What drives employee benefits strategy in Australian organisations? - Study through survey of Australian HR managers
Nov 30, 2014
What drives employee benefits
strategy in Australian
organisations?
- Study through survey of Australian HR managers
Executive Summary
1 100% of HR managers surveyed say that employee benefits
drive retention
Leave and flexibility are considered most important type of
employee benefits followed by financial benefits such as
salary packaging
Cost to the organisation is a key factor in deciding which
employee benefit to provide to their workforce
Understanding of salary packaging and novated leasing is
high among the HR managers surveyed
73% of organisations surveyed already have salary
packaging or novated leasing in place
2
3
4
5
6 78% of organisations that do not already have salary
packaging or novated leasing are considering to implement
in 2013!
DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE BENEFITS
We asked what the main drivers of an employee benefits strategy were:
of HR managers surveyed either agree or strongly agree that employee benefits drive retention
What do you see are the main drivers of an
employee benefits program?
5%
5%
59%
36%
63%
35%
64%
32%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Attracting new staff
Retaining existing staff
Engaging Staff
Disagree Agree Strongly Agree
Types of Employee benefits ranked in order of
importance to HR managers surveyed
1 Leave and flexibility benefits
2 Financial
benefits such as salary packaging
3 Wellness
programs such as gym
memberships 4 Access to consumer
retail discounts 5
Leisure and lifestyle
memberships
Cost to the organisation is a top consideration
while deciding what benefits to give employees
1 Cost to the organisation
2 Potential participation of employees
3 Ease of implementation
4 Savings offered to employees
5 Compliance and risk
Awareness and understanding of salary packaging and novated
leasing is high among HR managers across Australia
7
I don't know anything about salary
packaging or novated leasing, 5%
Somewhat understand the benefits, 38%
I understand salary packaging and
novated leasing very well, 57%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
73% of HR managers surveyed have salary packaging or
novated leasing as an employee benefit in their organisation
already
8
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
No
Yes
Does salary packaging or novated leasing form part of your organisation's employee benefits program?
78% of HR managers who do not offer salary packaging or
novated leasing are considering offering it in 2013
9
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90%
No
Yes
Would you consider exploring the option of including salary packaging and novated leasing as part of your organisation’s
employee benefits program in 2013?
Only 19% of organisations that do salary package do it internally
completely
10
Outsourced 44%
Internally 19%
Combination 37%
Do you outsource or do the benefits administration internally?
In the combination category, most do salary packaging internal and novated leasing outsourced
The main advantages of why organisations want to
salary package – particularly cars
Top advantages of providing salary packaging and novated leasing
Tax benefits and therefore more competitive salaries
Meets employee expectations and is consistent with competitor offering
Employees expect it nowadays
Cost neutral to the company. Employees get to purchase a vehicle they would not normally be
able to afford.
Provides freedom of choice and flexibility for employees and reduced vehicle costs to employers
More to offer to employees, leads to greater tie-in or retention
Tax benefits; ability to spread cost
Top challenges to providing salary packaging: HR
managers believe there’s not enough benefit for employees
18%
39% 43%
50%
68%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
Employees aren't interested
It is expensive to implement and
administer
It is difficult to understand how
salary packaging/novated
leasing works
The process is complex to
implement and administer
There's not enough benefit for employees
One of the respondents’ comments was - “Planning, thought and variety overcome these challenges”.
71% of HR managers would consider a service that guarantees the
lowest price for new cars as an employee benefit outside of salary sacrifice
29%
71%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
No
Yes
Car buying service