UK SMEs only offer one core benefit to all their employees on average

UK SMEs rarely offer benefits to their employees. Source: unsplash.com

The proportion of UK small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that offer their employees benefits is quite low, with only 26.3% of SMEs offering flexible working arrangements to all of their employees, according to GlobalData. The lack of benefits is even more pronounced when looking at Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) with less than one in five SMEs offering this benefit to all their employees.

The report reveals that three-quarters of employers believe that they should be playing an active role in supporting their employees’ mental wellbeing while 7 in 10 believe they should help support employees’ physical wellbeing. However, only 19.4% of SME employers offer a cycle to work program and 11.7% offer some sort of gym membership to all their employees.

One of the main reasons that people explore external job opportunities is for better remuneration and benefits packages they would receive from a different employer. People also believe that large corporations are more likely to offer a wide range of benefits compared to smaller ones, which poses a real threat to SMEs whose employees may be tempted to look for employment elsewhere.

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