Creating an Employee Benefits Survey

In the quest for employee retention, a great benefits package may be the deciding factor for those who stay and those who look elsewhere. Your company probably has benefits to offer, but do you know if your employees are satisfied with the options? It may be time to check in and find out if your benefits can be improved. An employee benefits survey is a great way to find out how the perks are being received —and where there’s room for improvement.

Why Are Employee Benefits Valuable?

A survey by Willis Towers Watson found that 78 percent of employees said “they were more likely to stay with their employer because of their benefits program.” Comprehensive health care coverage—including dental and vision—is a vital part of a good benefits program, but other benefits can attract and retain top talent:

• Retirement accounts with matching contributions
• Stock options
• HSA or FSA accounts
• Student loan repayment
• Tuition assistance or allowances for upskilling courses
• Relocation assistance
• Transportation assistance
• Childcare subsidies
• Adoption or fertility treatment stipends
• Wellness stipends for gym or workout app memberships
• In-office perks like complimentary food or drinks
• Mental health care coverage
• Pet insurance
• Flexible work options
• Floating holidays or flexible PTO options
• Rewards and recognitions

For many workers, benefits are “an important part of their overall compensation. ​​But it goes beyond compensation. When your business offers benefits, it shows that you believe in your company, that you have strong enough finances to afford benefits, and that you want to invest in your workforce.”

Even though the list of benefit options is long, the company budget may not be able to offer everything. A company with a predominantly remote workforce is unlikely to provide extensive in-office food or drinks, and a small business wouldn’t have stock options available. Knowing what your workers find valuable and useful helps you prioritize. That’s where the employee benefits survey comes in.

What to Include In an Employee Benefits Survey

A good employee benefits survey is well-organized and concise. Consider consolidating benefits into broad categories like:

• Healthcare
• Financial
• Office Culture
• Wellness
• Paid Time Off
• Work / Life Balance

Under each category, you can ask for feedback about current benefits and any options you may consider adding. For each available benefit, you may include a brief description to make sure all employees understand how each one works. Some employees may not be aware of certain benefits available to them.

For example:

I find the FSA valuable. (Flexible Spending Account: funded with pre-tax money you can spend on certain healthcare costs.)

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral / Neither Agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

Types of Survey Questions

To receive the most comprehensive results, it’s worthwhile to include different types of survey questions. 

Ranking

Allows the respondent to rank a series of items in order of preference:

Example: “Rank the following benefits in order of usefulness to you:

• Transportation subsidy
• 401K matching
• Student loan payoff
• Tuition or learning assistance”

Rating Scale

Uses a numerical scale from 1 to 10 where 1 is “not at all likely” and 10 is “extremely likely.”

Example: “How likely are you to use the wellness benefit to join a gym?”

Open-Ended

Allows respondents to give feedback in their own words, usually limited to some number of characters.

Example: “Can you describe a company benefit that has been most useful to you this past year?”

Open-ended questions may be useful when paired with other types, such as asking for an explanation of a rating score.

Dichotomous

Elicits responses that are binary: usually “yes” or “no” or “agree” or “disagree.”

Example: “I find it easy to navigate the details of our company’s health plan.” 

Likert Scale

This scale invites agree or disagree responses in this format: 

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral / Neither Agree nor Disagree
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

Example: “I feel well-informed about the retirement account options available to me.”

Use Frequency

Respondents indicate how often they engage with a benefit in this format:

• Never
• Rarely
• Sometimes
• Often
• Always

Example: “How often do you access the company benefit portal?”

As you draft your survey, it’s important to get feedback from a small focus group. This ensures the questions are clear and produce useful results. The Pew Research Center offers a few pointers for question writing:

• For an open-ended question, “it should be evident to respondents that they can answer in their own words”
• For closed-ended questions, “the response categories should not overlap” e.g. they should all be mutually exclusive
• Internal Pew research found that “forced-choice questions tend to yield more accurate responses, especially for sensitive questions.”
• If your company has done a survey before, “identical question wording should be used when the intention is to compare results to those from earlier surveys.”

How to Encourage Participation in an Employee Benefits Survey

Now that you have your carefully crafted survey, how can you make sure you get the responses you need? Employees typically respond well to incentives. Here are some suggestions to encourage participation:

• Gift card to every respondent
• Catered office lunch when a participation goal is reached
• Company swag
• Entrance into a drawing with high-value prizes
• Early respondent prizes (e.g. “the first 20 respondents get a prize”)
• Department competitions with tiered prizes
• Paid time off
• Cash bonuses
• Make sure the survey is mobile-friendly
• State survey time at the start; aim for 10-15 minutes at most

Most employees consider benefits equally as important as their salary. The question is: which benefits are the most valuable to the workers in your company? The employee benefits survey seeks to answer that. With some thoughtful survey crafting, you can find out what your employees need and want for long-term job satisfaction.

With WorkforceHub, you can gain valuable insights into the culture, as well as request feedback. This platform is built for today’s business needs, with automated timekeeping and scheduling to ensure the accuracy of your date.