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Make your company stand out by offering bonus benefits like flexible hours, mental health resources, Emergency Savings Accounts, and more.
Key takeaways:
11 uncommon workplace benefits:
Benefits like health insurance and paid time off, while desirable, no longer stand out to top candidates you want on your payroll. Today’s job seekers are looking for additional perks that help them manage their work-life balance, have more flexibility, and feel supported by their employer.
The common, base-level workplace benefits are health and dental insurance, retirement savings plans, paid time off (vacation and sick time), and life insurance. These benefits are the most common, but consider looking beyond what’s traditional to set yourself apart.
To ensure your employees are satisfied and stay at your company for a long time, consider offering additional perks that not all employers offer. Let’s look at the top uncommon benefits you should consider adding to your baseline offerings.
1. Paid family leave
Many of your employees may have new babies or want to start families, so they need time away from work to care for children. Paid parental leave is becoming more commonplace to support workers with compensation while they’re gone. Paid family leave, in addition, is provided when a worker needs time off to care for a loved one, such as an aging family member. An Unum survey found that 24% of respondents said paid family leave was the most important benefit to them.
2. Mental health resources
Employees may be struggling with their mental health even more during the COVID-19 pandemic. Show them you support them and want to help by giving them mental health resources. Perhaps you can offer an employee assistance program where they can receive counseling services for free, or have a psychologist come into the office for anyone who wants to speak to him or her.
3. Education expense reimbursement
Well-informed employees are better employees. Reimbursement benefits for education are appealing to workers who want to take a course or pursue a degree related to their position or industry. Reimbursing higher education shows employees that you want to support their professional goals and can make an expensive program a reality for them.
4. Student loan assistance
Around 1 in 8 Americans have student loan debt, which is about 42.9 million people. You’ll likely hire workers who carry this type of debt, so helping them pay off their loans is an enticing benefit to add to your roster.
5. Flexible hours
As more people are working from home and rethinking the way they work, they are also depending on flexible work arrangements. This benefit could mean allowing employees to set their schedule as long as they work a certain number of hours, shortening the workweek to four days, or allowing workers to choose when to log in each morning. Your employees may need to manage family or home responsibilities, so show them you want to support them outside of work with this perk.
6. Remote work options
Similar to wanting more flexible hours, more people now want the option to work from home, whether full time or a few days a week. According to one study, 44% of Americans who were working remotely during the pandemic said they would prefer to continue from home when all restrictions are lifted. People like to at least have the option if something comes up. Consider offering a hybrid arrangement or letting them choose what days to come into the office.
7. Wellness perks
Aside from health insurance, think about how you can encourage employees to stay healthy with wellness perks. Maybe you’ll start offering healthy snacks in the office or a gym membership discount. Some companies are bringing in yoga instructors for employees or offering free classes. Other wellness perks to consider are massage certificates, massage chairs in the office, meditation classes or retreats, or meditation app discounts. These resources can help people reduce stress.
8. Professional development
Is your organization doing anything to ensure workers keep learning? Start a training or development program where people can learn new skills or enhance those they already have. For instance, you can offer a leadership workshop so that people who want to be managers someday can learn how to reach those goals. Sponsor employees to attend conferences and conventions where they can learn from other professionals.
9. Onsite health services
You may also want to consider bringing medical services into the office. Some companies have a registered nurse onsite and employees can make an appointment if they’re having an issue or feeling ill. You could hire a massage therapist to be onsite as well, working in conjunction with the overall wellness benefits you provide to your workers.
10. Volunteer time off
Show employees you care about giving back by allowing them to take time off for volunteering in the community. Volunteer time off supports workers in donating their time without having to use their other paid time off. This perk looks great to job seekers who want to work for a company that has positive values.
11. Emergency Savings Account
In the same Unum survey mentioned earlier, 18% of respondents said that financial planning is the most important benefit to them. Aside from retirement savings and debt payoff, support your employees with other avenues to save, like an Emergency Savings account (ESA). A recent Bankrate poll revealed that 51% of Americans have less than three months of expenses saved in an emergency fund.
Help workers get that base savings account going with an ESA, which will help them reduce financial stress. The fact is, 90% of employees are stressed because of COVID’s impact on their finances, and 70% would use an ESA sponsored by their employer if it was offered.
Turn to SecureSave to offer an ESA to your employees
SecureSave makes it easy for you to help your workers build an ESA with options to match savings per paycheck, which is one of the top workplace benefits employees are looking for. Launch your program within a week and avoid time-consuming training or paperwork. Integrate the SecureSave app with your existing payroll services so everything can be done automatically.
Learn more about SecureSave’s ESA at securesave.com or email us at info@securesave.com for more information.