Employee Benefits and getting the best out of your staff
In this competitive job market, it is important that individual organisations take the time to make themselves appeal to candidates. Though the unemployment rate is high, the number of experienced and skilled workers out of work is not as high, as companies begin to understand the value of retaining their best and brightest. In an effort to retain the best staff and to recruit the most qualified candidates to any new roles, more and more companies in the UK are starting to offer some kind of employee benefit scheme to their staff.
If you were to poll potential employees about their priorities when choosing a new role you would find a variety of answers but always in the top five will be pay, conditions and holidays. These are the three things that it is vital to tackle in order to ensure a happy, productive workforce. Any benefits over and above these three key categories will not be helpful in the longer term if you don’t get these ones right in the first place.
Offering a competitive salary is an obvious tactic when it comes to recruiting the best staff but it is also important to remember that, depending on the sector, many companies also offer bonus schemes in addition to the basic wage. Everyone likes to know that the guaranteed sum they will walk out with every month is a decent one but people are competitive by nature and offering performance-related bonus schemes can help to bring out the best in your workers. Not only does it offer an incentive but bonuses are also a way for employees to ‘keep score’ and monitor how well they are doing in comparison with their colleagues.
Conditions are also very important to your workforce. Are their breaks paid? Is there a pension plan? Are the hours they are required to work reasonable and is there any flexibility with these hours? With most people taking on more and more commitments, it is important for people to know that they can occasionally attend a personal appointment during the workday, so long as they work the hours back elsewhere. It is also worth looking into an employee assistance programme and offering this as part of the basic terms and conditions if you can afford to. If not, look internally and create a subset of your staff who can act as confidential contacts for employees having difficulty.
Holidays are also an important factor in choosing one position over another and can often be the deal breaker in this type of decision. Offering over the minimum is always a wise choice. People feel that creating a good work/life balance should be a very high priority and recognition of this is in your best interest.
Over and above these basic categories, there are a number of benefits you can offer to attract high quality staff. If you are prepared to spend the money, two of the most popular benefits are private medical insurance and free, or heavily discounted, gym memberships. If you are not in a position to offer these types of benefits for financial reasons there are a number of staff ‘perks’ you can employ for little or no cost.
Something as simple as offering free tea and coffee facilities can make a huge difference to an employee’s day and pocket book. Buying in bulk means that this will not be a huge cost to the company but workers who need to use vending machines or go to coffee shops find this to be a very expensive part of their day. Employee discounts are very popular and, if you are in command of a large workforce, very easy to organise with local businesses. Many companies are struggling and agreements such as this can be mutually beneficial. This works well with staff as they see you have organised something on their behalf and they therefore feel valued but also just because everyone loves a bargain.
Small incentives such as ‘prizes’ offered at the end of competitions can also be incredibly motivating. Purchasing items such as TVs and short breaks through discount sites and offering these up for the most sales or the best ideas offer your staff the opportunity to earn something outside their basic wage and therefore prove themselves to their bosses and colleagues.
There are many options available in order to make your company stand out from the crowd and attract the most highly qualified and motivated candidates. In the same poll discussed above you will find that another of the top five answers will always be ‘job satisfaction’ so the most important benefit you can offer to any employee is the promise to make them feel valued and respected as often as you can.
Staff surveys in almost any organisation will show that employees feel undervalued, under-appreciated and disengaged in their workplace. Recognising hard work and ensuring that praise is given where due can go much further than impersonal benefits in improving morale and productivity. Take the time at one-to-ones and performance reviews to ask your employees what they want from their careers and where they think their skills and talents lie. This will not only give them the opportunity to engage with the organisation but you may also find that they would be better suited in other departments which, in the long run, can save the organisation time and money on hiring new staff.
Photo by Images of Money
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