Over the past decade or so, unconscious bias has been a prominent consideration in the world of people management and hiring decisions. But it hasn’t often been used in the same context as employee benefits – and so we did the research. Are HR decision makers biased when they make decisions around what benefits to implement in their businesses?
The answer is a resounding ‘yes’.
But before we dig into the results of our research, let’s first define what we mean by ‘unconscious bias’.
Unconscious bias (otherwise known as “implicit bias”) is a term that describes the associations we hold outside of our conscious awareness and control. It happens when our brain automatically makes quick, unconscious judgements about things influenced by our background, personal experiences and social stereotypes. It can significantly steer our attitudes and behaviours, and its influence in the workplace can drive inequality and irrelevance.
In the context of employee benefits, unconscious bias could lead to the implementation of benefit schemes that don’t best serve employee needs – but are rather influenced by the perception or needs of the decision maker.
And this seems to be the case.
As part of our Wellbeing Revolution survey, we asked HR decision makers about which areas of employee benefits they would invest in if money were no object – and when we reviewed the responses by gender and age there were some significant differences in the responses:
- 34% of women would invest in initiatives to support gender-related health issues, vs only 26% of men
- 25% of women would invest in initiatives to support family-forming and fertility – 7 percentage points higher than their male counterparts
- 60% of female HR decision makers would invest in mental health support, vs only 48% of male decision makers
- Over 55s were more likely to be concerned about the impact of an ageing population vs other age groups
- HR decision makers aged under 44 were more likely to view DEI as a priority over the next three years
The data suggests that experience and environment is unconsciously influencing the decisions that HR leaders are making – and suggests that decisions are not being made based on the needs of an employee population. Our survey covered 1,000 UK businesses and so we would expect less variation for the responses to truly reflect employee needs.
So what can employers do about it? Firstly, they should take an objective approach utilising as many data points available as possible. A data-led approach will help reduce the risk of being influenced by their own preferences or perceived needs. Another option is to broaden out the benefits package available by enabling as much choice as possible – empowering employees to drive their own decisions about what employee benefits they’d like to access.
Awareness is the first step to resolving the problem, which is why we’ve investigated about whether unconscious bias in employee benefits is an issue companies need to address. You can find out more and access the full data in our report here.
