More than a third of businesses leave employees to initiate take up of workplace benefits themselves, according to research from group risk industry body GRiD.
The study found that 38% of businesses take this approach. Among these employers, 49% said they did not want to put pressure on employees to use their benefits, while 31% said they preferred lower take up to help manage costs.
A further 17% said they did not have the resources to continually encourage employees to use the benefits available to them.
Separate research among employees produced similar findings, with 36% saying they were left to initiate benefits take up themselves.
Just 29% said their employer actively encouraged them to use their benefits, while 31% were unsure or did not know whether their employer did so.
GRiD also found relatively low levels of awareness among employees whose companies offer benefits. Only 18% said they were fully aware of everything available to them, which could include pensions, private healthcare, employee assistance programmes, cash plans, life assurance, long term sick pay and critical illness cover.
A further 34% were aware of only some of their benefits, while 10% said they were unaware of any.
Understanding was also mixed. Some 18% of employees said they understood all the benefits available to them, while 38% understood most and 40% understood only some.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for GRiD, said: "It is surprisingly common for employee benefits uptake to be left to employees. Worryingly, the research shows this approach limits awareness and engagement, leaving employees unsure of the value or relevance of what is on offer. If employers don’t want their staff to overlook the benefits they offer them, we would encourage them to proactively champion their employee benefits programmes."
GRiD said lower take up does not necessarily translate into lower costs for employers, particularly where benefits provide health and wellbeing support.
It added that some services included within group risk products, such as employer sponsored life assurance, income protection and critical illness cover, can be accessed without an additional cost to the employee or employer.
Moxham added: "When responsibility for benefits uptake sits with employees, both awareness and understanding will suffer. Few staff are likely to use benefits they don’t know about or do not fully understand, creating wider knock-on effects: benefits are not simply a goodwill gesture, they support retention, productivity and form a key part of overall remuneration. If utilisation is not actively promoted, and employees don’t recognise their value, both employees and employers lose out."
