Member Article

Mind the gap: HR likely to overestimate employee satisfaction with benefits

HR professionals in large UK enterprises tend to overestimate employee satisfaction when it comes to rewards and benefits programmes, new research by Hawk Incentives finds. Comparing perceptions between HR departments and the general workforce, the survey found that just around half of employees (52%) stated they are happy with the benefits offered by their company. At the same time, the average HR-professional (77%) said its workforce was markedly happier with its benefits package, ranking at 7 or above on a ‘happiness scale’ from 1 to 10.

The extensive report “Pulling the benefits lever: Closing the gap between HR expectations and employee satisfaction” is based on a survey of 103 HR professionals and 500 employees, which was conducted by independent market research company Sapio Research and commissioned by Hawk Incentives, a leader in corporate benefit and reward solutions.

It revealed the challenges that HR departments face in ensuring that the benefits and incentives they offer are relevant and applicable to a diverse workforce. Almost half of employees (44%) agreed with the claim that their company does not understand the real needs and wishes of its workforce, while 62% of employees said their employers’ rewards and incentives programmes are not applicable to them.

Revealing further differences, 59% of employees disagreed with the claim that their company regularly surprised them with new incentives and benefits programmes, with this figure ranging notably between 15% for entry level compared with 41% for Director level employees.

Taking a look at the impact of specific benefits on employee acquisition, 69% of HR professionals said they still felt that classic benefits such as a private healthcare scheme would be a powerful pull factor. But only 47% of employees agreed that it would be a strong factor in their decision to work for a company. In response to the same question, 52% of employees and 57% of HR leaders agreed that on the spot rewards like prepaid shopping cards can have a strong impact. This is in line with the finding that a clear majority (77%) of employees across all ages and levels of seniority said they wanted more benefits that help them cut the cost of their everyday life.

“What this research shows is that HR leaders’ are now actively deploying their rewards and incentives programme to help them achieve their business goals”, said Heather Rogers, Senior Sales and Marketing Director at Hawk Incentives. “But simply offering a range of rewards is not enough – we know that the real results come from fine tuning your packages to reflect the current needs and wishes of your people, as they progress in their careers and personal lives.”

About Hawk Incentives Hawk Incentives, part of Blackhawk Network Europe, helps companies to build, sustain and extend profitable relationships with employees and customers. We offer a wide choice of reward and incentive products, supported by easy-to-use platforms and APIs. Many of our salary sacrifice and lifestyle employee benefits are easy to implement, at low or no cost.

About the research:

Survey methodology for employees The survey was conducted among 500 employees, the interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in September 2018 using an email invitation and an online survey.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 4.4 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

Survey methodology for HR The survey was conducted among 103 HR professionals, the interviews were conducted online by Sapio Research in September 2018 using an email invitation and an online survey.

Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. The magnitude of the variation is measurable and is affected by the number of interviews and the level of the percentages expressing the results. In this particular study, the chances are 95 in 100 that a survey result does not vary, plus or minus, by more than 9.7 percentage points from the result that would be obtained if interviews had been conducted with all persons in the universe represented by the sample.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Hawk Incentives .