We’ve all heard of the common workplace benefits, but if you have employees who go above and beyond for you and your business, then you should be doing the same for them when it comes to benefits. We’re here to introduce some great benefits that you should be offering, that will not only keep them motivated and boost morale, but also help them to look after their mental and physical health. This might be quite an investment for some businesses, but the response you will get when your employees feel like they are being looked after will certainly be worth it.
Pay For Their Gym Membership
The first thing you can do to go above and beyond for your employees is to pay for their full gym membership. Investing in your health is one of the most important things you can do, and for employees, when life gets in the way and there is lots to pay for, a gym membership drops down the priority list. So, paying for gym memberships up to a certain price, perhaps around £40 (more like £60 in London or a big city), will encourage them to go to the gym. You could also give them a small lifestyle bonus that can be used to invest in their fitness, whether its used to buy a new womens gymwear outfit, to invest in dumbbells for home or to get new wheels on their bike.
As an employer, this is definitely in your benefit too, as people go to the gym regularly are at a much lower risk of long-term chronic diseases, it can improve their mental health and generally just make them healthier people. So, people will take less sick days and they are likely to feel more motivated in work, so your business will inevitably benefit.
Private Health and Dental Care
Whilst we’re on the topic of health, you should offer your employees good private health and dental care. In the US this is common, as they don’t have public healthcare, but in places like the UK it is less common. The NHS can unfortunately be unreliable, and dental care can be very expensive if someone doesn’t have one of the very limited NHS spaces. So, this can provide some peace of mind for people, helping them to get appointments quicker and helping issues to be resolved more quickly. For you as an employer, this will mean they are back in work and healthier as soon as possible, so you’re not having to cover work or have a member of staff who isn’t performing to their best.
This isn’t necessarily an option for every business as it will be expensive, but it is certainly something that you should offer if it is financially viable.
Flexible Working
One of the best things that you can offer to your employees as a benefit is flexible working. More people are taking on the approach of letting employees work when is suitable for them, as long as they get the work done. Usually there will be a core set of hours that everyone needs to work, such as 10am-3pm, so that if communication is necessary then everyone can easily be reached. However, aside from this, if someone wants to finish at 3 to pick up the kids and then do an extra 2 hours of work when the kids go to bed, they are able to do so. If someone is a morning person, they could start work at 7am instead of 9am and still finish at 5pm, giving them a longer evening if that suits their schedule. Maybe you could have Fridays as a fully flexible day, so if people complete all of their work and hours in 4 days, they can have Friday off completely.
Working from home as an option is also important, as it can make the lives of your employees much easier. Many companies are adopting a hybrid working strategy, where some days can be from home but others need to be in the office, so you can strike a good balance of a strong working environment and making life easier for your employees.
Flexible working is a relatively new benefit people are being offered, but it is one of the most important to allow people to live their lives more freely around work.
