As a business owner, one of your biggest assets is undoubtedly your staff. Your employees are at the frontline and as such, they have the ability to either make or break your business.
One thing you can do to not only ensure that you’re able to hire the best possible employees, but also to ensure that they stick around and do their best work for you, is to offer them as many great employee perks as you can afford.
Okay, but with so many possible employee perks available, how do you know which ones they will love? You might be thinking that offering them vision benefits is sure to be a winner, but if you read this, you will see that probably isn’t the case, whereas you may be thinking they won’t get much out of free gym membership but this article says quite the opposite. So what do you do? You start by reading the following list of employee perks they’ll love, that’s what!
Great health insurance
It almost goes without saying that offering your employees an excellent health insurance package is going to go down well with pretty much everyone. So, if you want your employees to love you, love their work, and stay loyal to your business, you’re going to want to start by putting together an unbeatable package of healthcare benefits that includes everything for emergency care to subsidized prescription costs and even coverage for spouses and children. If you can do this, you will easily attract the best people for the job.
Employee recognition programs
Employees don’t like to be taken for granted; they like to feel appreciated by their employer and the easiest way to do this, aside from the obvious like paying them well, is to set up an employee recognition program within your business.
What is an employee recognition program? It’s exactly what it sounds like – a program that is set up to recognize and reward employees for their hard work and a job well done. This could include giving monetary bonuses, awards, or even special treats like a meal out with the boss – it doesn’t matter as long as it is valued by the employees and serves to show them that they are valued by you.
If you think setting up such a program is pointless, bear in mind that companies whose teams are engaged are typically 12 percent more profitable than businesses whose employees aren’t invested and you will soon see its value.
Corporate wellness programs
Sitting too long, as so many employees do these days can have a disastrous effect on the mind and body, so it is hardly surprising that many employees these days value corporate wellness programs that enable them to unwind, exercise and improve their fitness levels, highly.
Whether you offer them time off to get a massage or hit the gym, subsidize their gym memberships or dedicate the first 15 minutes each day to meditation and yoga, anything you can do to promote a culture of wellbeing is likely to keep employees happy. It is also likely to benefit you by improving employee productivity levels, so what’s not to love?
Free lunches
Offering your employees free lunches, even just once or twice a week is always a welcome perk. It enables your staff to save a little on their lunch money and shows them that you care about them. If you make sure to keep the lunches fairly healthy, it will also benefit you in the form of healthier staff too, Of course, buying them pizza or taking them out for chicken wings once in a while will be very welcome too.
Mental health and bereavement days
Enabling your staff to take time off when their mental health is suffering or they feel burnt out, and allowing them to be absent when a friend, family member or even pet dies, is a great way to show compassion. It will be much appreciated by employees who don’t want to feel like another cog in the machine and who may struggle working through tough times anyway. They’re likely to be far happier and much more efficient when they do get back to work, so being compassionate will likely benefit your business too.
Ask them
Although the above employee perks ar a great place to start, if you really want to entice the best possible staff for your business, and keep them on the payroll for as long as possible, it’s a good idea to actually ask them what they would like to see you offer in the future!
