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Offering favorable employee benefits can give your company a competitive edge during the hiring process. Basing your benefits off of what employees want more of—time, health, personal development — will win over new hires. By offering these benefits, your company is sure to stand out in a competitive hiring market.
Remote Work & Flexible Hours
Allowing employees to work remotely and flexibly can be your secret weapon. Some days, whether it’s because of a sickness or an appointment, employees have personal life they have to deal with. Allowing them the flexibility to choose to work from home or alter their hours the in the office to accommodate their schedule can make a big difference in workplace satisfaction. By allowing this freedom, you are empowering your employees to manage their own work-life balance, while keeping them happy and stress-free throughout the process. The way to make this work for both the manager and employee is to ensure there are accountability measures in place. Don’t get this benefit confused with chaos. Employees should be required to give significant notice for their outages and still be held responsible for their projects while out of the office. Forbes even suggests, For Employee Retention, There’s No Place Like Home.
This requires a lot of trust from an employer to be confident an employee is getting just as much done as if they were in the office. However, many top-performing employees are self-starters, intrinsically-motivated, and enjoy the trust and autonomy an employer gives them to manage all that work and life is throwing their way. In addition, offering flexible hours and remote work also reduces the workload of your employee, and minimizes the risk of burnout. In fact, a survey by Staples found that those who work from home experienced 25% less stress. This both benefits you as the employer and them as the employee. Overall, it’s a win-win for everyone.
Unlimited Time-Off
Vacation time is getting to be more and more scarce in the working world. So, being a company that offers unlimited time off can really help you stand out among recruits. A survey by the Center for Economic and Policy Research found that the average American receives 10 paid vacation days per year. Considering actual time spent to travel (usually around the holidays) and days spent sick at home, employees in America are maxed out on their allotted vacation days.
By offering unlimited vacation days, you are showing your employees that you care about their lives outside the office. You also have a lower chance of losing recruits to competitors, and you increase your chances of wooing someone from a competitor with more strict, traditional practices. Companies like Netflix and LinkedIn have been embracing the benefit for some time now. This HR perk is another way to put trust and autonomy back on the employee to prove their time and project management skills.
If you have fears of employees taking too much vacation, policies and practices that include a pre-determined amount of work hours to be completed and an early-warning system are sure to keep everyone’s workload balanced.
Happy Hours
Maintaining a healthy work environment starts with organizing team-oriented activities. When a team spends time together outside of the office, employee morale and relationships among coworkers are boosted. This positively impacts how the team works together in the office, making projects and assignments go much smoother.
A Globoforce survey found that 91% of workers spend 30 hours or more a week with colleagues, while only 52% spend the same amount of time with their family. This means most of the workers in your office spend more time together than they do with their own families. Therefore, cultivating relationships among coworkers should be a top priority as an employer.
Happy hours are a great way to appeal to employees. The bar environment helps with relaxation, getting workers out of the “office mentality” and into a more laid-back state. Talking over drinks is also more pleasing than talking over analytics or weekly reports, allowing coworkers to learn more about each other personally. This will naturally result in them working harder for and with each other when they’re back in the office the next day.
Health Perks
Offering a benefits package that includes dental and vision coverage will help your business attain high-caliber employees and improve your company in the long run. In fact, employers gain as much as $7 for every dollar spent on vision coverage. A strong benefit package will also include non-traditional benefits such as mental health coverage or gym memberships.
Providing a quality health insurance package is known to decrease absenteeism in employees. This is due to employees living healthier lives and having higher morale, making them more likely to attend work 100% of the time. It is also known that recruits are more likely to accept a better benefits plan in place of a higher salary, saving you money in the process. According to a recent survey by FlexJobs, employees value flexible hours and work-life balance above salary and health insurance in a potential job.
In fact, about 60% of people report that benefits and perks are a major factor in considering whether to accept a job offer.
But, the employees aren’t the only ones benefitting from this. Your business may receive a tax advantage from deducting plan contributions. This may include health and life insurance as well as pension plans.
Concentrating on offering full and unique employee benefit packages in your company’s hiring process will allow you an advantage over your competitors, and ensure you attract a great team.
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