Gallagher on how to keep a happy and stable workforce

Gallagher has found that senior chief executives must improve how they collaborate with chief financial officers and HR leaders.

It said there is potential to deliver stronger employer value propositions, which integrate pensions, benefits and culture.

But to achieve stronger retention rates, businesses must prioritise employees’ understanding of benefits packages.

These were the findings from the brokers’ 2019 Organisational Wellbeing & Talent Insights report which examines approaches to compensation, benefits, retirement and employee communications linked to high performing businesses.

Nick Burns, chief executive at Gallagher’s employee benefits consulting division UK, said: “It’s long been accepted that the brand experience an organisation creates — the way it looks, feels and acts on the outside — is vital to attracting new business.

“A shift that many don’t yet recognise is how it looks, feels and acts on the inside is now just as important.”

The report includes 12 articles detailing employee health, engagement and organisational wellbeing. It also has sections addressing chief executives, chief financial officers and HR issues directly, putting forward approaches to building a healthy work culture.

Its aim is to help employers make fully informed decisions about benefit plans and programmes that attract and retain top talent within a realistic budget.

Innovative approach 

It takes an innovative approach to compensation and benefits to begin with. The report suggested several actions leaders can take to achieve the right balance to manage talent effectively, these include:

1. Chief executives must team up with chief financial officers and HR partners to ensure a competitive compensation and benefits framework is in place, and work together to communicate its purpose

2. Chief financial officers must balance financial and talent risks as trustees for the health of their managers and employees, which in turn impacts the business balance sheet

3. HR leaders must invest in internal communications that tackle issues employees care about, for example financial education related to student debt, pensions and flexible working

4. HR leaders must also shift to a data-led model, drawing on performance metrics but also assessing each prospect’s creativity, curiosity, interpersonal skills and ability to innovate

Shifting employee values

Due to the changing values of employees, employers that retain talent on pay increases alone could get left behind. The broker found in a previous report that 72% of UK organisations said they were planning on enhancing their benefits offering such as pensions.

Meanwhile, younger workers expect flexibility around the 9-5-hour workday. 89% of employees consider flexible working a key motivator of their productivity, more so than financial incentives (77%) as cited by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s Flexible Working: The Business Case November 2018 report.

Laws on flexible working in the UK could soon change following a bill raised by Parliament this summer to allow workers the legal right to flexible working, meaning employers would have to offer it in contracts by default.