Why are employee benefits important?

‘Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of your clients.’

Richard Branson knows it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to pinpoint what your most important asset is.

We may be continuing to ride the wave of a cost-of-living crisis, but it’s important to prioritise the physical, financial and mental wellbeing of your employees. After all, they’re the beating heartbeat of any business.

But why are employee benefits important for retention and talent attraction? Why should you be moving heaven and earth to put your people first?

Now we’re in our element!

Certain employers can find it tougher than old boots to perfect their overall compensation package to staff, but those who get it right are on to a winner. Benefit packages can often be offered to help mirror your strategic HR and business aims. To help compete for some of the best talent in your industry.

For example, one employer may have a desire to prioritise financial wellbeing, offering an enhanced pension contribution and bonuses to staff. Another may benchmark their benefits against competitors in the market, which may reveal they don’t offer comparable health benefits. This could lead to the introduction of a fresh employee retention benefits package that includes Health Care Cash Plan, Dental Insurance and perhaps a Health Screening.

Naturally, benefits for talent attraction are just as important as benefits for employee retention. Businesses may also want to use software/technology to support the communication and administration of the various benefits. Our Ultimate Guide to Employee Benefits is the perfect tool for educating yourselves on why employee benefit platforms are so important.

If you were to ask your people what the value of their benefits package was, would they know the answer? Implementing a new employee benefits platform can certainly help.

Employee benefits platforms have struggled to keep up with the way companies work. Ultimately, it’s impacted talent attraction and retention, and without trying to sound like a broken record in this blog, this is the main reason employers offer benefits.

Our research has found that:

• 55% of 18-34-year-olds regard a good benefits package as the most important thing when searching for a job.

• 54% of employees would leave their job if another company offered them a better benefits package.

• 45% of employees think that their benefits package is inadequate.

Make no bones about it, each and every employer will be jostling for position in today’s highly competitive job market. By implementing an employee benefits platform, it becomes more than just offering a bumper salary.

Our Zest research found employers in the UK are continuing to throw their efforts into employee benefits in an attempt to pip their competitors to the post, going hammer and tong like a handful of Grand National horses swinging into the final furlong. After all, a good benefits package is regarded by 42% of employees as one of the most important things employees look for in employment. Get this right, and you’re well on your way to success.

Ok, so we’re not quite Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams (maybe we’re showing our age too), but in the name of employee benefits, we’re using the phrase and tweaking it to talk about your flexible benefit proposition.

Employee benefits are crucially important. We’d be mad to suggest different. After all, they’re our bread and butter. They don’t need to cost an arm and a leg, and even the most cost-effective rewards can be incredibly successful if it effectively meets the needs of employees on a personal level.

Not having an employee benefit offering will already put you behind the competition. They provide access to key savings, coaching and support services, and can be used to help reduce tax and/or National Insurance savings where possible.

Say you implement a platform through Zest. Your employees would have access to a personalised platform to select rewards from. It’s branded to reflect your company colour and tone, filled with perks relevant to each and every individual.

It’s easier than pie to navigate, especially when you use our newly-launched mobile app. Throw in seamless reporting and communication tools designed to benefit your business and you’ll soon find a recipe for success that makes for one tasty benefit offering.

It may be our specialist subject, but we know a number of benefits portals can often be a chore.

So, how do you get staff to sign into yours? Is there a way to marry employee benefits and retention? There sure is. Cram your offering full of things employees actually need.

News updates, discounts, personalised benefits packages – the works.  And to make sure they don’t forget about it, every digital shout-out reminds them to log in, too.

Engage with your employees, let them know the ins and outs of their offering, from the core benefits on offer to the wellbeing articles designed for support.

We’re empowering employers to create tailored benefits packages that truly meet the diverse needs of their workforce. And the best bit? We’ve harnessed the latest innovative tech advancements to make managing these benefits simple – efficient and user friendly.

Zest will connect effortlessly with your HR, payroll and benefits providers. We boast what we believe to be the only codeless benefits builder in the industry, and our integrations save you time, reduce administration and keep data brilliantly up to date.

We also help you to work smarter, providing valuable insights into how colleagues use the platform and why they are using it. And don’t forget, with Zest you don’t need to log into a million different systems, just ours!

Don’t just take our word for it, our customers back this up too.

• ‘Zest stood out for its super user-friendly interface and seamless alignment with our needs. The introduction of their platform led to a significant increase in participation across a range of benefits.’ Olga Taylor – Senior Benefits Analyst at Yahoo
• ‘Zest want to make the system constantly better. They also want to engage with their customers to help them make things better. Their technology has helped us engage our employees as it’s easier for them to get on the platform. It works better. It does everything you’d expect it to. Claire Blomley – Senior Benefits Manager at Teva

So, why not make the complex simple? Upgrade your employee offering to be effortlessly exceptional, reassuringly reliable, distinctly different and cheerfully collaborative.

Find out how you can join us on our journey to building a deeper level of employee engagement.