Employee Benefits Surveys — Top tips for creating the perfect survey

Keeping your employees engaged, motivated and happy is tough.

We might be biased, but a great benefits package can go a long way in getting you there. In fact, research has shown that companies with good benefits benefit from less employee stress, attract better talent, reduced turnover and increased employee loyalty…

But how can you make sure your benefits are up-to-date & people still use them?

How do you know what your team actually wants?

The answer is super simple…ask them!?

The best way to find out what your employees really want and value in a benefits package is to conduct an internal benefits survey.?

Read on to find out how to go about doing this, some questions you should consider asking, and why it’s worth it. We’ve even chucked in a free survey template for good measure (scroll to the end)!

What is an internal employee benefits survey?

You’ve probably heard of benefits benchmarking — the process of comparing your benefits to those of your competitors and others in your industry. While this helps you stay competitive when it comes to attracting talent, retaining talent is a whole other story!

An internal benefits survey is a survey (really?!) conducted within your organisation that allows you to find out what your employees think about your benefits offering. There are plenty of free survey tools out there to get you started!?

Employee benefits surveys are a great way of gathering information on how your employees interact with, value, and engage with their employee benefits.?

Why conduct an internal benefits survey??

There are a number of reasons why you might want to conduct an internal benefits survey for your business…

Maybe you're thinking of making changes to your current benefits offering and want to see how your team feels about their current package. Or maybe you're looking at trying to improve employee retention or benefits engagement. Regardless of the reason, benchmarking generates valuable insights that can help you make data-informed decisions about your business's employee benefits.?

There are several reasons why conducting a benefits survey is important for your business:?

1. It helps you determine whether your current benefits package is viewed as competitive by those who actually work in the industry. This is super important info to have when trying to attract and retain top talent.?
2. Surveying your team can help you identify potential areas of improvement for your benefits package. E.g., If you find that your employees are unhappy with their health insurance options, you can use that information to implement a package that will better meet their needs.?
3. Conducting a benefits benchmarking survey shows your employees that you're committed to providing them with a great benefits package. This can help improve morale and increase employee engagement over time.?

How to survey your team?

To gather the most accurate data on your employee benefits offering, you'll need to survey employees about their needs and expectations. This will help you identify any gaps in your current benefits offering and determine what changes need to be made to better meet the needs of your employees.?

When conducting your survey, there are a few things we recommend you keep in mind:?

1. Make sure that the survey is anonymous. This will encourage employees to be honest in their responses and will prevent any bias in the results.?

2. Keep the survey short and sweet. Nobody likes taking long surveys, so make sure that yours can be easily completed in 5 minutes or less.?

3. Be clear about what you're asking. Use simple language and avoid jargon whenever possible.?

4. Offer an incentive for employees who complete the survey. This could be something as simple as a gift card or entry into a company-wide draw.?

Asking the right questions?

Getting the questions right is super important when conducting a survey about employee benefits.?

When designing a survey, it can be difficult to fully predict people’s responses. So, it’s always a good idea to get a mixture of quantitative and qualitative responses. To achieve this, you can ask a mixture of closed questions (with a limited number of response options) and open-ended questions (with more flexibility to answer freely).?

Here are some questions you might want to ask:?

• What benefit do you most value??
• What benefit do you feel is most important for attracting and retaining top talent??
• What would you like to see added or changed about our current benefits offering??
• How satisfied are you with our current benefits package??
• How do our current benefits compare to those offered by our competitors???
• Would you recommend our company as a good place to work based on our current benefits offerings??

Keep in mind the goal here is not only to benchmark your current employee benefits against your competitors’, but also to identify any areas where improvements can be made. Asking open-ended questions will give you the best insights into how well your current benefits package meets the needs of your employees and where changes need to be made.?

Who should you survey about employee benefits??

Now that we've gone over some tips for surveying employees about their benefit needs, let's take a look at who exactly should be included in the survey process.?

In order for your results to be accurate, it's important to survey a representative sample of employees from across all departments and seniority within your organisation.

In general, employee survey engagement rates can fall anywhere between 65% and 85%. Where a company should fall on this scale depends on their size and number of employees. For example, a company with less than 50 employees should be aiming for an 80-90% participation rate. Whereas a company with over 1000 employees will still be able to get a good gauge of the popularity of their benefits with a 70% survey participation rate — it’s all relative!

How often should I conduct a benefits survey?

It's important that your employee benefits surveys are conducted on a regular basis - annually or every other year - as this helps you keep up with changing employee needs and expectations over time. By conducting regular surveys, you'll be able ensure that your company's employee benefit offerings remain competitive year on year.???????

Conclusion

Benchmarking your employee benefits is key to success in today’s competitive business landscape but it's equally important to make sure your company’s offerings are up-to-date and meet the changing needs of your workforce. Conducting regular benchmarking surveys is one way to keep your benefits competitive and attractive to both existing and potential talent alike. If you follow the suggestions outlined here, you’ll be well on your way to conducting successful benefits surveys and benchmarking so you can make informed business decisions about your new and existing employee benefits offerings!

Check out our free template survey template here!