Boost employee benefits to tackle recruitment and cost of living

“BUSINESSES LOOKING for cost effective tools to help workers manage spiralling inflation and soaring living costs, as well as optimise talent attraction and retention strategies, should find out how employee benefits make a difference,” says David McCormack.

“A survey of manufacturing, engineering and logistics workers (Kingston Barnes Salary Survey) reveals what these sectors need to do to attract and retain workers, finding that pay and benefits (40%) and job satisfaction (34%) form part of their decision to work in the sector, and that other than financial reward, an ideal employer would offer flexible working (40%), a holiday buy back scheme (21%), company pension (15%), and health insurance (10%),” he says.

“A report (CIPD’s latest Labour Market Outlook report) from CIPD, the professional body for HR and people development, confirms that to tackle the ongoing recruitment and retention challenges, employers have introduced more activities to upskill more existing staff (41%), are advertising more jobs as flexible (35%), and raising wages (29%). The CIPD warns that pay increases cannot be sustained over the long-term and that employers should look at other ways of supporting financial wellbeing in the cost-of-living crisis, such as enhancing their overall benefits package. 

“Additionally, recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) data reveals the biggest gap between pay growth and inflation since records began over 20 years ago. Day-to-day living expenses including food, energy and petrol continue to rise, and everyone is struggling to make ends meet.

“It’s clear that employees want and need benefits that support their financial wellbeing, career development, and work:life balance,” says David. “Businesses looking for ways to deliver this, but are concerned about the financial impact, often don’t realise that outsourcing payroll to a PAYE and HMRC compliant outsourced payroll provider like HIVE360, can not only facilitate this, but also add up to £100 per employee per year to the business’ bottom line, positively impact overall business efficiency and productivity, and boost employee engagement, wellbeing, and retention.”

HIVE360 provides its customisable, comprehensive employee benefits and rewards package via its unique Engage Employee Benefits app and as standard to businesses that outsource payroll and employment administration to the company. 

“Engage includes hundreds of benefits, perks and discounts that help employees to survive the record high cost of living,” he explains. “For example, recent analysis of the trends in user downloads via Engage, reveals that around 30,000 shopping and mobile discounts for supermarkets including Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons were made in July alone.  

“Access to shopping discounts like these can help significantly to cover some of the inflationary pressures, with employees taking advantage of these potentially saving over £100 a week if they optimise all saving opportunities,” he explains. 

“It’s vital companies maximise their appeal when it comes to candidate attraction but also for retain existing talent too.

“A customised digital mobile employee benefits and rewards package that is focused on employee engagement, benefits and rewards, is the ideal delivery method, and should include 24/7 confidential support of their physical, mental and financial health and wellbeing,” he says.

HIVE360 provides its Engage Employee Benefits app as standard to businesses that outsource payroll and employment administration to the company. Engage includes My Training, My Health, My Money, My Discounts, and My Work features and has an average of 100,000-plus user sessions each month, with levels of user engagement topping 94% in July.

For more information, visit www.hive360.com/payroll-pension-perks/

David McCormack is CEO of HIVE360, and has over 20 years’ experience as a director within the recruitment sector and over 15 years running payroll businesses.