Can employee benefits re-engage employees?

As we now move into the next phase, the role of HR remains all important. The transition back to the office, while dealing with the constant threat of the ‘great resignation’, is just one area fraught with challenges. For many organisations, a hybrid way of working is the future, marrying the best of home working with onsite collaboration and teamwork. But will that be enough to satisfy your employees, or will they still consider their futures elsewhere? 

According to a recent survey of employees in the US, UK, Ireland, and Canada, nearly 4 in 10 people said they were planning to look for a new job in the next 12 months.* As we work closely with HR teams across Ireland, Zurich are again delighted to be a key sponsor of Europe’s largest HR & Leadership Conference Series, the Talent Summit. This year’s event explores the theme of competition for talent, one that has never been greater, as remote work opened a world of new opportunity to all and the power dynamic shifted from employers to employees.

It will be difficult to persuade all your team to stay, it’s natural for people to move jobs, but simply focusing on the benefit of a hybrid work environment may not be enough to convince the majority. It’s quite possible that hybrid working will simply become a tick box, you’ll need to offer it as basic requirement of working.

Are your employee benefit communications working hard enough?

Perhaps it’s time for HR teams to revisit their employee benefit communications to ensure that employees see the full picture and are not just focused on their physical work location. While employee benefits such as company pensions, life and sick pay insurance, and wellbeing programmes have long been part of working life, they are often taken for granted and have been underutilised in the battle to retain talent. This has been especially true of the last two years.

At Zurich we work with HR teams across all different industries, and we see first-hand the impact positive, active communication can have on a workforce. You should ask yourself are your employee benefits providing real value for money for your organisation and are they being valued by your employees. And if not, is it time to consider changing your employee benefits offering?

Reviewing and re-assessing what you offer at a time when we’re seeing considerable shifts in attitudes, in routines – especially when it comes to hybrid and flexible working – can play a key part in retaining the people you need and attracting further, high quality colleagues.

This is where we can help you. We can craft an employee engagement plan that is right for your business. We know that workplace pensions and other benefits are no longer ‘one size fits all’. For employee engagement to work it must be delivered at many different levels and in different ways. While online works for many, others prefer to hear first-hand and face-to-face. At Zurich we place great emphasis on face-to-face communication and workplace briefings. We strongly believe that face-to-face contact brings what can be a complex topic much more to life for employees.

At Zurich we recognise the challenge of employee engagement and have a committed team that will ensure your employees appreciate the valuable employee benefit that your pension scheme provides, while helping them to reach their retirement goals.

Getting to the heart of what your employees need and ensuring that the benefits your company provides needs the right attention. The workforce of today has evolved but you can use the support of Zurich to help ensure that your company is seen as evolving too. With our help, reviewing your employee benefits offering may take far less effort, time and cost than you thought, while delivering a real benefit to your business.

Partner with Zurich – Trust Experience

For over 40 years, Zurich has been providing for the retirement needs of Irish people and today, we are one of the largest Pension companies in Ireland. Our goal is to provide clarity to you and your employees on planning for retirement. With our experience of positively and actively engaging employees, you can trust us to deliver for your company.

If you would like to find out more about our group pension proposition or the Zurich Master Trust, please get in touch with rose.leonard@zurich.com

*Source: Workhuman.com, Survey of 3,500 employees, Autumn 2021