We can’t really call ourselves a benefits platform without offering the best benefits can we?
We’re on a mission to bring awesome employee benefits to everyone, everywhere, and we think that should start at home.
By now, you might've noticed that we shout a lot about surveying your team to find out EXACTLY what they want (check out our template here). Well, we decided to practise what we preach and surveyed the whole Ben team about their benefits!
Here’s what we discovered & how we’re updating our benefits to reflect this!
What we discovered…
In our benefits survey, we had one key goal — find out how we can support our team and bring them the best benefits possible.
Here’s what we found:
- 100% value the Ben flex allowance
- 84% think they are given generous holiday allowance (28 days per year)
- 65% of employees value the mental health support they get through Oliva (our mental health provider)
- 88% value their L&D allowance
- 78% think they are given generous study leave (3 days per year)
- 46% are satisfied with the level of health insurance provided, however, 30% are dissatisfied - with the main reason for this being that pre-existing conditions are not covered.
- When asked what their most valued benefits are - 34% said monthly flex allowance, 30.8% said holiday allowance, and 23.1% said flexible working.
So, what have we gathered from this?
Flexibility is at the heart of what the Ben team values most. Our flex allowances mean our team can spend them on whatever they want. Plus, compensation-based benefits will no doubt mean more to employees during the cost of living crisis than before.
We’ve always been keen to have a gold-standard holiday policy at Ben (more on this here). Clearly, the Ben team values this a lot as the survey revealed it’s our most popular benefit.
Similarly, 65% of the team value the support they’re given through our mental health provider, Oliva. This speaks to the need for us to continue to support our team with their mental health.
Our new benefits offering…
So, the real question is… what are we actually doing to enhance our benefits package??
We found that flexibility and personalisation are super important to the team, so we’ve tried to thread these throughout as much of our new offering as possible. Here’s what we’re now offering the team….
Flexible allowances 💪
Okay, at this point our tagline should be ‘flexibility is key’ because we go on about it A LOT…
Flexibility is at the core of our offering at Ben, and for good reason. With this in mind, we wanted to enhance our flexible budgets to make them even more flexible!
- We’re increasing our monthly flex allowances from £70 to £100 per month. This allowance can be spent on whatever employees want. E.g., a netflix subscription, gym membership, or buying their friends dinner.
- And it gets better… Our monthly allowances increase by £50 for each year you work at Ben!!
- £500 yearly learning and development budget.
- £500 work from home allowance to set up your home office to suit your work style!
The Ben card is what makes Ben unique as a platform, so it’s super exciting that our employees are our biggest advocates of this. Here’s how some of the team are using their monthly flex allowance:
“I bought some winter bike tyres. I’d been thinking about buying them for a while and then decided to use my allowance. Got some free tyres paid for by work which is kinda ridiculous!”
“This month I used it towards buying a new mattress, which was pretty cool as it feels like I’m not spending my own money — it’s almost like a financial safety net for unexpected costs”.
“I bought a new fancy water bottle for my friend, I definitely won secret santa this year…”
Holidays 🏝
We’ve kept our generous holiday allowance of 28 days + 8 bank holidays per year, and made it even better by adding more flexibility into the mix…
- Holiday allowance increases to 30 days after 3 years of service.
- We’ve added buy & sell holidays of up to 5 days per year!
- Everyone can carry over up to 5 holidays per year into the following year’s allowance.
- Plus, we want to celebrate the diversity within our team, so we can now swap bank holidays to days that we’d rather celebrate e.g., Eid or Ramadan instead of Christmas and Easter.
The differences within the team are what makes Ben, Ben.
Plus, we know the importance of taking a break. There’s plenty of evidence out there to suggest not taking enough holidays can negatively impact both our physical and mental health.
Our new approach prioritises our team’s health and wellbeing, through encouraging them to take a break from work to focus on their work-life balance and self-care!
Support ♥️
Our team’s health & happiness matters most, above all else. We want to support our team as best we can, and don’t want to discriminate against pre-existing conditions. Here’s how we’re enhancing our support:
Private medical insurance
- Comprehensive PMI, now with pre-existing medical conditions covered!
- The Ben team can easily adjust their coverage in the Ben platform including adding dependents to their plan.
Mental health support
- 24/7 mental health support through our provider, Oliva
- 1:1 tailored support
- Workshops and group sessions
Financial support
- One-off payments to help navigate the cost of living crisis. These are relative to our employee's salary.
Parental support 👶
Childcare costs have skyrocketed in recent years. We wanted to make more of an effort to support our employees with children, and likewise not discourage new parents or expectant parents from applying to work at Ben!
So, our enhanced parental support now includes:
- A workplace nursery scheme to assist with the cost of childcare.
- Access to our parental leave from your start date at Ben.
“The savings I’ve made through Ben’s Workplace Nursery Scheme are incredible. It’s had a huge financial impact on my family, and I’m so grateful for that!” - Alicia Riley, People & Talent Lead
Other cool benefits 😎
When we tell you we want to offer the best employee benefits, we mean it. Here’s what else we’re offering our team:
- Weekly team lunch in the office, on Ben. We’re using Just Eat for Business to make sure everyone gets a good lunch at least once a week!
- Gympass access for the whole team!
- Enhanced flexible working policy… everyone can now choose to work from a different location for up to 3 weeks at a time, twice per year!
Conclusion
So there you have it, how we’re making our already awesome benefits even better. We’re committed to offering the best benefits, and bringing the same standard to employees everywhere!
If our benefits offering has piqued your interest, we’re hiring for a bunch of roles — check them out here!