Benefits and wellbeing programmes offered by UK companies are failing to meet the needs of their employees and could hamper the productivity of workforces across the country – according to a new report.  

‘The Employee Benefit Gap’, a report released by employee wellbeing platform Heka, analysed the attitudes of 30,000 UK workers and compared the data to that from the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development (CIPD). It found that, when given the choice, employees opt for a huge variety of benefits across multiple categories including nutrition, recreation, and mental health, in favour of the common benefits widely offered by companies, such as learning and development and finance.
Revealing a considerable difference between the preferences and personal needs of employees across the UK and the benefits their employers are currently prescribing, the report demonstrates a “workplace wellbeing crisis”, according to Alex Hind, Co-Founder and CEO of Heka.

“There is a stark chasm between what employers are currently dictating for their staff wellbeing policies and the reality of what people actually want and need in their everyday lives,” Hind says. “We know from our research that when employees are empowered to choose the benefits that work for them, from a range of options, businesses see a significantly more engaged and productive workforce. Inevitably, a happier, healthier, more engaged workforce leads to better business outcomes, and, unfortunately, vice versa.”

With over three quarters (76%) of employees experiencing moderate-to-high levels of stress, and nearly two thirds (61%) struggling to be productive, according to the report, ineffective wellbeing programmes are affecting the health of not just employees but the companies they work for, too.

The study found that three of the seven pillars of wellness – intellectual, environmental and social – were, largely, absent from employer wellbeing initiatives, and only half (52%) of employees are told how to access the perks provided by their companies.

When compared to Heka’s first-party data, it was revealed that a third (34%) of employees choose perks, when given the option, that don’t exist within the workplace wellbeing programmes offered by their employers. This indicates that for at least one in three employees, their workplace benefits provide no personal value, widening the gap between employers’ understanding and their staff’s requirements. Such a disconnect suggests that ambitions to promote a healthier workforce, increase headcount, and encourage a better company culture, all of which are advantages of a personalised approach to benefits, will be significantly impeded.

The report goes on to show that the vast majority (86%) of employers who let their staff choose their own wellbeing benefits have grown their headcounts in the past year, while almost all (97%) of HR teams say a flexible wellbeing programme improves company culture. Most importantly, 93% of employees say a proper wellbeing programme makes them healthier.

Two stark examples of the employer-employee disconnect are that 20% of wellbeing programmes feature L&D-related benefits, despite just 2% of employees choosing these if given the option, while 21% of employees would opt for nutrition-based benefits if given the choice, but only 1% of employer wellbeing programmes offer such a benefit.

Michael Whitfield, Chairman of Heka, added: “The results are crystal clear: there is a massive gap between employer perks and employee preferences. When you put employees in the driving seat of their own wellbeing, they steer it in all different directions. Real people need different kinds of support, at different times of their lives, and this is something businesses must wake up to if they want to recruit and retain talent and maintain a productive workforce.”

To download the full ‘The Employee Benefit Gap’ report, visit: https://www.hekahappy.com/resources/the-employee-benefits-gap