Yes, it is obvious that employees prefer to join a company that pays them a higher salary range. However, when it comes to retaining, employees prefer to consider employee benefits when a new offer arrives. As MetLife found out — 51% of employers plan to leverage benefits as a retention strategy in the next three to five years! An independent survey reported that 33% of people quit office-level jobs mainly because of issues with work-life balance. In another report, Glassdoor said that 57% of the employees look out for perks and benefits. Qualtrics said that 64% of millennials say benefits are extremely or very important to employee loyalty.
A balanced employee benefits program can help to establish an immaculate employer branding for any organization. Attractive ‘benefits’ can also tell you a lot about the future of companies that invest in employee benefits. So, apart from the statutory ones (monetary), what are the other types of benefits that can help Employer Branding?
Employers are offering great benefits to their employees, but which ones do your employees love the most?
Here’s a quick look.
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Commuting Allowance
Let’s start with the most prized employee benefits of all that employers actually pay to bring their people to work. Commuting allowance is one of the most productive ways to underline that you really care for employees who travel to work.
Commuting allowance is defined as the “expenses incurred by an employee toward commuting back and forth to his or her place of employment.”
These include expenses related to car expenses, chauffeur fare, cab fare, and any public transportation costs. Modern HR Technology tools are designed to enable HR Teams to record commuting allowances. These can be calculated by the total amount spent in traveling, or by ascertaining the commuting route.
Commuting Allowance for carpools and public transportation costs also reflect an employer’s genuine concern toward facilitating safe and secured commutation medium to every employee.
Insurance
As a growth hacking company, do you really want your employees to stick to your future plan? One way to make them part of your grand business plan is to provide insurance benefits.
According to EBRI, 83% of employees say health insurance is very or extremely important in deciding whether to stay in or change jobs.
In most countries, employers are required to provide health care benefits to every employee who works at least 30 hours per week. Exceptional employers also provide medical benefits to contractual workers, temporary or part-time workers, interns, and freelance operators.
It can be argued that employees who face severe medical problems are entitled to benefit from medical insurance provided by their employers. It’s a no-brainer that medical insurance is among the top four most sought after employee benefits that employees look out for before joining a company. Medical Insurance should cover expenses incurred from hospital and doctor visits, surgeries, and prescriptions.
The commonly opted insurance benefits include —
- Medical Insurance
- Life Insurance
- Critical Insurance
- Cancer Insurance
- Pregnancy Insurance
- Dental Insurance
- Vision Insurance
- House Insurance (for expats traveling and settling in a foreign country for work)
- Accidental Death & Dismemberment Insurance
- Permanent Disability Insurance
OfficeTeam says that 87% of U.S. workers ages 18-34, 70% ages 35-54, and 44% ages 55+ factor in health and wellness offerings in their job decisions. Clearly, millennials are more likely to stay back in a company if their employer offer wellness benefits at work, especially medical insurance. Medical Insurance further bifurcates into multiple employee health benefit schemes covered through the Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs).
Medical Insurance can sometimes include the employee’s family (dependents), and this factor-in the number of months/years an employee has spent with the company.
Employer-paid insurance for medical and disability provide far-reaching benefits to employees and their family members. These are easy to qualify for and incur no or low premium costs to the employees. Voluntary benefits offer employees more customization options in picking their benefits so that they can enjoy the full coverage they need depending on the condition.
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Time-Off/ Vacation/ Sabbatical
Employers and talented employees are becoming increasingly aware of the benefits of taking time off for a variety of reasons.
In the modern context of performance appraisal, employers are beginning to offer paid time-off/vacation time as a mandatory perk to cheer up a proficient employee.
Independent research has consistently shown the health benefits of taking off vacation time alone or with family. It has a direct impact on workplace productivity, in addition to reducing work-related stress and improving overall mental health.
A 2018 study shows that the clear majority of bosses agree that “vacation improves an employee’s focus (78 percent) and alleviates burnout (81 percent).” These vacations can be planned or unplanned, and totally as per the wish of the employee.
The Project: Time Off research found that 68% of the employees who reported that their company encourages vacation are much happier with their jobs than those who work at places where either vacation is discouraged or managers are ambivalent about taking time off (42 percent). They are also more likely to use all of their vacation time (77 percent compared with 51 percent).
In case of a family exigency, managers who offer sabbatical options are seen as more passionate and human than those who outrightly deny sabbatical or force employees to join on a deadline.
To encourage loyalty and retainability of a talented employee, vacation and time-off are seen as the most productive options by both employers as well as the employees.
Recreational Benefits
Deloitte says, the well-being market, for example, is now a US$45 billion industry, and organizations are increasing spending on well-being by more than 7 percent this year.
Yes, employers are now gripped by something we call ‘The Wellness Syndrome”. When this Swedish company enforced the ‘exercise-at-work’ routine for all employees, it made headlines. With endorphins rising at work post fitness cycle, we can expect the energy levels brimming to the top of the workplace as well.
Fitness allowance, gym vouchers, horse riding activities, and meditation facilities are sprouting all over the co-working space ecosystem. These indicate the shift in focus for employee benefits that now encourage people to embrace holistic work-life balance. MNCs are increasingly investing in fitness programs, meditation, and outdoor field trips that help people to bond with each other and grow together as individuals. OfficeTeam found out 26% of U.S. workers favored incentives that reward healthy behavior, while 22% said the same of programs with fitness facilities (23%).
In addition to these employee benefits, an increasing number of employers are also offering employee stock options, retirement benefit plans, education and upskilling allowance, and child welfare programs. These induce a healthy culture of retention built over foundations of trust, professionalism, dedication, and loyalty. Instead of simply relying on a bunch of metric and traditional HR practices, organizations should build their own Employer Branding based on benchmarking of rewards, compensation, and employment-specific wellness program. That would be the key to build a holistic employee benefits model that help to retain highly-valued employees in the company.
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