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You have the best team in the business. Every success your company has had, you owe to your team. Their hard work, their ideas, and their relationships with your clientele have propelled you to success. Despite the myriad challenges facing businesses in these economically turbulent times, you know that your employees will play a huge part in weathering the coming storms and emerging on the other side stronger, leaner and more agile.
Like any considerate business leader, you want to make sure that your team gets the recognition and reward they deserve. But while remuneration is an important part of this, there are non-monetary benefits that can also help your team feel valued, motivated and more inclined to stay.
Employee turnover rates have, worryingly, skyrocketed in recent years, rising by 9% since 2019. Losing your employees deprives your business of their knowledge, skills and talents and can cost your business an average of over £30,000 per employee. Here, we’ll look at the best employee benefits packages to not only help you retain your staff, but motivate them to be at their best.
What is an employee benefits package?
A benefits package refers to any non-wage benefit that a company may provide for its employees as a means of rewarding their endeavours and showing gratitude. There is a broad spectrum of benefits packages ranging from subsidised gym membership to private health insurance. They may be monetary, tangible or intangible in nature as long as they are linked to positive or beneficial outcomes for employees.
Of course, some benefits like holiday pay, maternity or paternity leave, access to a pension and statutory sick pay are mandatory. However, employers have the freedom to add other discretionary benefits to create a total rewards package that makes them more attractive to existing and prospective employees.
Some employee benefits may be performance-related (bonuses, high street vouchers etc.), while others may be tied to the overall fortunes of the company (e.g. profit sharing). A growing number of companies offer employee benefits packages that promote health and well-being to show a commitment to the holistic welfare of their employees.
How does a company benefits package boost businesses?
Of course, employee benefits packages don’t just benefit the employees themselves, they can also benefit the organisation as a whole. A healthy, happy, motivated workforce that feels valued and cared for is its own reward.
In these fiscally troublesome times, however, some companies may see a benefits package as an unwelcome overhead cost. But this shortsighted thinking may be damaging to companies in the long run. A holistic compensation package for employees benefits businesses by:
- Helping to attract a higher calibre of talent
- Securing an advantage over competitors
- Increasing employee productivity and job satisfaction
- Improving employee wellness and reducing absenteeism
- Boosting employee retention and saving businesses from the cost and disruption caused by high employee turnover
- Perpetuating a caring and celebratory company culture
What are popular benefits package examples?
Health and wellbeing benefits
There are many employee benefits that may be offered to improve health and well-being. These include:
- Private medical and dental insurance
- Subsidised gym membership
- Affordable healthy meals served in-house
- Participation in the cycle to work scheme
- Subsidised eye and hearing care
- Mental health provision such as access to counselling, CBT etc.
- Subsidised childcare facilities
- Life insurance
Flexible benefits packages
Other benefits packages may focus on providing employees with greater flexibility in order to better manage their work-life balance. These might include:Flexi-time
- Working from home
- Hybrid working at a flexible workspace that is closer to home than the company HQ
- Allowing career breaks or sabbaticals
Monetary benefits
Although many benefits are non-monetary, companies may still choose to issue monetary employee benefits to reward and motivate employees. These may or may not be performance-related. Examples include:
- Monthly or weekly bonuses
- Sales or referral commissions
- Profit sharing
Personal and professional development benefits
Employers get the best out of their employees when they are actively interested in their career goals, ambitions and needs. Therefore, a benefits package may encompass the continuing professional development of employees. Examples may include:
- Allocating a personal training budget to each employee
- Bringing in external training providers
- Holding internal training days and events
- Providing employees with access to external careers guidance or personal counselling
Employee recognition benefits
Employee recognition should also be a key part of any employee benefits package. Recognising your team’s effort and achievements can help them to feel more valued, bring teams closer together and make for a pleasant and dynamic workplace.
Even something as simple as having a dedicated channel in the company Slack or WhatsApp group can go a long way towards promoting a celebratory workplace culture. However, there are also dedicated employee recognition platforms that allow for both managerial and peer recognition and can tie recognition to tangible rewards like gym, spa, cinema or restaurant vouchers.
How to offer the best employee benefits package for your team
Like any aspect of operations management, a company benefits package is more meaningful when it is designed in collaboration with the team, rather than coming from the top. Where possible, benefits packages should be flexible, reflecting the diverse needs and wants of your team.
Technology can be employed to make it easier to administer employee benefits, with many digital platforms facilitating a self-service approach to employee benefits. This in itself can be empowering, enabling employees to help themselves rather than having to solicit managerial consent.
All benefits should be clearly communicated with the team. They should be prominently featured in your employee handbook and all job listings so that employees know what is available to them as early in their journey as possible.
Finally, it’s important to take a proactive approach to employee benefits rather than a static approach. Companies should always be open to suggestions from employees as to what they can offer to make their working lives easier, happier and more fulfilling.
