Employee wellbeing is a high priority for almost every organisation around the globe. Healthcare CFO’s have a unique opportunity to use their employee benefits programs to demonstrate value to employees while improving their financial situation. When done well employee benefits such as salary packaging have the potential to be a critical value-add for your workforce.
Research undertaken by Maxxia has revealed that while some health organisations have well over 90% of their employees benefiting from salary packaging, at the other end of the spectrum, some have less than 60% of their employees utilising salary packaging.
So why are some organisations outperforming others by such huge margins?
To understand the critical success factors we need to look more closely at how employee’s preferences are changing.
Personalisation and choice are a priority
A key insight from the research we have undertaken is that the nature of participation in salary packaging varies considerably across different demographics, particularly in relation to income and life stage. In many ways this is not surprising as the type of benefits that are attractive to employees change with their individual circumstances. The implications of this for employers is that they need to consider providing a flexible and wide-ranging suite of benefits, as well as personalised content for different employee segments across benefits promotions and offers, including the right type of support to guide employees in optimising their benefits and salary packaging choices.
“47% of employees aren’t aware of their employers financial wellbeing initiatives.”
Gallagher Employee Financial Confidence Report, Australia Edition, 2020
Employee benefits discussions don’t need to be limited to the onboarding phase for new employees. By extending the conversation as employees move through different life stages, employers have the opportunity to demonstrate financial value even when salaries remain the same. Our benchmarking data reveals distinct trends in benefit preferences for employees within an organisation based on their age; with those under 30, between 30 and 45, and over 45 having distinct patterns in their choice of benefits.
“Since transitioning to Maxxia we’ve gone from having a 68% uptake to over 85% uptake.”
Digital delivery to drive participation
An employee benefits offer with automation and self-service built-in is more user-friendly for employees and requires HR to be less hands-on in promoting benefits and answering queries. Digital assets such as explainer videos and education can enhance employee awareness, while tools including apps and online portals to connect employees with benefits can play a key role in increasing participation rates.
With access to digital channels, there is an opportunity for employees to receive push notifications for new rewards, offers and benefits available. Each time employees interact with these tools they can easily see how much they’ve saved, giving them regular reminders of the extra value they’re receiving. When individual employees have a positive interaction with a benefits program and provider, they’re more likely to refer colleagues, driving further participation and delivering greater value to employees and your organisation.
“Younger workers prefer online materials that explain different options and tools that illustrate the items that people like them typically choose. Over half of Gen Z employees prefer to have their benefit questions answered via online chat.”
2020 Global Benefits Attitudes Survey, Willis Towers Watson, February 2021
You can’t manage what you can’t measure
With the huge variance in the adoption of employee benefits strongly collated to an organisations approach to salary packaging, there is a genuine opportunity for organisations to increase the financial value of these programs. Because employee benefits are highly regulated, with complex tax and compliance requirements, most employers prefer to outsource to a third-party. The relative success of a program can, in part, rely on the scope and quality of service delivered by the program provider.
At Maxxia, we design programs with measurable financial value and performance you can track over time. We can offer your organisation a full benefits assessment to measure the effectiveness of your current employee benefits offer. We can also put a dollar figure to the potential savings and efficiencies from running the program and compare overall performance with best practice for your industry.
With more than 200,000 health employees salary packaging with Maxxia, we know how to maximise your offer to employees. And with our focus on financial performance, we’ll work hard to secure maximum value for your organisation.