3 minute read
EMPLOYEE HEALTH
How well are employee benefits in the public sector measuring up?
By Shaeera Essop
Public sector employees deliver a range of important services to South Africans, from municipal services to education to utilities. Employee benefits are a critical aspect of the employee value proposition, says Shaeera Essop, Strategic Client Engagement Manager at Momentum Corporate; however, Momentum’s research suggests employee benefits provision in the sector could do with some fresh thinking.
According to Essop, while most employees in the sector have access to the more traditional employee benefits, such as retirement benefits and medical aid, there is a growing need for new types of benefits. Employees also expect more support from their employer when it comes to financial education and empowerment.
More than half of the 657 respondents in the research were women over the age of 35, middle-class and welleducated, with children at home. The sample was spread across a range of public sector workplaces, with 25% of respondents working for state-owned enterprises, 24% for municipalities, 22% for universities and 12% for provincial or national government.
Around 80% of respondents received a retirement benefit and medical scheme membership as part of their employment contract. Other benefits respondents could access through their employer included funeral cover (42%), disability cover (28%) and life cover (26%).
Access to less traditional employee benefits such as a pension-backed home loan or wellness and rewards programmes was a lot lower, at only 18% and 17% respectively. However, respondents felt that these benefits were important, with wellness and rewards programmes topping the list of benefits they believed their employer should be offering.
Other benefits which respondents wanted their employer to offer included critical illness, savings for emergencies and value-added benefits.
“Employees today expect a lot more than the traditional retirement and insurance benefits. Younger employees in particular expect benefits to deliver more immediate value. It’s not surprising to observe
Shaeera Essop, Strategic Client Engagement Manager at Momentum Corporate
the growing popularity of wellness and rewards programmes and value-added benefits, or the need for emergency savings, which has been highlighted by the pandemic and the economic realities of lockdown," says Essop.
There is also a growing need across employees for greater flexibility and control when it comes to their employee benefits. "Fortunately, certain employee benefits models, in particular some of the well-established umbrella funds, offer employees the flexibility they seek, along with the kinds of value-added benefits that employees say are important,” says Essop.
Essop says that Momentum Corporate recently pioneered a highly flexible, hybrid employee benefits model for the employees of a wellknown South African university. The flexible model gives existing employees the option of staying on the existing standalone fund or moving to the FundsAtWork Umbrella Funds.
“The process offered a fresh approach to these types of conversions – with members making the ultimate decision, empowered to make informed choices through a comprehensive engagement programme,” she explains.
In this particular example, the umbrella fund’s proposition included access to a wellness and rewards programme as well as a range of valueadded benefits.
The research also shows that the vast majority of respondents (95%) believed that they have a good or fairly good understanding of their benefits. However, nearly 60% indicated that they needed financial education and advice to facilitate a better financial future, and looked to their employer for this support.
Essop says access to professional benefit counselling as well as qualified financial advisers is an essential part of any employee benefit value proposition nowadays. "Benefit counselling offers employees a solid understanding of their employee benefits and, along with financial coaching, helps employees master key financial best practices like developing a household budget and a financial plan. Access to the expert advice of a qualified financial adviser is also of critical importance, particularly in uncertain times when many employees may end up making decisions based on fear, scarcity and emotion," she adds. "Many years ago, Bob Dylan sang the classic 'The times, they are a-changin’. The times are certainly changing. The question is how well employee benefits value propositions are adapting in these changing times," concludes Essop.
