The benefits that you offer employees today can have a key influence in many ways, from how your brand is perceived to whether staff choose to stay loyal. It’s essential to be competitive when it comes to the benefits you provide and there are 10, in particular, that employees today tend to look for.
- Retirement savings. Offering more than the basic investment when it comes to pensions for your employees can be a huge incentive. Some people will base decisions about employers on the level of pension contributions that businesses are willing to make.
- Health benefits. Private healthcare support is much coveted by employees today, especially where there are options to include family and loved ones in cover. Health benefits can be tailored to employees as their lives change and the need for health cover increases or evolves.
- Wellness options. There is a dual benefit for an employer in providing wellness benefits – attracting a range of employees (especially Millennials) and promoting a healthier and more productive workforce. This type of benefit could extend to everything, from access to a mindfulness programme at work to discounts on fitness memberships.
- Training and development. Ambitious employees will always look for benefits that enable them to develop at a faster than average pace – and it’s often these employees who can contribute the most to innovation or productivity within your organisation. So, benefits that include offering additional training, courses and options to acquire skills and qualifications that will help an employee to get ahead can be incredibly attractive.
- Travel benefits. This could be covering the cost of travel in certain situations, providing access to regular business travel schemes and benefits or offering specific travel-related perks, from free transport to discounts on airfares and support for travel planning.
- Flexible working. Although most businesses today are required to integrate some flexible working, a proactive and intentional approach to flexible schedules is a benefit that will attract a lot of employees. It also enables more diverse recruitment by supporting more flexible lifestyles.
- Options to create a customised benefits package. Many employees see benefits as part of their employment entitlement and want to ensure that they have access to a full range of benefits that they will actually enjoy, as opposed to a package that is 50% irrelevant to their needs.
- Time off and paid leave. A generous annual holiday entitlement is a great incentive but you can go further than this if you’re looking to make your benefits package stand out. Employees have different requirements for leave at different stages in life and an approach that integrates the opportunity to tailor leave options to lifestyle choices can be incredibly attractive.
- Relocation benefits. Particularly if your employees may need to move as part of their role, a benefits package that covers costs and provides essential support can be a serious incentive.
- Taking the pressure off student loans. Particularly in younger workforces, student loans can be a big burden so if your benefits package includes contributions that help to reduce this debt more quickly the appeal is increased.
Many brands today underestimate the power that a thoughtful benefits package has to offer when it comes to attracting, and retaining, the best talent.
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