In today's competitive landscape, workforce management is being prioritised, emerging as an essential commodity linked to operational success and employee wellbeing for organisations across sectors.
A robust employee benefits programme tailored to organisational needs can significantly enhance employee engagement and improve workforce satisfaction. However, despite the vast array of possible benefits, engagement with benefit platforms remains concerningly low.
The Gallagher UK 2024 Workforce Trends Survey highlights that 56.25% of organisations report that employees are disengaged with their benefits technology platforms.1
Recent findings around ‘employee benefits initiatives’ underscore a significant issue: while these initiatives may be comprehensive in planning, the platforms and tools designed to deliver these benefits are underutilised and fail to engage employees, resulting in lower employee satisfaction.
Low utilisation rates of benefit programmes can be frustrating for companies, especially after they have invested significant time and effort in designing, delivering and maintaining them.
In both the public and private sectors, financial constraints and employee wellbeing are critical, and disengagement with benefits platforms can lead to roadblocks. This is particularly the case where employees may not utilise all the available resources, such as critical support platforms: mental health services, financial wellness programmes and retirement planning tools.
Both the public and private sectors are struggling to manage their employees' work-related stress, anxiety and performance pressure. Neglecting employee benefits and wellbeing initiatives could potentially leave organisations struggling to contend with factors such as top-performer burnout and high departure rates.
With the appropriate employee benefits programme, organisations can proactively promote overall employee wellbeing, use data to monitor their employees’ performance and wellbeing, and intrinsically embed an employee benefits programme into the organisational culture.
The UK public sector faces a persistent challenge in managing employee wellbeing amidst increasing complexity. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reports that the UK public sector currently employs approximately 5.94 million people, including National Health Service (NHS) staff, civil servants and local government workers.2
Despite the availability of comprehensive benefits, public sector workers often report feeling overworked and under supported.
These conditions are exacerbated in the public sector due to heavy workloads, high administrative demands and pressure to maintain quality of service. Data from the NHS Staff Survey 2023 indicates that nearly a third of NHS staff felt burnt out due to work-related stress.3
The impact of such stress is significant, contributing to high sickness absence rates, lower productivity, and employee exhaustion. Public sector workers generally record higher absence rates than their private sector counterparts, with the average public sector employee taking 10.6 days off per year due to illness.4
Given these concerns, technology-driven solutions, particularly those focused on improving employee engagement with benefits, are essential in supporting the workforce and addressing growing mental health challenges. Engaging with well-planned employee benefits platforms could alleviate some of these pressures by providing easier access to wellbeing resources and financial planning tools.
Employees across the UK are experiencing alarming levels of stress. While the pandemic resulted in heightened concerns for physical and mental wellbeing, the continued tremors from economic uncertainty and other social challenges have carried over these tensions for private-sector employees.
Improving employee health is directly linked to growth in a business, even at the grassroots level. According to a 2023 McKinsey report, the global opportunity where employee health and wellbeing are optimised is USD3.7 trillion to USD11.7 trillion, equivalent to raising global GDP by 4%-12%.5
Investing in employee health and wellbeing enhances work productivity and offers significant opportunities for attracting and retaining talent, reducing expensive and time-consuming recruitment costs.
As per the Gallagher UK 2024 Workforce Trends Survey, here are the key improvements employers would like to see from the providers of their existing employee benefits platform:
The digital transformation in the UK public and private sector is advancing rapidly, driven by the need for more efficient, accessible and user-friendly platforms. According to the UK Government's 2022-2025 digital roadmap, the aim is to have more than 50 top government services digitised to a ‘great’ standard by 2025, increasing efficiency and reducing the cost of service delivery.6 Digital platforms are essential for reducing administrative burdens and providing seamless access to employee benefits.
Reports indicate that both public and private organisations are increasing their focus on using digital tools to optimise work processes, improve staff productivity and enhance wellbeing.1
Organisations seeking to deliver an employee benefits experience that is modernised and engaging need a benefits platform that:
The UK’s public and private sectors are at a pivotal moment when it comes to engaging employees with benefits technology. With workforce numbers growing and demands for efficiencies increasing, the need to modernise how benefits are administered and communicated has never been more urgent.
At Gallagher, we have a solution for the benefits support platform challenge: Gallagher Guide, our integrated solutions for benefits technology and people experience consulting. Gallagher Guide provides intuitive employee self-service for your HR teams, full visibility on benefits usage via a back-end portal, and flexible administration models to suit you and your team:
Gallagher Guide empowers employees to take control of their benefits while allowing employers to manage the programme with ease. From understanding total rewards to accessing wellbeing funds, our platform drives engagement and integrates your employee wellbeing strategy seamlessly into daily operations.
To learn more about Gallagher’s Employee Benefits Programme, take a look at Gallagher Guide here.
1. Optimising Your Employee Benefits Platform, AJG.com/uk, 25 Sept 2024
2. Public Sector Employment, UK: June 2024, ONS.gov.uk
3. National results across the NHS in England | NHS Staff Survey
4. Health and wellbeing at work | CIPD, www.cipd.org, 26 Sept 2024
5. A Feel-Good Story for the Economy, www.mckinsey.com, April 2024
6. Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data GOV.uk, 29 Nov 2023
Gallagher Benefit Services is a trading name in the UK for Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited (Company Number: 3265272), Gallagher Communication Ltd (Company Number: 3688114), Gallagher Actuarial Consultants Limited (Company Number: 1615055), Gallagher (Administration & Investment) Limited (Company Number: 1034719), and Gallagher Consultants (Healthcare) Limited (Company Number: 172919), which all have their registered offices at The Walbrook Building, 25 Walbrook, London EC4N 8AW. All the companies listed are private limited liability companies registered in England and Wales. Gallagher Risk & Reward Limited, Gallagher (Administration & Investment) Limited and Gallagher Consultants (Healthcare) Limited are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Arthur J. Gallagher Insurance Brokers Limited is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Registered Office: Spectrum Building, 55 Blythswood Street, Glasgow, G2 7AT. Registered in Scotland. Company Number: SC108909.
