Employee Perks and Benefits
How to attract new employees and keep your current ones happy.
In today’s job market, potential employees are looking for more than a salary and health insurance. Skilled candidates are shopping around for the best employee perks in addition to the best compensation. In fact, a 2018 study found that 48% of employees would weigh company benefits and perks in their decision to find their next job.
We’ve broken down this list of employee perks into three categories to help your company create a robust employee benefits package that will appeal to top candidates.
Out of Office Time
- Work from Home Options: these days, employees are interested in more flexible working conditions, like telecommuting and working from home. It can even be beneficial for your employees to spend some quiet time on their own if they often get distracted by coworkers.
- Leave Time: consider giving new parents (even pet parents) and employees caring for a family member the option to take more leave time when they need it. Like working from home, this flexible working arrangement can be achieved without cutting down on productivity.
Focus on Wellness
- Healthy Food: providing healthy meals, snacks and beverages go a long way toward increasing the health and happiness of employees. Ditch the sweets and sodas and put a smile on your employees’ faces with some healthier alternatives.
- Mental Health Support: promoting mental health is a great perk for many employees. Encourage them by setting up a wellness room or you could include counseling and therapy in your health benefits package.
- Work on Fitness: if you can’t offer memberships to a nearby gym, consider hosting local exercise instructors to teach a class in the office. They’ll often offer discounts to employees who want to continue participating in classes.
Keep on Learning
- Career Development: learning is a great perk to offer employees because it can fulfill both personal and professional goals. Check out local and online learning opportunities to make it easy and low cost for all employees, or host regular seminars in the office.
- Learning Stipends: give employees the opportunity to attend relevant seminars, or classes, participate in industry certification programs, or industry conferences. An organization that focuses on learning will thrive.
- Corporate Library: set up a reading room and stock it with books, movies, and magazines that employees can check out and enjoy.
- Whatever perks and benefits you decide to offer your employees, you should tie these back to your company values, such as better well-being or continued learning and design it around these objectives. By doing so, you’ll attract and retain more high-performance employees which will positively impact your bottom line.