4. What can we do to make our benefits more sustainable?
Companies’ ESG credentials are becoming increasingly important to attract, motivate and keep the very best people. When choosing an employer, 55% of us are looking for high ethical standards, and 45% want to see a commitment to sustainability (Benefex 2023 Evolution Report).
With employees looking for organisations that align with their own values, forward-thinking business and HR leaders are recognising the need to align the employee experience – ensuring they help each individual understand everything their employer does for them, the environment, and the wider community.
Reward directors are in a unique position to highlight their company’s ESG initiatives, through employee benefits. And we’re seeing more of our customers prioritising ESG, DEI, and putting values and purpose at the heart of their reward strategy.
Here are two areas to look at to make your benefits more sustainable...
1. Review the market for the latest sustainable benefits
It might seem obvious, but giving employees a greater choice of green benefits will further your sustainability agenda and help employees to live more sustainably.
The marketplace for green employee benefits has seen a boom over the last decade, showing just how critical sustainability is to both businesses and individuals. Here are a few benefits that can help your employees reduce their carbon emissions and promote sustainability, while improving their wellbeing:
EV (Electric Vehicle) salary sacrifice schemes or an EV grant scheme
Electric car charging
Cycle-to-work
Public transport loans
Pension scheme ESG fund options
Discounts with a sustainability category
Payroll giving
Volunteering
Tree planting
2. Assess the sustainability credentials of your benefits providers
Aligning benefits with ESG means reviewing not just the benefits you’re already offering, but also the end-to-end process and providers you’re working with to make sure every element is sustainable. More than half of employers (51%) are planning to invest in more flexible benefits over the next two years – they all need to be viewed through a lens of sustainability.
1. Are you aware of your carbon emissions as a business? If so, what measures are being taken to reduce your carbon footprint? Are you exploring every area of the business to root out elements that don’t adhere to your ESG goals?
2. What is the business’ impact on the local and global community? This helps you find any gaps that exist currently and areas where improvement can be made, depending on the particular industry. Your HR teams need to be ready to answer these questions from employees and partners or customers, so doing your due diligence and arming yourself with the information you need can help build a case for more sustainable practices.
3. How are you becoming a greener business? How green are the actions you have in place – can you do more? How are you aligning your actions to your overall strategy? What areas could you improve on? How are you using your resources? Think of the waste you produce and how this can be offset.
4. What are your key sustainability measures?There are three key criteria for sustainability: economic, environmental, and social. How many areas does your company comply with? What measures are you using to assess your capability in each area?
Here's an example of what those multi-channel communications might look like. Ardonagh created a benefits brochure as well as email communications and provided employees with access to their benefits via an app.
Communicate the value of your sustainable benefits with employees
What good is aligning your benefit strategy with a strong commitment to sustainable practices if no one knows about it?
A multi-channel communications strategy supports engagement with benefits – ensuring employees are aware of sustainable initiatives, the impact of selecting these benefits, and how to take action.
If you use the different communications channels available to you, you can significantly increase engagement; for example, you might use different channels to reach deskless employees, or create bespoke communications for specific teams.
How ScottishPower is helping employees to live their sustainable values through benefits
ScottishPower has successfully aligned employee benefits, communications, and technology to their ESG strategy – with award-winning results (they’ve been shortlisted at the Employee Benefit Awards, HR Excellence Awards, and won a Stevie).
As the first integrated energy company in the UK to generate 100% green electricity and a principal partner for COP26, ScottishPower are committed to tackling climate change and delivering the infrastructure to support Net Zero. They wanted to reflect these goals to help their employees take steps to live more sustainably, at the same time as increasing employee engagement with benefits.
ScottishPower introduced or enhanced a total of 14 sustainable employee benefits, consolidated all benefits on OneHub (using single-sign-on where needed), and embarked on a multi-channel communications campaign.
