3 essential benefits every company should offer 

Around this time of year, pay reviews are often top on the agenda. But pay can be an enormous disengager for your team, especially if they perceive it being dealt with unfairly. More importantly, giving salary increases may not be an option this year. Plus, the overall perceived value can be short-lived, especially when the amount most employees are after isn’t affordable for most businesses. So, what can you do?

Now is a good time to start thinking about the types of employee benefits you want to and can offer your people – and here’s where this simple framework can help.

"Not all benefits are made equal. Some may be more relevant to your people depending on their age, lifestyle or economic and cultural background." 

Some benefits are less expensive to introduce than you initially budget for, while others provide more return on investment than you realise. Let's take a look at a few:

Essential employee benefits examples

Economic:

These benefits help employees save money or amplify their disposable income. Some options – like employer funded healthcare or insurance – can be costly for employers but provide invaluable peace of mind for employees.

Other options – like an employee discounts platform – can be a low cost-per-head investment but provide thousands of dollars of savings per year for each person.

Cultural:

These benefits make a statement about your company culture or reflect certain values and behaviours you want your people to embrace.

Examples include employer-funded social or training events for employee families, hackathons where people can work on any project they like, peer-to-peer employee recognition programmes, or an allowance that supports physical or mental wellbeing.

Time:

These benefits help employees save or take back their time. A simple (and free or low-cost) option encourages flexible working. Other options include providing onsite food or health care (such as physiotherapy or monthly massages).

 

Screen-6-UK-SmartSpending-App
A look at the SmartSpending™ mobile employee discounts app available to Reward Gateway for Small Business users

Sometimes a benefit may fit into more than one of these categories, and that’s fine.

The important thing is to ensure you are providing your people with the ability to choose from a range of relevant and valuable benefits that will improve not only their experience at work, but their life outside it too.

Do you already provide a mix of these three types of employee benefits? Is there something simple you can introduce or improve that will help improve your employee experience?

Now is a perfect time to assess and consider the changes you might make to stand out as an employer who appreciates and acre about their staff.


Looking for more affordable ways to support, recognise and connect your employees? 

Sign up for a 1-month free trial of Reward Gateway for Small Business and we’ll show you how we can help your company with affordable employee benefits.

Get your free trial