It’s during times of adversity when employees experience the culture of an organisation comes most sharply into focus (see this feature for more on this) and that’s why benefits can play such a strategic role; the right support at the right time can transform employee experience and engagement. But making employees aware of the benefits that they have access to remains the biggest obstacle.
“It’s a continuous journey and challenge for benefits professionals,” says Shanice Silvera, Benefits Manager – Europe & International, Jazz Pharmaceuticals. The aim, she says, is to ensure that when employees experience a significant change in their lives, they know where to turn. “They need to know: I’ve got this benefit that I could potentially utiliise .”
Moving beyond siloed initiatives to embed joined-up health and wellbeing strategies that deliver real impact is a key theme of our Make a Difference Leaders AGM & Leadership Forum, taking place at the British Library on 19th October. You can find full details and register your interest in attending here.
Is the answer more comms?
On the face of it, this sounds primarily like a communications issue. You might initially think the answer is more emails! More newsletters! More Tik Tok style videos on the social media channels! And, while it’s true communications are hugely important, the benefits strategy needs to go much further than that, says Silvera, into “socialisation”.
This is her term for successfully embedding benefits into the culture of the company. Before introducing a new benefit, Silvera works to bring the people and functions affected by it along on the journey. That can include HR, Payroll, Procurement, Legal and local people teams.
There are practical reasons for this – a benefit might have implications, risks that needs to be flagged or require changes to existing processes. But the real value goes beyond administration.
Getting buy-in for benefits
By speaking to colleagues early, benefits professionals can better understand whether something is likely to work in a particular location, how employees might respond and whether there are organisational changes that could affect the launch. Silvera also believes people managers should be aware in advance if resources allows for benefits to be best embedded.
Rather than simply telling managers that a new benefit is arriving or alerting them at the same time as all employees, she asks for their insight. She asks them questions like:
How do you think your direct reports will respond?
Is there anything we should be concerned about?
This early engagement means that managers and HR teams understand the benefit and can help and support employees to navigate it when they need it.
“They’re like our extra arm in educating and raising awareness,” Silvera says.
Employees don’t experience benefits in a silo
Nikki Kirbell, Head of Wellbeing at Rolls Royce, agrees that benefits become genuinely strategic when they are connected to the wider employee experience.
“Rather than operating as a standalone offer, benefits should be connected to the wider employee experience, leadership practices, wellbeing strategy and business priorities,” she says.
“Employees don’t experience organisations in silos.”
She warns against assuming that continually adding to the benefits catalogue, or continually sending promotional emails, is the answer.
Are you just continually adding to the catalogue?
“The mistake many organisations make is continually adding new benefits,” she says. “The bigger opportunity is helping people access and navigate the support that already exists.”
Sometimes, according to Silvera, benefits professionals themselves need to work harder to identify, and fully understand, all the opportunities on offer beyond the headline.
“We need to understand, when we’re looking at benefits, what additional riders or add-ons can be supporting health and wellbeing,” she says. She gives the example of a health provider that might also provide EAP and additional services as part of their cover that can be utilised locally.
Why another email probably isn’t the answer
Employees are overwhelmed with information currently, now super-charged by AI.
Silvera believes that the timing of a communication is more valuable than how many times you send it. She recommends considering what else is happening across the organisation before launching a major benefits campaign.
If employees are receiving important business news, going through an organisational change or being bombarded with messages from multiple teams, another email about a new benefit may likely disappear into the noise.
Communications need to be staggered and coordinated. Also, communication shouldn’t be confused with connection, or understanding. That’s why the internal relationships around benefits can be just as important as the external communication campaign.
Global philosophy, local relevance
The challenge becomes even more complicated for multinational employers.
Silvera’s role covers countries across Europe and Asia-Pacific, where employee expectations and cultural norms can differ dramatically. She believes that it is not always possible to replicate the same benefits in every territory. “Culture locally an heavily influences benefits,” she says.
In France, for example, meal vouchers are a familiar and culturally expected part of the employee benefits landscape. In the Netherlands, cycling is deeply embedded in everyday life, making cycle-to-work benefits particularly relevant.
“The country has its own culture and it’s the responsibility of the person in charge of benefits or the rewards team to really try and meet that cultural norm and expectation where possible to engage employees into benefit programs,” Silvera says.
How Benefits professionals can earn a strategic voice
Perhaps one of the biggest shifts needed, however, is within the benefits profession itself.
Many Benefits and Reward professionals want to play a greater role in organisational strategy but can find themselves seen primarily as administrators or purchasers of products.
Silvera says benefits professionals sometimes need to actively create the opportunity. (To listen to BA Reward and Recognition Director Josephina Smith talk about this issue, listen to this MAD Leaders Podcast episode).
“If a benefits professional wants to be more strategically aligned, I think in some aspects the onus is on them to really put themselves in that room, advocate for benefits and show how they can add value strategically,” she says.
That is not always easy. And Silvera acknowledges that some professionals simply do not have the autonomy to influence decisions, particularly when strategies are determined centrally in the business.
But relationship-building can still increase influence. Once again, she returns to the idea of “socialisation” and bringing different functions on the journey.
By involving colleagues, asking for their views and helping other teams understand how benefits work, Silvera has found that people increasingly seek her perspective when wider organisational decisions are being discussed.
The future role of a Benefits professional could increasingly be less about simply sourcing products and managing providers and more about connecting these with business strategy.
Ultimately the most valuable benefits strategy may not be the one that drove the hardest bargain or the biggest catalogue, but the one where the Benefits team has become a trusted voice in shaping the employee experience; giving them exactly what they need exactly when they need it.
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