More than half of employers would be encouraged to offer group benefits if the government offered tax incentives, a survey has reported.
Research findings on group benefits in Northern Ireland, conducted by Perceptive Insight on behalf of Kerr Henderson, Ellipse and H3 Insurance, showed 13% of employers did not monitor absences.
A sixth of employers did not offer group benefits because of cost and approximately 58% said government tax incentives would encourage them to offer more benefits.
Katharine Moxham, spokesperson for Group Risk Development (GRiD), said: "It is encouraging that the government has said it will look at tax incentives in the budget and we would seriously encourage that.
"There were concerns from the Treasury about the possibility of abuse but the reality should just be to monitor it and address any issues that arise.
"The government response to the Sickness Absence Review was extremely well considered. It would be terrific if there is movement to incentivise beyond the suggested rehab proposal but you cannot second guess these things."
According to the report, a fifth of workplace absences are due to stress and anxiety.
A sixth of employers without employee benefits are held back by cost, the report also showed.
Seven in ten employers estimated that absences cost 5% of payroll yet half of employers said benefits cost up to 5%; 12% did not know how much of payroll benefits cost.
Only 16% of employers used benefits to manage absences; a further 41% never monitored employee satisfaction of packages.
Group pension schemes were offered by 65% but only 9% and 11% offered group IP and group CI respectively.
Comparably 89% of employees valued private medical insurance with 41% of employers offering the group cover; 80%.
But 68% of employers who do not offer PMI said it was too expensive; 80% of employees said PMI benefits offered a quality service when needing to claim.
John Kerr, director at Kerr Henderson, said: "Most companies want to look after their employees well but don't necessarily see how effective use of employee benefits can help reduce their own costs, reduce absence and also keep their staff happy.
"Mobile phones are a great company perk, but they will not help when illness strikes, and state benefits will no longer provide adequate compensation for salary."
He added the advent of auto enrolment meant it was an "ideal" time for employers to review benefits and good advice would produce good outcomes to benefit the company and employee.
The report showed two-thirds of businesses had a good understanding of the auto-enrolment pensions regime but only 54% knew the staging dates.
Previous GRiD research showed government incentives would encourage 64.3%, 51.4% and 56.6% of employers to offer group life, group IP and group CI respectively.
