Employee benefits are as important as a competitive salary. With the changing preference for employee benefits during the past few years and their importance re-highlighted with the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting continuation, employers are ensuring they offer practical and in-demand benefits. But no matter how usable these benefits are, many employees still don’t take advantage of them.
Since employers pay for employee benefits out of company revenue, unused benefits waste money and effort. But that’s not all; unused employee benefits also cost the potential employee motivation they could achieve.
As an employer or HR personnel, you can make the most of the company revenue by encouraging employees to use the benefits. Here are some ways that can help:
Regularly Communicate the Benefits and What They Entail
One of the main reasons for unused employee benefits is a lack of awareness about them. Employees can also forget about the benefits during the daily hustle and bustle.
However, gentle and regular reminders can help employees recall the benefits at the right time and benefit from them. A monthly email with detailed infographics or posters in the HR department can be significantly helpful. Uploading employee testimonials on using employee benefits can also be uploaded on the company’s social media pages.
Make Utilizing Employee Benefits Easy
No matter how tempting a benefit is, employees won’t want to use it if the process is complicated. Not to mention, they might not even have the time to go through the complex procedure of activating the benefit in need, such as during a medical emergency.
So if you want your employees to use the benefits, make it easy for them to do so. You can easily utilize employee benefits by digitizing them on an app or through a chipped card. For apps, bots and chat assistance can make the process even easier.
Offer Few But Quality Employee Benefits
Instead of offering unnecessary employee benefits, limit them to a few that employees are more likely to use. For example, a healthy snack station, an in-house gym, a pool table in the cafeteria, and employee discounts are likely to be unusable for most employees.
On the other hand, every employee can use benefits for health insurance, dental insurance, paid time off, paid sick leaves, flexible work schedules, and commute reimbursements. Since these employee benefits fit into everyday life, employees are more likely to remember and use them.
Implementation of every organizational practice is successful only when led by example. This means that employers and managers must also utilize the company’s benefits to inspire junior employees to benefit from them. Encouraging organizational leaders to use employee benefits is essential, as junior employees seldom want to be highlighted.
For example, if the managers never take sick leave, their team members may feel guilty for utilizing them. Similarly, benefits that are not usable to employers and managers can feel derogatory to junior employees.
Finally, don’t hesitate to ask about employees’ preferences for employee benefits. It is worth investing in benefits employees actually want than wasting money on unused employee benefits.
