Flexible employee benefits are an option available to most companies and choosing this path appears to have many advantages. There are several ways where you can implement this dynamic feature into a staff program, but first, we shall explain what Flexible Employee Benefits actually are:
What Are Flexible Employee Benefits?
There are many organisations today which are seeing the benefits of implementing this kind of program: flexible employee benefits value the employee, and subsequently, the employer too.
In the scheme, an employee can vary his or her pay by conceding things like annual leave entitlement, sick pay, gym membership or simply adjust or tweak to change the salary pay. By taking fewer benefits, an employee can increase their pay. By adding more benefits (like extra leave entitlement) an employee may sacrifice some pay.
Flexible Employee Benefits have been around for some time. However, it has usually involved only one or two perks or benefits. More recently, employers have begun introducing a much wider range of benefits that can be sacrificed or added to a contract, in order to adjust the final salary an employee might end up with at the end of each month.
The reason flexible employee benefits have been so limited in the past is down to the cost and confusion in the HR administration departments. The sheer cost and time of implementing them made the entire program unworkable and time consuming.
However, in today’s world of advancing technologies and more dynamic software, it can be implemented.
The Advantages of Flexible Benefit Schemes to the Employee
Employees can pick and choose their benefits and work out which one may meet their needs more. Why accept a benefit package that may not be worthwhile? Would it not be better to take a higher salary, rather than have that gym membership?
The employees are given a sense of control and will feel they are driving their own destiny. If a benefit is valued so much that the employee feels they are not getting enough of it (holiday entitlement), then it can be summarily adjusted to suit.
The Advantages of Flexible Benefit Schemes to the Employer
Employers will certainly appear more responsive to the needs of the workforce. It is also regarded as a good way of keeping key personnel on board. There are HR software packages that can easily administer these schemes and control them accordingly.