The development of fintech has played a huge role in the advancement of employee benefits over the course of the past one-to-two years, as accessibility to platforms offering immediately accessible perks have become increasingly popular.
Marrying technology with an employee value proposition enables an employer to use management information to determine the level of uptake of benefits while measuring the effectiveness of them and enables employees to set goals and objectives, understand wellbeing and finance, and avoid pitfalls such as debt, all of which is now more valuable than ever.
What sort of benefits are most sought after by employees?
Many believe their benefit packages are outdated, with demands that employers tailor benefit packages to their employees and provide better access to lifestyle and wellbeing benefits. According to new data, more than 70 per cent of employees prefer perks over pensions, although pensions are sitting comfortably in the top four of preferred benefits alongside flexi-hours, bonus or profit-related reward schemes and wellbeing support.
The ability to adopt financial education into the workplace and encourage financial wellbeing is more desired than ever as more than 10 per cent of employees find it difficult to make time for their financial health. The practice of planning for the future is sometimes impacted by someone’s ability to keep track of all their pensions.
Aegon has suggested that 17 per cent of individuals with multiple pensions do not have details of at least one of them readily available, a figure that has barely improved over the past five years. This suggests that more 6m people between 22 and 65 do not have a full understanding about some of their retirement savings, and more than 20 per cent do not know the values of their pensions.
Multiple pension numbers rise
The number of people with multiple pensions has increased by 11 percent to 73 percent since 2016, highlighting the suggested need for the delivery of pension dashboards to ensure that losing pensions does not become a more common issue. While these pots are generally small, dating from when an individual started to work, they can of course play a huge part in planning for retirement and improving financial wellbeing.
Overall, employee benefits have advanced greatly over the past several decades and will continue to do so, particularly as the integration of financial wellbeing in the workplace becomes more of a focal point for both employers and employees. From an employer perspective, the UK economy showed strong growth in the second quarter of 2021. This, coupled with the Bank of England’s forecast for overall annual growth of 7.25 per cent, should be welcome news for employers throughout the country.
