rank a list of potential benefits allows for quick and easy input from your workforce. You can then use this feedback to create a benefits package your employees will embrace.

2. Make it easy for your employees

Due to busy schedules, many employees won’t use benefits that are difficult to find, understand or sign up for. The easier the journey, the more engagement you’re likely to get with the benefits you offer.

Ensure the provider you use has an optimised front-end platform to help employees learn about, choose and use their benefits, particularly with those they’ll use on a regular basis (such as supermarket cashback or coupons).

Many benefit providers also now have digital solutions, like an app, which employees can download using their smart phones, and can check and use their benefits on the go. For you, apps are simple to signpost, and can make a huge difference in employee benefit engagement.

3. Be the salesperson

Many businesses just aren’t proactive enough with promoting the benefits they offer, which can be detrimental to the overall engagement.

When HR is responsible for marketing and selling their company benefits, they can understand much more about the pain points of their workforce. This in turn makes it easier for these to be remedied and the value of benefits promoted to staff.

Devising a roadmap to communicate the value of your benefits package will help.

Begin by setting clear business goals and using surveys to really get under the hood of what your employees need. Once that’s clear, carefully choose the right way to deliver your message, whether via digital means, or hosting a benefits roadshow in person.

Above all, developing a roadmap is an iterative process that should evolve over time, so make sure you measure your progress as you go.

Ultimately, with ongoing rises in living costs, now may be the right time to review your benefits – you could help your employees’ personal finances stretch that little bit further at a crucial time.