Dive Brief:
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When it comes to consistently delivering against benefits plan objectives, employers are not doing very well. Only 7% of global HR professionals say they are reaching that critical objective, according to a new survey.
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Thomsons Online Benefits' Global Employee Benefits Watch 16/17 also revealed that while 90% of employers see attracting talent and improving engagement as their top benefits objectives, almost as many (70%) are struggling to deliver effective plans for local markets and, as a result, fail to improve employee understanding of the value of benefits.
- On the bright side, employers using data analytics have 14% higher employee engagement scores than those who do not (73% compared to 59%). However, 46% of HR and reward professionals are honest in saying they don’t yet use analytics at all, and are therefore unlikely to fully realize their objectives and ROI, according to the research.
Dive Insight:
The findings from Thomsons suggest that HR leaders are struggling with two issues in their overall benefits strategy. One is outmoded technology, which is preventing the analysis of employee benefits data - meaning that employers cannot derive the insights they need to inform effective decision-making. The other is benefits relevance, meaning teams are struggling to make programs and communications relevant to a globally diverse employee base. That would explain why over 60% of employees report being dissatisfied.
Global employers spend billions on benefits, but based on this report, there seems to be a real lack of ROI. Employers with the highest performing benefits strategies have shown that success depends on unlocking the power of data to take a more personal benefits approach. Other recent examples point to harnessing the power of internal corporate social media networks, which mimic platforms like Facebook and Twitter, in order to improve employee understanding of benefits options and programs.
After all, Thomson's survey found that when employees are "very satisfied" with the technology delivering their benefits, they are almost twice as likely (93.8% vs. 46.6%) to view their benefits as "innovative" or "unique" - results that speak volumes. In fact, boomer and millennial workers agree that tech tools can help make sense of things like personal finance, healthcare and retirement.