Employers Overestimate the Extent to Which Staff Appreciate Their Employee Benefits

GRiD has uncovered that employers are radically overestimating the extent to which staff appreciate their employee benefits.

In research released today, just over half (52%) of employees say they appreciate and value their employee benefits. However, 92% of employers believe that staff either ‘very much’ (49%) or ‘somewhat’ (43%) appreciate the benefits that they provide – 40 percentage points more than the employee responses.

Employee benefits can only deliver real benefit and value to an organisation, such as support for recruitment and retention, if they are genuinely appreciated by employees. Simply offering a range of perks is not enough – staff must understand, recognise, and value what is being provided. When benefits go unnoticed, their impact is diminished, and they fail to influence key outcomes like attracting talent or encouraging long-term commitment.

Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD said: “There is a disconnect between how staff feel about their employee benefits and whether employers have an accurate understanding of employee appreciation in this area. Employers need to get better tuned in, as it is only with appreciation that staff will truly value what they are offered.”

How many employers measure employees’ appreciation of benefits?

GRiD’s research also found that only 57% of employers measure staff appreciation of employee benefits, which means that many employers are operating in the dark when it comes to understanding whether their employee benefits budget is being directed appropriately.

Of those who do measure staff appreciation, 41% do so via informal feedback to managers, HR, employee benefits or wellbeing champions, 40% have a feedback or suggestion box – either physical or email – for employee benefits-related feedback, and 39% undertake online activities that measure clickthrough rates on certain topics, e.g. on the company intranet.

Katharine Moxham continued: “The three most popular methods of measuring staff appreciation of benefits are all reasonably informal which may make them less accurate, so we’d encourage employers to use a mix of informal and formal measurements to get an accurate picture of staff sentiment.”

With such a wealth of employee benefits available to employers, it’s important to offer the right benefits for staff. Group risk benefits are some of the most popular – indeed, over 11.4m employees have group life assurance in place. These benefits are also some of the most valued, and often come with additional embedded services such as access to support for mental and physical health which can also be highly appreciated.

Katharine Moxham continued: “Employers need to ensure that all of the employee benefits that they offer are valued by staff. What is clear is that employers who do not take any steps to measure whether staff appreciate their employee benefits, and those who only do so informally, do not have a complete picture of whether or not their budget is being well spent.

“Ultimately, the effectiveness of a benefits package is measured not just by what is offered and utilised, but also by how well it resonates with the workforce.”