How can the management of benefits turn HR into a strategic department?

Investing in a distinctive and attractive benefits package is an important tool to attract and retain talent in your company. Moreover, benefits management can be strategic to motivate and engage employees, raising the organization’s productivity and competitiveness.

It is common sense nowadays that salaries are no longer the focus points of employees seeking new positions. People also seek challenges and, above all, quality of life, both within the company and in their personal lives, which is particularly where a good set of benefits is extremely helpful.

They decisively collaborate to reducing the turnover rate. They also foster a positive environment, making people feel valuable to the organization. This generates a favourable environment to increase the company’s productivity and competitiveness.

Therefore, this post addresses some tips on how to leverage benefit management at your company. Many of these initiatives are quite common in most organizations. Others are a bit more daring but may yield excellent results. Enjoy!

Benefit management tips

Planning

The benefits policy must be aligned to the demands of both the employer, which seeks to motivate and engage its employees in order to improve its productivity and competitiveness, and the employee, who seeks benefits to meet certain demands deemed important to maintain a favourable work climate.

Therefore, a specific planning effort is paramount to determine which benefits will be offered, considering the company’s objectives, as well as the employees’ needs and profiles.

Know your audience

Before defining which benefits will be offered to the employees, it is necessary to know what they consider important, and what benefit would make them choose to work for your company. This is an essential step to offer a customized and more attractive benefits package.

Attention to legislation

Before drawing up a benefit plan, try to understand and master labour legislation provisions. Some benefits, such as paid holidays, Christmas bonus and overtime are mandatory items. Sometimes, other advantages have been defined by means of collective agreements or negotiations with labour unions, and they need to be respected.

It is also important to be aware of certain benefits paid in cash, such as bonuses or variable compensation. They generate social security contributions, which must be added to the costs of the benefits policy.

Be transparent in the HR policies

The benefits package is among the main attractions that entice employees to continue working in a company, second only to compensation. The clearer the company’s practices in this area, the greater chances it will have to attract talents.

The company needs to be transparent about what benefits, to whom and under what conditions they will be offered. The health plan, profit sharing, education assistance, etc. When the employee chooses a company, he has to be sure of everything he will get in exchange for his commitment.

It is also important to inform the employee in which benefit plan level he will be inserted. In the case of health plans, for instance, it is common for the company to offer different modalities according to the employee’s position or role.

Focus on quality of life

People spend most of their lives at work. Therefore, having the quality of life in the office is essential for an overall well-being. The role of HR here is essential to generate a favourable environment for the employees to feel motivated to devote their time to the company. Quality of Life at Work (QLW) needs to be promoted.

And to do so, it is essential to think about the benefits in a strategic manner. Items such as career prospects, compensation, favourable working environment and efficient internal communications are essential to provide the employees with a sense of tranquility and engagement.

Additionally, there are special options that may add a lot of value to the employee’s perception and to the effort the company makes in promoting their quality of life. Flexible working hours, or even reduced in certain situations, the possibility of home office working, special leave for personal projects, partnerships with gyms and the offering of differentiated services at the office (beauty salon, massage, etc.) are just a few of these options.

Benefit cards

Managing the extensive list of benefits the companies should offer their employees may sometimes overwhelm the area. It is relatively common for the HR department to be “engulfed” by administrative activities in such a way that there is no time left to strategically think about people management.

An option to ease such management is the use of benefit cards. Nowadays, the market offers alternatives that are increasingly adaptable to all types of businesses and needs of a company. This is a way to avoid the overloading of the Human Resources department. If it has fewer administrative activities to perform, it will have more time to develop strategies to improve the company’s relationship with its employees.

Flexible benefits

Implementing flexible benefits is an alternative to further customize the package offered to the employees. In this mode, the company defines a credit value for the investment and the employees themselves define where such credit will be used.

As well as improving the use of the investment in benefits, this mode expands the concept that the employee actively participates in the company’s decisions. Moreover, flexible benefits may be an important differentiator to attract and retain talents.

Assess the benefits

When making any investment, it is essential to have clear goals regarding the expected return. This is not different in people management. Therefore, it is essential to measure how the employees assess the benefits package offered by the company.

Satisfaction surveys are a good alternative for such assessment. They can provide insights so as to whether the investment is generating the desired return and improving the employee’s perception regarding the quality of life at work, or if your benefits management needs to be reviewed.

How does your company manage benefits? Do you believe it is a differential in attracting and retaining talent? Follow us on LinkedIn and don’t miss our other interesting posts on this subject.