Employees want specific and targeted staff benefits

Many employers aren’t tailoring their staff perks and benefits to individuals, despite a strong clamour for more targeted support.

According to a poll by Towergate Health & Protection, more than three-quarters of employers have received requests for benefits that reflect people’s specific demographics and lifestyles.

For example, over half have been asked by staff members of different ages to provide age-specific benefits.

A similar proportion, meanwhile, have received requests for benefits based on gender.

Nevertheless, figures showed that four in ten employers aren’t delivering what staff are asking for and are instead offering the same perks to everyone.

Interestingly, companies aren’t rejecting targeted benefits because they think it’s a bad idea.

In fact, 70% of employers said that while they’d like to offer more personalised support that caters to different groups, it would be too complicated to do so.

Debra Clark, head of wellbeing at Towergate Health & Protection, said it’s surprising that so many employers don’t offer targeted health and wellbeing support, despite three-quarters being asked for it.

“The reality is, however, that knowing how and where to direct benefits spend is a complex matter that requires expertise,” she said.

But given the range of ages, genders, ethnicities and lifestyles across the UK workforce, employers can’t dismiss targeted support as something that’s too hard to provide.