How to save money on employee reward while maintaining employee engagement | RibiGifts

Increasing employer NICs mean UK HR teams will be under the cosh to save money wherever possible. Or, at the very least, make budgets stretch further. Which means there’s likely to be less money available to enhance reward programmes.

Fortunately, there’s a lot you can do to optimise your rewards without spending a tonne of money. Read on to find out how.

1 - Adapt Your Reward Package to Meet Your Employees Where They Are

With employees continuing to value flexibility, wellbeing and purpose alongside traditional compensation and benefits, it’s a good idea to rethink your reward package. This doesn’t necessarily mean adding to your compensation and benefits package, but taking a more nuanced approach.

Survey your employees about their rewards to see what they do and don’t value. This will help you to reposition and adjust your offer so it’s relevant to what your employees want.

For example, research shows employees are turning away from discounted gym memberships in favour of saving money on their weekly shop through employee discount schemes.

Take action by…
… creating an employee survey to understand what your people like and dislike about their rewards. You could also include questions about your reward communications to set you up for point three in this article. And then use the data to shift or repackage how you communicate about benefits.

2 - Streamline Your Total Rewards

Remember that free life cover you got for your employees through your pension scheme provider? Thought not. Which could mean you’re paying for death in service cover twice.

Along with your employee survey, carrying out an audit of your total reward framework is another good way to identify wasted reward spend. You might find duplicate cover, underused or redundant benefits or programmes that no longer fit with your reward strategy or employee preferences.

Take action by…
… auditing and streamlining your package so it meets employees expectations while ensuring you maintain fiscal responsibility/control.

3 - Enhance Communication to Boost Reward Engagement

With a clear picture of what your employees want and a streamlined package, it’s time to think about how you communicate this change.

You could use any cost savings from duplicate provisions or underused benefits to fund a communications programme. Like the 73% of companies who are planning to improve communication and perceptions of their employee benefits.

Even if you’re not making any changes at all, reward communications can boost how people perceive your reward package without the need to add to or adapt your offer.

Take action with …
… some tips to get you started:

Pull together details for all your reward programmes, taking a total reward approach to showcase what you have on offer.

Group your rewards into a small number of buckets that make it easier to communicate them.

Create a story that weaves together your company values and your rewards.

Use this narrative to develop key messaging that will not only help you communicate your total reward package but reinforce your HR/reward strategy and company values.

Plan ongoing communications to showcase your rewards and remind people about what’s on offer and how it works.

Communicate across multiple channels throughout the year in a way that helps employees engage with their rewards.