Companies who allow employees to choose the benefits they prefer, see more positive results from employee engagement with the company.
Research undertaken by XpertHR found that most companies offer flexible benefits through salary sacrifice schemes. This was provided in different ways including:
- Just under 60% of companies allow employees to give up part of their salary in return for benefits, including childcare vouchers, additional pension contributions and bikes through a cycle-to-work scheme. Schemes can be administered in-house, and could attract national insurance savings for the employer.
- Voluntary benefits packages are made available by around 20% of companies. Just over two thirds of companies offering voluntary benefits use an external provider to administer the scheme. Flexible benefits most likely to be available to employees in this way are retail discounts or vouchers, gym membership and dental insurance.
What flexible benefits do you currently provide? Could you use flexible benefits to improve staff retention and improve the quality of new employees?