4 Work Perks You Should Be Offering Your Employees

It’s certainly an employee market currently across a wide range of different industries, so you need to be going above and beyond to make your company a great place to work. This will require some investment from your company, but it will be well worth the price when it helps you to gain and retain fantastic employees and to help you build a winning team for your business. 

Flexible Working

The first thing that many employees now look for is flexible working options. This means different things for every employer and employee, yet generally flexible working involves providing your employees with freedom in terms of where and when they work. This might be difficult for some companies to adjust to, but it can make such a big difference to your employees. 

Here are a few examples. You might want your staff in the office the majority of the time, but you could offer remote working as an option for a few days a week. Or, you could offer it full-time if that would work for your business. In terms of hours in the day, perhaps you have 10 am-12 pm and 2 pm-4 pm every day when your employees are required to be working, to ensure consistent communication is possible. However, if people want to work varied hours outside of this, they can. For example, someone might have the school run at 8:30 am-9 am, so with flexible working they aren’t rushing to get back and be online, but can start an hour later at 10 am, make themselves a coffee and get in the right mindset to start the day. Perhaps someone else has a favourite gym class that starts at [4:30], so they work 8 am-4 pm to make it in time. 

This will differ depending on the nature of your business, but you should be open and willing to offer options to your employees to make their lives easier. 

Financial Advice

Something else you should offer as an employer is financial advice. Your company should have a financial advisor that employees can work with to help with their financial planning, retirement planning and debt management, as well as overall advice. Finances can bring a lot of stress to people, so when you help them to manage it, they will be less stressed and more healthy overall. This of course will benefit your business later down the line. This could be something small like asking questions about energy bills, it could be asking for IVA advice to help with debt or perhaps about their pension contributions. No matter what it looks like, this is a fantastic perk to offer your employees that many businesses don’t. 

Access To Mental Health Services

One of the most important and best work perks you can offer your employees is access to mental health services. So many people struggle with their mental health in silence, when really they need help. As a business, this will really show you care about your employees. Work can bring a lot of stress to people at times, so helping in whatever way you can is important. You should have a completely confidential partnership with a third-party company offering mental health services such as therapy, that people can utilise whenever they need. Professional help can completely transform people’s lives and their outlook on life, so this is a fantastic thing that you can offer to your employees.

Gym Membership

As well as your employees’ mental health, you should invest in their physical health too, and paying for their gym membership (or at least part of it) can help. When your employees exercise regularly, they will be healthier overall, which means fewer sick days, so this can directly benefit your business in the long run. Plus, again, it shows that you care about your employees and their well-being. You could also provide an allowance for people’s hobbies, whether it’s to help pay for their subscription fees for the sport they play or whether it’s to pay for their art classes. This is an extra bonus that can mean the world to employees. 

Final Thoughts

The most important things to do in order to achieve this are offering good pay and bonus schemes, a healthy working environment, support from management and good career progression. However, to really show your employees that you care about their health and well-being, there are a few more things you can be doing!