Employee benefits are often overlooked when thinking about organisational culture. Yet they are a powerful framing or reframing mechanism for amplifying the message in our organisation of “the way we do things around here”. Like a good base guitarist they can provide the rhythm underscoring the melody of our set piece riff.

Messages – explicit and implicit
There are a number of signpost continuums that are reflected in our benefit offerings;

• Traditional to playful (think pensions vs bike to work)
• Collective to individualistic (Set menu vs flex)
• Paternalistic to intelligent consumer
• Slow moving to early adaptor (Notice board vs Twitter)
• Tea dance to Lo-fi (Think tea trolley to “Sushi made at your desk” (Hey, is that a new benefits concept?))

You get the idea. The what and the how of benefits delivery as well as the communication sets the mood music for how our organisation is perceived by employees and the wider world.

Conclusion
Benefits are not something that should just happen. They are an important rhythm to the music of our organisational culture. Not up there with the lead guitar perhaps; but an essential, if overlooked nuance and shading of the message of who we are and who we want to be.