The best way to keep your employees happy is by offering them the right kind of perks that will motivate them to give their all at work. If you are an employee and want your employees to be happy, here are the top 10 work perks you need to consider.
Best Work Perks to Consider
1. Health Insurance
If you offer health insurance benefits to your employees, make sure they understand how much coverage they receive. You should also let them know whether they need to pay out of pocket for any medical expenses.
Offering health insurance as one of the employee benefits will help strengthen your relationship with your workers. Keep in mind that if they are satisfied and happy with their insurance plans, they no longer have to worry about accidents.
As a result, they become more productive. Having satisfied employees will also help make a better relationship with your clients.
By providing them with health insurance, you are showing them you value their wellness.
Read: Health Insurance Job Perks Statistics Employees Must Know
2. Flexible Hours
Flexible work is no longer restricted to freelancers. Many employers now are offering their workers flexible schedules. The benefits of flexible work can help your business stay ahead of the competition.
When offering it, make sure that your workers know the scope. You can let them choose where they work or create a work schedule that fits them.
It may sound like a freelancer schedule. However, flexible work improves rendition. By allowing your employees this type of work schedule, you can retain your valuable staff.
But you still need to be clear with the scope. In a survey, 80% of workers would choose a job that offers this type of schedule.
Read: Is Health Insurance Free in the US?
3. A Good Paycheck
By good paycheck, it means that it has to be competitive. Keep in mind that your employees know what they are worth. If you don’t offer them a competitive salary, you can’t attract the top talent that your company wants.
Top employees are out there. You will lose them if you are not willing to offer them what they are worthy of.
Higher salaries can improve your employee’s health. Workers with lower wages struggle to make ends meet. They can’t afford healthy food and go to the doctor regularly. Having a lower salary can lead to more stress, which can affect their work.
But if you start offering a better paycheck, your employees can become more efficient. They will choose nutritious food and strive to be healthy.
The investment can improve their quality of work, which impacts your bottom line.
4. Vacation Time
Allowing your employees to have vacation time will help them rest. And well-rested workers are more productive than those who are not.
Vacation can help prevent burnout. It also promotes work-life balance that allows them to spend more time with their family and close friends.
Although vacation time is commonly offered to employees in the US, most American workers don’t use it. One reason for this is that they are intrinsically workaholics.
They need to get ahead at work. Some workers feel that their employer discourages them to be away from work.
But if you emphasize to them the value of vacation time, they may consider taking a time off.
5. Paid Holidays
This is different from vacation time. A paid holiday is paid time off with pay. Essentially, employees will get a day off with pay for certain holidays, which are recognized by the federal government.
According to this report, only 78% of workers have access to paid holidays.
You can also offer your employees a floating paid holiday. With this, they can take a holiday as needed. If it is an employee’s birthday or Election Day, some companies offer paid time off.
Giving your employees a paid holiday lets them observe a holiday if they want to.
6. Parental Perks
They are vital for working parents. Women experienced significant hardship during the pandemic. They considered leaving their careers or the workforce entirely.
Some companies offer parental perks that allow working parents to get some days off to focus on their families.
Parental perks are vital to reduce burnout among working mothers and fathers. Most companies only focus on the mother.
But some new fathers are also taking on caregiving responsibilities at home. If you offer your employees parental perks, even fathers can take paternity leave so they can have time to take care of their newborns.
It is all about work-life balance.
7. Hazard Pay
Typically, it is offered by healthcare companies. Amid the pandemic, the House of Representatives passed a law to create a hazard pay fund. Dozens of companies also started to offer small hourly pay bumps to their frontline workers.
Failure to provide hazard pay can affect low-wage workers. Unfortunately, they compose half of the frontline essential workers. These workers face additional hardship in addition to the high risk of infection.
Your workers deserve hazard pay.
8. College Debt Assistance
Many students have burgeoning student loan debt. It is one of the reasons they could not save much for their retirement. Some employees recognize this burden and they wish to help through college debt assistance.
Abbott introduced its Freedom 2 Save Program which assists its workers to pay down their student debt so they can stay on track with their savings.
If a job applicant has three job offers from other companies, you can entice this applicant to work in your company by offering college debt assistance.
Remember that student loan debt is going to be part of new graduates’ lives for the foreseeable future. If employees would help them, it would lighten their burden.
9. Profit Sharing
It is a compensation program that provides employees with a percentage of the company’s profits. The amount given will depend on the company’s earnings for a certain period. It is not like employee bonuses.
Profit sharing is only possible when the company sees a profit.
You can use this work perk to supplement existing benefits.
10. Free Meals
Free meals at work must not be overlooked. don’t treat this as a work perk. Rather, consider it as a way to show your employees that you care for them. Providing free meals to your employees can result in a job satisfaction rate, according to this report.
This work perk can also boost your worker’s productivity. Imagine lunchtime approaching.
Your workers will begin to focus on how they get their next meal instead of doing their job. It can create a serious drag on their productivity. When you provide them with free, delicious meals, you are removing a major source of distraction.
Read: Google Offers Free Food and Snacks to Its Employees
Summary
These work perks can be a great way for you to retain your best talent while attracting top talent. You can choose to offer them all or simply pick one or three perks.
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