The Problem Isn't More Benefits. It's Better Engagement.
Organizations invest heavily in employee benefits designed to improve engagement. Recognition platforms, wellness programs, volunteer initiatives, employee discounts, workplace giving, and other voluntary benefits all share a common goal: helping employees feel more connected to their workplace.
We refer to these as engagement benefits, employee benefits specifically designed to encourage participation, strengthen workplace culture, and improve the overall employee experience.
Yet many HR leaders face the same frustrating reality:
Employees simply aren't using them.
The challenge today isn't offering more engagement benefits. It's creating benefits employees understand, value, and naturally use.
Despite employers investing in workplace giving, a common enagaement program, employee participation remains low. Industry benchmarking shows that the average participation rate in employer matching gift programs is only about 10%.Despite these investments (America's Charities). Increasing employee participation remains a common challenge for HR teams.
The question has shifted from "What benefits should we offer?" to "How do we create benefits employees actually use?"
The Hidden Cost of Low Engagement
When employees don't actively participate in engagement benefits, the impact extends far beyond low participation numbers. Underutilized programs create costs for employees, employers, and HR teams alike:
- Employees miss opportunities to improve their workplace experience and take advantage of valuable benefits.
- Employers struggle to demonstrate a return on their investment in engagement initiatives.
- HR leaders lose credibility when recommending programs that employees don't use.
- HR teams spend valuable time promoting programs, sending reminders, organizing campaigns, and encouraging participation instead of focusing on higher-value strategic initiatives.
Adding another engagement benefit isn't always the answer.
Often, the bigger opportunity is selecting engagement benefits that employees naturally want to use.
Why Employees Ignore Great Engagement Benefits
Many engagement benefits struggle for the same reasons:
They Require Employees to Change Their Behavior
Employees already balance demanding workloads, family responsibilities, and busy personal lives. If participating means spending their own money, logging into another platform, attending optional events, or completing additional activities, every new behavior creates friction. participation naturally declines.
The more friction a benefit introduces, the lower employee adoption tends to become.
The most successful engagement benefits don't ask employees to do something entirely new, they build on behaviors employees already have.
They Aren't Easy to Understand
Even valuable benefits can go unused if employees don't clearly understand how they work or why they matter.
Research cited by Mercer found that fewer than one in five employers believe their employees have a high level of understanding of their benefits, highlighting the communication challenge HR teams face.demonstrating that complexity alone can become a barrier to utilization (Mercer)
If employees struggle to understand a benefit, they're far less likely to use it consistently.
They Require Constant Promotion
Many engagement benefits struggle to maintain participation because they depend on continuous reminders and ongoing HR effort. While communication is important for any program's success, benefits that require constant campaigns to drive usage can become another responsibility for already stretched HR teams.
Common requirements include:
- Reminder emails to encourage employees to participate.
- Monthly campaigns to maintain awareness and momentum.
- Special events or initiatives to drive periodic engagement.
- Manager involvement.
These efforts can help increase awareness, but they also require ongoing time and resources from HR teams.
The most effective engagement benefits continue delivering value throughout the year because they become part of employees' existing routines, not because HR has to continually push participation.
Engagement Doesn't Come From More Programs
Employee engagement continues to be one of HR's biggest priorities.
Gallup's latest workplace research found that only about one-third of U.S. employees are engaged at work, reinforcing that engagement remains a significant opportunity for employers (Gallup).
But increasing engagement doesn't necessarily mean launching another initiative. Instead, HR leaders should ask a different question:
How can we make engagement part of something employees are already doing?
What High-Engagement Benefits Have in Common
The most successful engagement benefits are not necessarily the ones with the most features. They are the ones that make participation simple, valuable, and natural for employees.
High-engagement benefits typically share four key characteristics:
- They're Simple
Employees immediately understand the value and know how the benefit helps them. - They're Easy to Access
Participation requires minimal effort and does not create unnecessary barriers. - They Provide Year-Round Value
Employees can benefit from them throughout the year—not just during open enrollment, annual campaigns, or special events. - They Fit Existing Habits
The strongest engagement benefits do not require employees to create entirely new behaviors. Instead, they build on activities employees are already doing in their everyday live
A New Way to Think About Engagement Benefits
The biggest challenge with many engagement benefits is that they ask employees to make time for something new. In a workplace where employees are already balancing competing priorities, programs that require additional effort often struggle to become part of employees' routines.
Instead of asking:
"How do we convince employees to use another engagement program?"
HR leaders should ask:
"What are employees already doing every day that we can build engagement around?"
Employees already:
- Shop for everyday needs
- Buy groceries
- Purchase gifts
- Travel
- Support causes and organizations they care about
The most effective engagement benefits do not compete for employees' limited time and attention. They become part of activities employees are already doing.
When participation feels natural instead of like another task, engagement becomes easier to sustain over time.
Questions Every HR Leader Should Ask Before Adding a New Engagement Benefit
Before investing in another employee engagement initiative, ask:
✓ Will employees immediately understand its value?
✓ Does this require employees to change their behavior?
✓ Will employees use it throughout the year?
✓ How much ongoing promotion will HR need to provide?
✓ Can leadership easily measure participation and impact?
The most successful engagement benefits aren't necessarily the most feature-rich. They're the ones employees actually use.
How ShopRaise Fits In
ShopRaise was built around a simple insight:
The best engagement benefits don't ask employees to create new habits, they connect with habits they already have.
Employees already shop every day. They already make purchases for groceries, household needs, gifts, and personal expenses. ShopRaise transforms those everyday shopping activities into opportunities to support the nonprofits and causes employees care about.
Unlike traditional workplace giving programs that often rely on employees remembering to participate, setting aside additional time, or making separate donations, ShopRaise integrates giving into an activity that is already part of employees' routines.
For employers, ShopRaise provides an affordable engagement benefit that requires minimal administration while creating meaningful, year-round participation. Employees don't have to choose between supporting causes they care about and adding another task to their day, the engagement happens naturally through something they already do.
The future of employee engagement isn't about adding more programs.
It's about designing benefits employees naturally want to use.
Ready to offer an engagement benefit employees will actually use?
Learn how ShopRaise helps companies create year-round employee engagement through everyday shopping.