Demographic pressures and other trends in the job sector have shifted the balance of power in favour of employees, and they hold all of the cards right now, especially those with highly specialised skills. This is probably why employee loyalty is down not only in the country but across the world. One survey found that 25% of UK workers had the intention of leaving their jobs within a year in 2021. These should be shocking numbers to any business that is highly reliant on its workforce and can’t afford to overspend on recruitment.
If you want to keep your employees, then you’ll have to do more than give them the usual dental and insurance benefits. If you manage to give employees and prospects benefits they can’t find anywhere else, you can expect more to consider you and stay with you. Let’s take a look at a few original employee benefits you should consider giving your employees if you want to find and attract top talent.
Electric Car Lease Discount
If you’re trying to attract a younger workforce, one of the best things you could do is offer an electric car lease benefit. Employees today want to work with employers who do their part to curb their environmental impact, and this is a kind of benefit most of them will appreciate. They’ll also love the fact that they’ll be able to save on fuel.
You could decide to go with a salary sacrifice scheme or offer a car allowance. If you want to learn more about electric car leases in general and want to understand the benefits they could offer your employees, check out this leasing an electric car guide.
Flexible Work Arrangements
The Covid-19 pandemic has done a lot to transform the relationship and view employees have of work. But it’s important to note that the move towards more flexible work arrangements and remote working began well before the crisis.
Gen Z and millennial workers were already asking for more flexible arrangements because of their greater need for freedom and fulfilment. So, if you want to cut your overhead costs and attract this class of employees, you need to at least think about setting up a partially remote work arrangement.
Flexible work arrangements can extend beyond working remotely, however. If you really want to stand out, you can offer a four-day work week schedule. This will again attract a lot of younger employees, but also older employees who may want to enjoy more of their time.
You can also look at staggering shifts so people can decide at what time they want to start and finish, or you could even let them decide when they start and end their days if their work is more task-based. You should also get creative with your holiday scheme as well and look if you could allow your employees to store, sell back, or roll over holiday breaks.
Family-Friendly Policies
One of the most important things when looking at benefits for employees is the demographics of your workforce. If your business mainly attracts people with families, then you should focus on giving them perks that will allow them to make savings on products there are more likely to buy. You should also check if you have younger employees who are intending to build a family in the future.
Try to make your actual workplace more friendly for children and families. One way you could do this would be by adding a childcare centre to your premises, for instance. Childcare is a major expense for many parents, and very few workers can boast that they have childcare where they work. Your current employees will be very thankful, and this is likely to impress the people you’re trying to recruit.
You could also consider installing breastfeeding rooms, offering family-friendly office parties with prizes and gifts, and offering to extend health benefits to dependents.
Financial Management Benefits
Helping your employees invest and manage their money is one of the most useful benefits you could offer to anyone. And this is one of the rare benefits all employees can truly benefit from.
One unique financial management benefit you could consider would be to give your employees financial literacy classes or free access to a financial advisor. You can also look at student loan repayment schemes or you could provide financial support yourself. You could offer your employees restaurant vouchers, retirement planning, and home-buying assistance too. So, start looking at all the possible options and choose the ones that would be the most beneficial for your employees.
Health and Wellness Benefits
Health benefits should be part of any benefits package, but if you really want to impress prospective employees, you’ll need to do more than offer the usual. You have to truly dedicate yourself to the health and wellness of your employees and make it easier for them to live a healthy lifestyle.
This will not only help you attract and retain more employees, but it will also improve your bottom line. Healthier employees tend to be happier and more engaged, which leads to better morale and productivity. Employees with healthy lifestyles won’t take as many days off either.
This is why you need to look at unique benefits like vouchers for healthy foods, for instance. You should also add a gym to your premises if you don’t have one yet; replace all your fizzy drink stations with sparkly water ones; have free, fresh, and healthy food around; and offer access to a dietician and/or private trainer services.
You should also look at your floor configuration and equipment to see if you can make adjustments. You could set up hot desks, for sentences, or allow employees to work from different rooms. Consider adding a few standing desk stations. This alone could help boost alertness and reduce fatigue in your employees. They have also been shown to reduce the chances of employees getting sick while reducing stress levels.
Allowing your employees to completely disconnect during breaks will also help improve their satisfaction levels and loyalty. So, consider doing things like installing sleeping pods, or giving them access to a massage therapist on site.
Offer them access to activities that will get them moving too and try to make health and wellness part of your brand as an employer. More people today are looking to be more active, or at least want to believe they are, and allowing them to do so at work and in their everyday lives is something that could attract a lot of bright talent to your organisation.
Make your workplace as enjoyable as possible and encourage interaction between employees if possible. Organise informal team lunches and have special events like movie nights or monthly get-togethers. Instilling a sense of friendly competition among top-performing employees can also be a great way to bring people together and create a more dynamic workplace, so consider trying individual or team-based contests with prizes and a leader board.
If you want to attract top talent and get them to truly commit to your organisation, then you have to provide better benefits than your competition. These benefits will allow you to separate yourself from the rest and they will make employees think twice before leaving you.
The post 5 Original Employee Benefits to Attract and Keep Top Employees appeared first on HR News.
