Research by Chase de Vere, the independent financial and corporate advisers, in conjunction with Lightbulb, an independent research company, has found that many employers aren’t confident in the effectiveness of the employee benefits they offer to their employees.
The Research consisted of analysing 2,500 business records which are representative of the UK company population and then conducting interviews with the decision makers in 300 randomly selected businesses.
Sean McSweeney, corporate advice manager at Chase de Vere commented: “It is deeply alarming that many employers aren’t confident they are getting value for the money they’re spending on employee benefits, yet are doing nothing to address it.
“Employee benefits packages can represent a significant spend for many companies and if these amounts were spent elsewhere it is likely the Finance Director would be ‘all over it’ making sure the money was spent wisely. Yet with employee benefits spend this doesn’t seem to be the case.
When participants where asked ‘are you confident that your benefits package helps recruit and retain the best quality of staff?’, only 42 percent of employers said yes, while 58 percent said no. A larger number, 64 percent, said that they were confident that the benefits package that they have developed offers value for money, while 36 percent said that they were not confident.
Employers
This suggests that some employers are happy with the amount they are paying, although they appear to accept that the benefits might not be valued by their employees. They are looking at cost rather than value.
Cost was the principle driver of the make-up of programs, while 25 percent of programmes were just continuations of historical benefits packages from years past, a route which may not offer the best value for money. 22 percent of those who responded said that their benefits policy was dictated by its popularity with staff.
