Engage Health Group joined The HR World for an insightful discussion on how businesses can best support a multi-generational workforce with employee benefits.
Our Head of UK Employee Benefits, Mike Hesch, shared the panel with Gemma Lee, Chief People Officer at Konica Minolta Business Solutions UK Ltd, to discuss the challenges of serving a workforce with a wide range of needs and life priorities.
Hosted by The HR World’s Simon Kent, some of the key issues covered include:
- How to support different employee priorities
- How to provide individuality to employee benefits
- How to support staff whatever stage they are at in their life
Read on for a quick summary of the notable points made, and watch the full webinar here – Health and Wellbeing: Making it Personal.
It’s well worth the watch to help stay ahead of the game with the benefits you’re offering!
Need one-to-one help supporting all staff members? Our award-winning employee benefits consultants provide FREE advice to UK and international businesses. Contact us at [email protected] or call 01273 974419.
Talking point no. 1
How do you find out what employees want?
What Mike had to say:
“Survey your staff. I’m not saying that is going to give you all the answers, but I think it’s a valuable tool – it will give you some generalisations within your workforce as to what they’re after.
“But you really need to ask employees and, if you can, the absolute ideal scenario is where management are asking their employees in one-to-ones where they are discussing what their needs and requirements are. If there can be feedback from managers to the business as to what those needs are, that is going to be much more powerful as you are actually getting out from those individuals what they want.”
What Gemma had to say:
“Combine large surveys with a more meaningful exchange about understanding the variants of employees and what they might need. Some of the topics can be a bit sensitive, so people might require more support around mental or physical wellbeing, which can be difficult to share. So having that one-to-one opportunity as well as creating lots of forums within your organisation to provide different communication links will cover everybody.”
Talking point no. 2
What’s the best place to start when you’ve got a wide range of needs to serve?
Staff needs will change throughout their lives. At times there’ll be a higher demand for support for child care or elderly care. Health needs will also change over time, most obviously with the menopause.
So, where to start?
Mike’s take:
Mike says that one of the best places to start is by taking a look at what employee benefits are already in place, and ask: are these benefits what my staff need?
“There’s more in your employee benefits space that you probably don’t know you’ve got! When we work with a lot of companies on their wellbeing strategy, a lot of it is to just sit down with them and say: what have we got benefits-wise? Let’s go through what you can get out of those benefits from a health and wellbeing perspective.”
Gemma’s take:
In many ways, employee demand is greater now than ever before. Does this make it a more difficult time, or an exciting one? Gemma leans towards the latter.
“I think it’s a really exciting time in many ways! In all aspects with this individualisation and considering different employees have different needs, at different stages of their life.”
“There’s been so many examples recently, especially with the volatility of what’s been happening in the wider world, [that] has also impacted people’s need for assistance whether that’s financial support or something else. So really understanding and knowing who your employees are, completely underpins this. Knowing what is required depends on who works with you and how often you are close and connected to who those people are and what they need.”
Talking point no. 3
Have you noticed any new trends around employee demand and employer support?
The workspace is constantly evolving, so keeping up with current trends in employee benefits is very important to managing the needs of different working generations.
What’s currently in high demand? What are staff wanting more of?
Mike’s insights:
“There’s the menopause, women’s health and the men’s health side. And this has been driven by providers that come into the market delivering products and services within those areas, but there have been organisations that I’ve seen doing something like that for a number of years but just not necessarily had a provider to support them.”
“A lot of staff see the communication and promotion of those different benefits and then question why that’s not being delivered in their own business! Where this can create an issue, it also creates opportunity for providers to make it much easier for companies to deliver those kind of benefits and very often at a very affordable level.
“I’ve in particular noticed a lot more talk around neurodiversity; a lot more understanding of what people are experiencing. I am neurodiverse myself, I’m very open with that, and staff feel that because I’m open they can be open themselves and talk to me about it. And that also helps me to then understand what they need, what we might be able to help with, and then see there’s a lot that companies already have that can help.”
Gemma’s insights:
“We’ve had benefits introduced for menopause support, cancer screening, huge uptakes in GP services online, and then extending that to family and friends.
“There’s an expectation that your company is supportive in education in these areas as well. We’ve had some really great education webinars last year around sleep, around gut health, around nutrition, and they were really well-attended. This access to education and understanding, and being able to promote what one can do for themselves is something people are really favourable about today.”
Are your employee benefits fully supporting all staff?
The evolution of workplace wellbeing policies, and the growing demand from employees, is both a challenge and opportunity for employers.
The challenge lies in the sheer level of complexity and, potentially, cost of implementing different workplace policies.
The opportunity lies in the growing variety of policies that have evolved to meet such demand.
Engage Health Group helps businesses navigate the challenges and ensure you’re able to deliver the best health and protection policies to your teams.
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