Majority of employers offer flexible benefits

According to a new survey, 62% of companies now offer flexible benefits to their employees, whilst more than half of those who don’t are considering introducing them. 60% of those with flexible benefits programmes outsource administration, with cost being the most important factor when deciding whether to outsource or not.

The data comes from the Aon Hewitt Benefits Administration Survey 2012, which was undertaken in February 2012 amongst more than 300 companies.

Interestingly, whilst 34% of respondents said they were ‘well underway’ with pensions auto-enrolment implementation there still appeared to be widespread uncertainty about staging dates and costs of implementation. More than a quarter of respondents said they had ‘no idea’ about the cost.

Only 30% thought that pensions would become less significant in benefits packages following the introduction of auto-enrolment.

Starting in October 2012, millions of employees will be automatically enrolled into workplace pension schemes for the first time, with employers required to establish a pension scheme for their staff and to make a contribution to each employee’s pension.