UK employers are losing up to fifteen billion pounds per year on unused employee benefits. This striking figure highlights a fundamental challenge for businesses, as well as a significant opportunity. Amidst the financial strain many companies are facing – associated with inflation and changing regulations – employee benefits could be a make or break. When done right, organisations can use perks to drive retention and productivity – making a significant return on investment (ROI) that can be used on spend elsewhere.
Low uptake can happen for a number of reasons, including limited choice or offerings that don’t reflect what employees actually need. Yet one of the largest contributors to low uptake may surprise you: employees simply aren’t aware of what’s on offer or how to access it. In fact, a study by Nous revealed that a fifth of employees aren’t aware of which benefits are available to them; a third believe certain perks are too much effort to access; and 20% of HR leaders admit a lack of or inadequate onboarding for employee benefit initiatives.
So what’s the fix?
It’s easy and cheap. Awareness and uptake rely on simplicity and clarity. Don’t overcomplicate your offering or try to make it too ‘clever’. Instead, make it accessible, easy to understand and quick to read. Employees are already overwhelmed, they don’t need another hurdle to overcome.
A great way to achieve this is with a simple test – if employees can’t absorb, watch or read benefit communications within five minutes and understand if they’re available to them and how to onboard, then uptake will probably remain limited. By doing this, you can tailor communications to prioritise what matters most to workers and strip away jargon that prevents benefit use – boosting uptake and ROI easily and without increasing spend.
Why simplicity outperforms complexity
With all of the chaos of modern life and minimal free time, employees don’t want to take on additional tasks, even if they are beneficial to them. When communications are simple and concise, employees are far more likely to:
- Read them in full
- Retain the key message
- Take action
A clear, short message answers the employee’s core questions quickly:
- What is this?
- Why does it matter to me?
- What do I need to do next?
If those questions aren’t answered within minutes, engagement can drop drastically. Provide links with full explanations, but initially engaging employees only requires the key selling points.
The role of 5-minute comms in driving uptake
5-minute comms (or less) work simply because modern workforces are busy. Employees often won’t have the energy to look through long PDFs. Instead, it is important to pursue short, engaging comms strategies that naturally fit into the working day. For example:
- A short video that can be watched between meetings
- A concise email read on a mobile device
- A quick explainer on an intranet or HR portal
For frontline and deskless workers, short, visual communications are even more crucial. For example, a QR code on a staff room poster with an attached short video is far more accessible on the go than long-form digital content on computers they rarely use.
While short, targeted communications don’t require a specific style, some features are important for simplicity and accessibility. Make sure comms:
- Break complex topics into manageable steps
- Use plain language rather than corporate terminology
- Focus on benefits, not features
- Reinforce messages consistently over time
It’s also important to remember that while singular comms should be short, visual and engaging, that doesn’t mean the message should only be sent out once. Effective campaigns that drive uptake include a series of short, targeted comms that support employees through the decision journey – from awareness, to understanding, to action.
Consistency combined with simplicity across multiple channels reinforces familiarity and trust, reduces the workload for HR teams by lowering the number of basic questions employees ask, and ensures key messages are understood – not just sent.
Making engagement easier for everyone
Engagement shouldn’t be up to the employee – it relies on how employers interact and uplift their workforce. 5-minute comms demonstrate respect for employee time, helps reduce cognitive overload and improves employee confidence and understanding of how to participate in their benefits and in overall workplace culture.
Remember, this easy fix doesn’t just support workers, and help them engage with perks – it genuinely improves fulfillment, productivity and retention rates – all critical factors to business success.