Employee benefits – do you know everything about them? [event summary]

Employee benefits help to ensure their well-being and satisfaction. We've decided to talk about them with people who work in companies providing benefits daily. In out last LinkedIn Audio, our guests were:

• Kasia Gryzlo - CEO at HearMe.pl
• Katarzyna Oracz - Chief of Staff at Gleevery
• Nicole Tomanek - Head of People & Culture at AskHenry
• Maciej Bogusz - Business Development Manager at Stepapp

Question: Let's start with something simple – what is a benefit nowadays? What is its purpose?

Kasia Gryzlo: Work is a generator of stress and anxiety, and what the employer can do to support the employee is to take care of his well-being.

Kasia Ubysz: I assume that a benefit is everything that helps me save time and get away from work – such as a sports card because leaving work mentally is also not easy

Katarzyna Oracz: I would ask what benefits today's market expects. They appear in insurance or Multisport cards, but they are relatively standard. We attach great importance to the role of our benefit. It must be something that will be able to meet employees' many diverse and ever-changing needs. As research, for example, Remote, shows, the market needs a benefit that improves the quality of life of employees and their loved ones and is a benefit that we want to take advantage of, and we will do it. Currently, benefits are expected that will support and develop employees' passions

Question: Is there anything that most people don't think about when talking about benefits?

Nicole Tomanek: In my experience, the benefit is perceived as such a cost, and at first, we don't think about how it will pay off in the long and short term.

Question: How do organizations decide to introduce a new benefit? Do they do employee surveys, or is this a top-down idea?

Katarzyna Oracz: I would avoid imposing benefits from above because it has two significant negative consequences. First of all, if the benefit is imposed, it will most likely not be tailored to the needs of most employees. Secondly, if the HR department recommends and implements a solution that employees will not use, the management board may look for problems in the HR department. Therefore, you should focus on the end user because he is crucial, and the service is addressed to him.

Maciej Bogusz: If you ask people about the benefits in a survey, there must be more of them in this survey so that employees can specify what they want. By giving employees a choice of 3 benefits, we risk not choosing what suits them. That is why it is important to show employees different options and let them suggest something from their side. You have to remember the company's policy – if there is an assumption that it supports employees in terms of health, it gives them a sports card. I heard a few refusals that we have a great benefit, but it fits differently from what the organization would like to present, and that is also okay.

And not based on market analysis. And here, as representatives of unconventional benefits, we fall into the trap that if the solution is so unusual, we may go for "proven" benefits.

Question: How are the benefits usually measured?

Katarzyna Oracz: I have often participated in the study of commitment and job satisfaction, and I remember questions about benefits on a scale of 1-10. And if I tick 5, does this benefit meet my expectations? I have the impression that surveys are often not precise enough - it is challenging to draw helpful conclusions based on them to match the benefit desired by the employee.

Kasia Gryzlo: We have a doubly difficult task to prove that our benefit works and has value. Our benefit is anonymous; we do not even ask employees to provide their company or e-mail address. All you need is a private e-mail address. We fight for high employee engagement so the employer can see and know what he is paying for. We pay for those specific hours of support offered by the benefit.

Nicole Tomanek: Employees are often ambassadors of given benefits. It happened during a private conversation with someone when it turned out that I work at AskHenry to hear that it's an excellent service and that they would like to have it at their place. A perfect change is that employees take the initiative and know that they impact something and can actually shape these benefits.

Kasia Gryzlo: I am glad that more and more employers pay attention to whether the benefit is popular and used by employees. Many business models of traditional benefits are such that it is profitable for suppliers not to use them, as in the case of a sports card.

Question: What is the benchmark for the use of benefits in organizations?

Katarzyna Oracz: The key information is the number of employees involved. However, the percentage of using users does not always mean that they do not need the benefit. More broadly, the benefit required to be promoted within the organization to communicate or refine the details to be entirely satisfactory. It is important to educate about benefits and communicate them because it allows employees to understand their value and convince them to use them.

Katarzyna Oracz: I don't think we can compare all our benefits here. Ania Morawiec said very nicely about the fact that we cannot compare the turnover of 15% of a company employing temporary workers on the market to the 15% turnover of a specialized company where onboarding an employee takes several years.

Kasia Gryzlo: Each benefit is different. For some benefits, the percentage of users who use them will be a good KPI and determinant. We are not looking here that something must be wrong with the company that half of the people use it. We look at the results of WHO studies, according to which every fourth employee needs psychological support.

Nicole Tomanek: The role and importance of implementation in the case of non-standard benefits is very clear. In the case of such benefits, some people intuitively understand what it is about and are fascinated by this benefit. In this way, they become ambassadors who do not insistently encourage you to use the benefit. In the case of a large disproportion, e.g. 50% of employees use the benefit, it is worth examining these disproportions and turning to both the ambassadors and those who do not use the benefit to support them. Investigating the causes and directing solutions in cooperation between the company and the benefit provider is extremely important.

Question: How often do companies opt out of benefits, or is it more of a one-way ticket, and you don't encounter resignations?

Maciej Bogusz: I don't think a sports card or medical care is unnecessary. However, I heard it ceases to be a benefit and is already a standard. I also know companies that withdraw from these standard benefits because their employees decide they would like something else.

Katarzyna Oracz: It is also worth emphasizing that our mental and physical health is something other than using services. This is where Maslov's pyramid and the first needs we have to provide lie. Our health is in a higher place than the possibility of taking advantage of pleasure.

Question: Why the need to introduce further benefits? How are they better than simply raises the budget itself, which the employee himself will spend on what he wants?

Kasia Gryzlo: It motivates. We can engage in various cafeteria programs when we have many of these points. We can go on a trip to Malta or save on buying equipment.

Maciej Bogusz: From conversations with people who have cafeterias in place, it turns out that such a trip to Malta is not the first choice. The first choice is a voucher for Empik or Zalando. For us, a benefit should be associated with an employer. A cafeteria is not a choice because it's easy for us to get lost in these small services when there are thousands of them. Employees often spend accumulated money at the last minute so they do not lose their points.

Katarzyna Oracz: What does the market need today? Kasia said that psychological care is number 1 because the employee will not be able to work productively without it. We also choose benefits that affect how our company is perceived.

Question: Why invest in custom benefits?

Katarzyna Oracz: There is a lot of talk about diversity, different needs and generations in the labour market. The market expects that, apart from the actual salary, the workplace allows you to develop your passion and is a place where you feel good, which is why these non-standard, new benefits are recommended.

Maciej Bogusz: Why is it worth it? Because the benefits we have to reflect the culture of the organization we are and what we pay attention to. Research shows that what counts at the end of the day is what values the organization follows and what the atmosphere is, and benefits can have an overwhelming impact on this.

At the end

We want to thank all the speakers for participating and sharing their experiences and thoughts.

We invite you to join the next LinkedIn audio meetings, which we will inform you about on Calamari profile.

If you want to learn more about the benefits and how good software can be an employee benefit, read our article!

And if you're looking for a timesheet and absence management solution that will make your teams' lives easier, try Calamari for 14 days for free.