8 Employee Benefits You Might Have Forgotten

employee benefits support your employees

Your benefits plan is far more than just a way to support your employees – it’s a tool to help you recruit and retain the best talent! It’s important to evaluate every aspect of your benefits package and how it can make a difference in the lives of your staff. While common benefits like healthcare and life insurance are easy to see, other benefits are less obvious. These hidden employee benefits may not even cost the company, but still have a significant monetary value to your employees. These benefits greatly improve quality of life for your employees, which can mean a huge savings for your company in the form of higher job satisfaction, higher retention, and happier employees.

1-Discount Programs & Swag

Whether it’s discounts on travel, food, shopping, or insurance – everyone loves saving money! Your benefit providers may offer discount programs that help your employees shop smarter and stimulate the local economy. Many employee assistance programs include a discount program. You can also work with local businesses to develop potential team discounts. And the only thing that people love more than a great deal? Free stuff! Hand out swag to increase company pride, while getting your employees to rep your brand outside the office.

2-Wellness Initiatives

From in-office wellness initiatives to gym discounts and reimbursements, employee wellness initiatives have a huge impact on your staff. Research continues to show that promoting healthy habits is an effective way to benefit your company as a whole. Even something as small as a monthly meditation session can help your workers stay healthier and happier.  Additionally, promoting wellness potentially saves your company money through lowered healthcare costs, higher productivity, and even tax incentives! Several states have considered or implemented tax credits to incentivize small businesses to provide these programs. Such policies have a significant impact on the physical, mental, and social wellbeing of your employees, and can even boost the local economy. That’s a hidden benefit that really packs a punch!

3-Educational Support

It is proven that people are happiest when in a state of growth – so why not encourage it? Learning can provide a major boost in fulfilling your employees personal and professional goals – and therefore improve their lives. Embrace development with free on-the-job trainings and workshops. Providing a stipend for certification courses, conferences, training, and other professional development are a few great options for encouraging employee growth. Ask employees to get creative when proposing opportunities, and you’ll also build a culture that invests in the future.

4-Parking/Transit

If your office is in a busy metro area, the price of parking or public transit can be a huge factor for commuting employees. While it may not be widely known, this is one of those employee benefits you should definitely promote! Providing free or discounted parking and transit can save your employees hundreds or even thousands per year.

5-Telecommuting

In a technology-centered world, there is often less need for employees to physically be present in an office. With the 2020 COVID pandemic, many companies made the jump to work-from-home in order to keep employees safe and operations running as smoothly as possible. A 2017 survey from FlexJobs found that the returns for telecommuting are abundant. Workers report feeling reduced stress from commuting (70%), fewer interruptions and distractions (76%), and overall more productivity (66%) when working from home. The direct impact on your bottom line is happier staff, better retention rates, and higher productivity during work hours.

6-Company Culture

Conferences, game nights, picnics, and other company-wide activities can bring your employees together and build team mentality. Offering these activities can keep things exciting all year long and even defeat seasonal blues. Successful events can even encourage employees to look forward to it becoming an annual occurrence. It’s as simple as a weekly game night or a team visit to a local attraction once a month. Having fun at work or with co-workers is an easy way to encourage teambuilding and promote your company culture.

7-Flextime/ Unlimited Vacation

There is evidence that employee burnout is responsible for as much as half of annual turnover. Promoting a great work/life balance is an easy way to add huge benefit for your employees. While it might seem allowing employees to take unlimited vacation would mean more time out of the office, the opposite is true! As of 2018, as much as 57% of employers were offering some form of flextime to encourage higher productivity and employee engagement. Some companies have even had to institute mandatory minimums to encourage employees to utilize their vacation time. Implementing flexible working arrangements may also allow the company to be available for customers during off-hours and reduce the costs of running and maintaining a physical office.

8-Volunteer Leave

Encouraging participation in the community helps promote goodwill for your company and allows employees to contribute to causes that are close to their heart. Nearly a quarter of companies report allowing PTO time specifically for volunteering. Building a culture of volunteering and giving back is a great way to support your local community. It can be implemented as easily – just add one day of PTO or designate an afternoon when employees can leave early to volunteer.

If you know where to look, there are many different ways you can find hidden employee benefits your company offers! These can add significant value to your benefits package, so be sure to highlight them on your total compensation statements!

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