Employee Benefits Survey 101: What to Include and How to Ask
An employee benefits survey can help you gain valuable feedback on your current programs. Here's how to create a great one.
Our 2023 Benepass Benefits Benchmarking Guide reveals insights on top pre-tax and perks programs, average stipend contributions, and benefits design so you can design more competitive benefits.
Get the guideAn employee benefits survey can help you gain valuable feedback on your current programs. Here's how to create a great one.
An employee benefits survey is one of the most valuable ways to gain feedback on your current benefits programs while gaining insight into what matters most to your employees.
Gym memberships, free office donuts, transportation reimbursement… While these perks may all sound fantastic, are they really empowering a happier, healthier workplace? 2020 ushered in a seismic shift in the types of benefits employees needed and loved. But without direct employee feedback, people leaders are forced to make decisions in the dark, hampering their ability to allocate resources to the specific benefits most aligned with their employees’ needs.
This can have serious repercussions in the workplace as more and more research points to benefits playing a key role in recruitment and retention.
Here’s what you need to know about devising an employee benefits survey, why they’re so important to your people operations, and what types of questions to ask.
Employee benefits surveys are questionnaires sent to employees to gather feedback on existing benefits programs and what benefits they would like in the future. They are typically conducted on an annual basis.
Benefits are the building blocks to your workplace culture and overall employee experience. While surveying employees may seem like an outdated practice replaced by machine learning, real-time feedback, and other advanced people platforms, surveys still serve three main objectives remarkably well. They:
Employee surveys also enable you to benchmark your offerings against companies of a similar size and industry to ensure your total rewards package is competitive.
When structuring your survey, consider the main categories you would like to cover.
Here are 10 common focus areas:
Employee benefits surveys are typically structured with a Likert scale, which includes a list of statements accompanied by reply options ranging from “Strongly Agree” to “Strongly Disagree.”
For example: “I am satisfied with our health care coverage plans” with response options being:
Below are commonly asked employee benefits survey questions. Consider giving your employees the option to answer them anonymously, which may encourage more honest responses.
It’s also important to ask a few demographic questions so that you can segment your employee population to gain better insight into how different groups value certain types of benefits. Demographic questions include:
Ultimately, simplicity is key when it comes to developing employee surveys. If it becomes too long or cumbersome, you risk lower participation levels. As your benefits programs evolve, so too will your feedback surveys.
Have questions about how to create a benefits package that is flexible and adaptable to your employees’ individual needs? Drop us a line at sales@getbenepass.com.