Any good employer understands that keeping their employees happy plays a major role in the success of their business. If you don’t have a strong workforce that feels valued by your company and genuinely wants to contribute to its growth, it will never succeed.
This is why it’s vital to take actions as an employer that will ensure your employees are satisfied with their work situation. One way to do this is through offering top-notch employee benefits. In such a challenging hiring market, offering best-in-class employee benefits is necessary for attracting and retaining high performers.
Are Employee Benefits More Important Than Ever?
Optimizing the benefits package that you offer will lead to an increase in employee retention – and retention is key to business success. Enticing benefit packages have always been important to workers, but the pandemic has impacted how many people perceive them and made them even more significant. The pandemic has allowed people to realize that they can be choosy about what they expect from their employer. Laborers are now demanding better benefits, and if companies want to stay competitive, they’re going to have to comply.
According to a recent survey, 83% of companies plan to maintain or expand their employee wellness benefits over the coming years. This reveals that if your organization wants to keep up with the competition, you should be making plans to improve your benefits program, too. You need to make sure that your top performers are not being swayed by other job offers with better benefits. Companies cannot afford to have high turnover in today’s talent acquisition market, so improving your benefits package should be no question.
The Benefits Your Workforce Wants
So what is it that your employees want exactly? It's simple — ask them. The best practice here is to talk to your workers to uncover what it is that they're looking for in their benefits package. You can’t ensure that they will be happy with their employee perks if you don’t listen to their opinion, value their feedback, and try to accommodate their requests. And in order for employees to truly feel valued, they need to be given additional benefits beyond monetary compensation. Remember, money isn't always everything when it comes to job satisfaction.
One of the principal benefits that employees today expect is a flexible work schedule and environment. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that people expect to be able to work from home and spend more time with their loved ones compared to pre-pandemic times when many businesses didn’t allow their employees to work remote. Now that people know it’s an efficient option, they are seeking out employers that will give them this opportunity. Allowing your employees to enjoy time with their family and avoid a long commute to the office will reduce their stress, which gives them the motivation to work harder for your organization.
Some common benefits that you might consider implementing include additional PTO, career development training opportunities, mental and physical health wellness coaches, hybrid work schedule, educational assistance (student loan repayment or payment for future schooling), on-site child care, etc. Be feasible about what your organization can realistically provide for its labor force, and work to create one cohesive benefits plan that suits as many employees’ interests as possible.
Worth the Investment
Let’s address something that holds some companies back from offering considerable benefits to their employees: the cost. Although providing employee perks will cost your business money, they are well worth the investment. It will become evident that spending money was the right decision when the ROI reveals that your well-compensated employees are working harder to help your company succeed.
Employees receiving favorable job benefits will be more eager to contribute to the success of the company because they know that their hard work and dedication will be recognized and rewarded. Individual performance and productivity will rise across the organization, thus improving the company’s overall performance. The bottom line is simple; you need to be investing in your workforce if you want to succeed with the help of your workforce.
Another advantage of offering a solid benefits package is that it can shape a company’s culture. Benefits will either make your workforce respect their employer and boost morale in the workplace, thus positively impacting the culture. Or benefits will make them resent their employer and feel unsatisfied at work, thus negatively impacting the company environment. Therefore, it’s best to build your employer brand through good benefits that foster a strong company culture.
To conclude, offering your employees top-notch benefits will not only improve their lives, it will also improve your organization. So if your company isn't already leveraging employee benefits to drive retention, it's time to start before you're stuck searching for new candidates in this challenging hiring market.
