October 02, 2023
In recent years there has been a shift in how employees prioritize employer benefits and the pandemic greatly accelerate the movement. Employees want more that a competitive salary and basic health plans. With a shortage of talent available for open positions and high turn-over rates, companies need to rethink their traditional benefit offerings to attract and retain workers.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the competition for talent has grown increasingly fierce, and with new types of benefits becoming increasingly desired by employees and new hires, it is critical that businesses understand what benefits to offer in order to maximize employee retention and attraction.
How Do You Retain Employees?
Employees and potential applicants are not looking for the same "perk packages" that they were looking for 10... even 5 years ago. With professional norms shifting, employees and new hires are looking for different work perks, such as remote work, when it comes to their job search. Thus it's important that businesses understand what employees desire these days.
Employee Retention Benefits - Give Them What They Want
Here are some of the most desired employee benefits that will not only help attract new talent, but ensure that your existing employees stay put.
Remote and Hybrid Work
Since the shift to remote work during the pandemic, many workers have grown accustomed to the new hybrid and remote working environment. Now, employers need to reconsider what employee benefits they offer, in order to maintain a proper level of talent retention. Work-life balance has always been a high priority for employees, and now with the increasingly common benefit of remote or hybrid work being offered by employers all over the country, employees and potential applicants are placing that much more importance on the benefit.
Flexible Schedules
Flexible schedules can also be applied to in-office employees as well. With a "flex" approach to schedules, employers can help achieve a better work-life balance for their employees. Would 8:00 am to 4:00 pm affect the quality of work, what about 10:00 am to 6:00 pm? Allowing employees to fit their personal lives into their professional ones can offer a huge benefit to your team while not sacrificing quality and potentially improving productivity.
Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Defined by GREAT PLACE TO WORK, a diverse and inclusive workplace is one that makes everyone, regardless of who they are or what they do for the business, feel equally involved as well as supported in all areas of the workplace. The “all areas” part is important.
Employees want companies to take a proactive approach to diversity, inclusion & equality. Having a mission statement is no longer enough.
Employees need a supportive space and platform to foster and grow these initiatives in the workplace. Even pre-COVID, only 1 in 5 employees who reported directly to a CEO were women, and only 1 in 30 were a woman of color, according to the Women in the Workplace study. Companies should start looking at Diversity, Inclusion & Equality as a corporate responsibility.
"When employees don’t feel that their ideas, presence or contributions are truly valued or taken seriously by their organization, they will eventually leave." - GREAT PLACE TO WORK
Professional Development
More and more employees these days are putting greater emphasis on career growth as something they look for in a new role. The bottom line is, employees, want to know that their career is heading somewhere and that the company they work for cares about such success and growth.
Consider these methods for promoting professional development and growing your team's talent and skills. This benefits both the employee and the company.
- Financial assistance for continuing education courses, certifications, or degrees.
- Host workshops & courses around professional development topics & skills.
- Sponsor Conference attendance and professional organization memberships.
Most importantly, make sure that employees understand the career path that is ahead of them, and what they need to do to reach the next step in that journey. "You'll have a review every 6 months" just doesn't cut it anymore.
Prioritize Employee Health and Wellness
The pandemic pulled back the curtain on the importance of mental and emotional well-being for employees. Burn-out and stress have led to low productivity and more workers leaving the workforce than ever before. Companies can no longer look at wellness through a singular lens.
Workplace wellness encompasses a variety of needs from company culture, physical health, mental well-being, and even financial literacy. Offering access to health services, gym memberships, relevant workshops, and in-office initiatives can boost the wellness of your team and company as a whole.
In fact, many companies are turning to offering employee-wellness stipends. Monthly bonuses to be used for Gym membership costs, and other wellness activities.
Retirement and 401(k) Offerings
While many corporations offer a form of retirement plan for their employees, many are lacking in diverse offerings, employer contributions, and match programs. For small companies, a majority do not have a retirement option for their employees, even with more affordable options available for employers.
Financial stability is important now more than ever and generations entering the workplace face higher financial challenges than past generations. Companies could be looked over and lose employees based on their retirement offerings in today's workforce environment.
One of the best ways to offer appealing retirement plans to employees while still ensuring that your 401(k) and retirement options are easy to manage, is by choosing a retirement option that integrates 401(k) with payroll. To learn more about the 401(k) and retirement options available through TruPay, request a quote today.
Paid Leave & Caregiving Support
Certain benefits like paid leave for childbirth, adoption, short-term disability, and, since the pandemic, child and eldercare leave are becoming a deal-breaker for many employees. 80% of the 1.1 million people who exited the workforce were women since the pandemic began due to a lack of resources for women and families to balance the care of their loved ones and work.
Offering as many different types of leave as you can goes a long way toward attracting new hires and keeping current employees satisfied. While it is important to ensure that leave is not abused, making sure employees have the leave they need available to them not only helps with employee satisfaction but has been proven to improve productivity as well as decrease leave abuse.
Other Types of Benefits to Help Employee Retention
While the above types of benefits are great, many companies are trying to think outside the box, in order to offer a more competitive benefits offering.
Companies are starting to think both creatively and strategically about the benefits they can provide to their employees. Unique voluntary benefits can allow employees to personalize their benefits package to fit their needs. Some out-of-the-box ideas for employee benefits include:
- Pet insurance
- Auto insurance
- Commuting expense reimbursement
- Paid volunteer time
- Gym memberships and biometric health devices
- Annual passes to local attractions (sports teams, museums, zoos)
- Fertility treatments
- Pre-paid legal services
- Free food in the office
- Employee discounts at retail stores
- Game rooms
Get Help with Employee Retention Benefits
Companies that are struggling to retain employees or attract new hires due to a lack of benefits offerings, or who are having difficulty crafting the perfect benefits package, may want to consider turning to an HR and payroll company for help.
In addition to offering the right kind of benefits, it is also important to have an easy and simplified way to administer them, so that the desirable offering you have does not ultimately hinder your effectiveness to manage your workforce. To learn more about TruPay's benefits administration solution, contact us today.
