Benefits can sometimes be seen as tactical, but they have the potential to be highly strategic and particularly powerful at this time, as employers navigate the ongoing cost of living crisis.
You’d be hard pushed to find someone more enthusiastic about benefits, and their inextricable link to wellbeing, than Natalie Jutla, Employee Benefits and Employee Financial Wellbeing Lead at DEFRA.
This award winning benefits expert is also searingly honest about how her own difficult personal circumstances led to the deterioration of her own financial and mental wellbeing – given the stigma still surrounding talking about financial struggles, she’s passionate about the power of storytelling and normalising the conversation.
We caught up with her to find out more…
What were your big learnings in creating a flexible, personalised benefits package?
The biggest learning we’ve discovered, since day one, is the importance of asking employees what is important to them.
This is crucial because you can build the best benefits platform in the world, but if it isn’t what your people want, they won’t use it.
What’s also crucial is acting on the back of what employees tell you. Our people are now very good at telling us what they want because they see that we act on their feedback. And that’s paid off – we have a 95% active user rate on our Employee Benefits platform.
Once you get your strategy in place, and you know what people want, you need to build and regularly review your benefits strategy in line with what’s on the market, and what’s happening in the world too.
Can you give me an example of recent feedback you’ve reacted to in terms of your benefits strategy?
In the last couple of years, the cost of living has been a focus for everyone. For our employees, offering them retail discounts has become really important and the uptake on these has increased from £45,000 every month from April 2022 to £1.1 million every month since November 2023, Saving them £58,000 per month.
What kind of benefits are proving popular in the cost of living crisis?
Things like 4% off your shop in Tesco.
The key thing here is that it’s all about the “so what?” i.e. the narrative.
4% might not sound like a lot and people might initially think it’s not worth the hassle of getting a discount card and putting it on their phone. However, if you explain that it’s the equivalent to up to three weeks of free food shopping a year, that puts it in perspective and adds a whole new spin.
Any other tips on creating a compelling narrative around benefits for employees?
We try to give campaigns titles that will catch attention – like our current campaign ‘Cutting Costs – Making your money go further’.
We also often use employees and their experiences in case studies, Viva Engage posts and blogs, giving a snapshot into their lives. For instance, this could be an employee who was able to take their family to Legoland for a day out because of discounts offered through our employee benefits portal.
You’re passionate about the role of benefits in financial wellbeing, can you tell me more about that please?
Yes. The reason I’m such a champion of financial wellbeing and fitness is because ten years ago, I left an abusive relationship with my 13-year-old son and £6.50. I had just started working in benefits at the time, and when I saw the financial wellbeing benefits that were new at the time, I thought how useful that would have been on my journey and wanted to share that with our employees. That’s why our employee benefits platform is built on the foundations of financial wellbeing and financial fitness, and why I’m so passionate and open about my own personal experiences.
Do you know if that financial education is paying off, or that employees are taking the learnings on board?
Well, our 36,000 employees are spending £1 million a month through discounts on things like supermarket bills and household expenses – they are spending very little on luxury goods. Employees tell us they are grateful for any savings they’re able to make.
The next step for us in terms of education is to help them look at their savings and affordable borrowing; helping them borrow at a more affordable rate would make a big difference. We’re hoping to offer that at some point in the future.
We’re obviously not encouraging people to borrow but many people borrow at some point in their lives, whether that’s a credit card or a loan, for example. What we want to do is break the taboo about problems around borrowing, which are common, and encourage people to think about these things, and ask them how they would like us to help them.
To what extent do you think there’s a stigma around financial wellbeing?
It’s massive. That’s why I talk about mine all the time. Just as I’m open about the fact that I had a breakdown in 2019 and was off work for a year. And why I’m open about the fact that I’ve experienced domestic violence, which left me with just £6.50 in my pocket – we need to talk about these things to normalise them. That’s why I have no problem telling people that my credit score is now only just starting to rebuild after ten years, and I’m proud and excited about that.
What advice do you have on choosing a benefits provider?
You need to find an adaptable provider. As a government department, it’s essential we have a flexible provider because there are certain benefits that we are not able to have. Also, due to the high level of scrutiny for all contracts, we need to ensure that we get the best value for money as we follow the managing public money guidance.
You need to be clear with your provider about what you want and what you don’t want, because they can then tailor their offering to you. Don’t worry about challenging them sometimes because you are paying them for a service . You’re the customer!
If they don’t give you what you want, go out in the market and find a supplier that can. We did this, whilst ensuring that we adhered to the strict government procurement processes.
I treat my benefits providers the same way that I treat my personal providers like utilities etc that deliver me a service at home.
You won an award for excellence in the benefits industry – what advice do you have on doing the job well?
You have got to be enthusiastic about benefits yourself. That means you must use them and live the benefits too. Employees can ask me anything about our package and I will be able to answer them. I’ll usually pull up my own benefits homepage to show them my savings, so it’s very clear to them I use it myself. You must believe in the benefits you’re offering to ensure the confidence of your employees.
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