Employers have woken up to the importance of improving benefits provision for their employees to maintain staff morale, research has found.
Bosses are also increasingly aware of the government shifting employee health away from the state and onto businesses.
The study conducted by Cigna found businesses have been increasingly changing structure in response to the recession and recognised engaged employees were better placed to cope with such organisational and job duty changes.
It interviewed 40 HR managers from small to large-sized companies and noted that with limited scope for pay rises and other financial rewards, employee benefits were playing an increasingly important role.
In some sectors this meant closely monitoring competitors' benefit packages to attract and retain good staff, while others admitted they were looking to benefit providers to help engage employees with their health and wellness services.
Respondents said they were increasingly aware of the significance of employee health and welfare and the expectation that responsibility for staff health would shift from the state to employers.
