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Good morning, everyone!

Another month, another edition of the People Puzzlers series! 🤩

For August, I thought we could go with something I’ve actually heard from more than a few workplaces. As always, thank you all for contributing to this community and making it the safe space for knowledge-sharing that it is. It has been a pleasure to spend my working days getting to meet so many of you all and I cannot wait to meet more of you! 😄

Now, on to this month’s People Puzzler!

Benefits Confusion
 

You’ve done some digging and found out that a very low number of employees are signing up for benefits such as subsidised gym membership, transportation subsidy, etc. Leadership is now wondering if spending the money on providing these benefits is even worth it. To add to this context:

  1. The company in this situation is facing financial pressures that mean they are actively looking for ways to save on operational costs.
  2. Your initial, informal chats with colleagues led to some people saying that everything about signing up for the benefits wasn’t “worth the hassle.”

So, how do you proceed to remedy this situation? What questions do you ask? Who do you collaborate with? 

August’s People Puzzler has arrived! Looking forward to reading some insightful contributions!

​@nina.johansson ​@SabbuSchreiber ​@SalC ​@HRJoy ​@HRHappiness ​@Salewa ​@wissbegierig ​@LegoMD ​@rstambolieva ​@damayantichowdhury09 ​@Naturally Mindful ​@Carly Murphy ​@Hellohere ​@Kim Stringer ​@xtine08 

I’m loving these Puzzler’s! Thanks ​@Moe for sharing those. ☀️

Just because a benefit is not being used much does not mean it’s useless. Sometimes it’s a communication problem, sometimes it’s too much hassle to sign up, and sometimes it’s simply not the right perk for the people.

I have not faced this exact issue in my current role but I have seen it before and it can be surprising how quickly a benefit can turn from a great idea into an unused budget line.

Some reasons for low uptake:

  • People don’t know the benefit exists which means they never think to try it
  • The sign up process is too slow or confusing which puts them off before they finish
  • The benefit is not relevant or attractive which makes it easy to ignore

If I wanted to get to the bottom of it I would

  • Ask employees in a short survey or casual chats if they know about the benefit, have tried it, and whether they would actually use it
  • Work with the Finance to see what the numbers say about cost per employee, usage rates, and trends over time
  • Check the sign up process myself to see if it feels clunky or frustrating

Before cutting the budget completely it can be worth testing one last push. That might be a clear step by step reminder on how to claim, timed for when people are most likely to act, and maybe a small reward for first time users. If that does not move the needle we can still confidently redirect the budget to something employees will genuinely use and value.

I’m loving these Puzzler’s! Thanks ​@Moe for sharing those. ☀️

Just because a benefit is not being used much does not mean it’s useless. Sometimes it’s a communication problem, sometimes it’s too much hassle to sign up, and sometimes it’s simply not the right perk for the people.

I have not faced this exact issue in my current role but I have seen it before and it can be surprising how quickly a benefit can turn from a great idea into an unused budget line.

Some reasons for low uptake:

  • People don’t know the benefit exists which means they never think to try it
  • The sign up process is too slow or confusing which puts them off before they finish
  • The benefit is not relevant or attractive which makes it easy to ignore

If I wanted to get to the bottom of it I would

  • Ask employees in a short survey or casual chats if they know about the benefit, have tried it, and whether they would actually use it
  • Work with the Finance to see what the numbers say about cost per employee, usage rates, and trends over time
  • Check the sign up process myself to see if it feels clunky or frustrating

Before cutting the budget completely it can be worth testing one last push. That might be a clear step by step reminder on how to claim, timed for when people are most likely to act, and maybe a small reward for first time users. If that does not move the needle we can still confidently redirect the budget to something employees will genuinely use and value.

Very interesting! I love that your approach is to dig and investigate, trying to see if you can diagnose and/ or fix the issue before anything more drastic is done. Vert big fan of this.

As a follow-up, how do you think you might approach justifying this to senior leadership? Specifically, how would you present the wait-and-see approach to them as a better approach than just cutting entire benefit programs? 

If leadership is considering cutting benefits that are not being used much, one idea is to run a short trial period before making the final call. Share the current cost and usage so the gap is clear, then use the trial to see if the issue is low awareness or low interest. Keep the trial short, set clear success targets, and make it clear it will not drag on.

The advantage is that if uptake improves, the company turns an underused perk into something employees actually value. If it does not, the program can be cut with data to back the decision, which makes it easier for everyone to accept.

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