Employee Benefits And Compensation Ideas: A Guide

What are Employee Benefits?

Employee Benefits are the indirect and non-cash compensation paid to an employee. These benefits are given to employees over their salaries and wages. They are also called fringe benefits that are offered to attract and retain employees.

Employees love benefits. They want appreciation and recognition for their hard work. Many employees apply for organizations depending on the perks and benefits offered by that company.

Job satisfaction is directly tied up with employee satisfaction. Ignoring employee satisfaction will ultimately lead to a decrease in commitment. Thereby causing a lack of motivation, efficiency, and finally productivity.

Employees are a company’s most valuable asset. As a manager, do you believe that or just pay lip service? If you sincerely believe that, you take it seriously and invest more in employee benefits.

List Of Employee Benefits And Compensation Ideas That You Can Provide To Your Employees

1. Insurance Plans

Insurance benefit plans are great ways to show your employees that you care about them.

The organization pays specific amounts of money to cover an employee’s medical care. These include insurance for losses from accidents, disability, sudden death, dismemberment. Other types of medical care involve dental checkups, biometric screening, etc.

2. Disability Insurance

The employer pays for the worker’s salary if the worker becomes disabled or is unable to work. An employer can provide either short-term or long-term disability insurance depending on the needs of the employee.

Short-term covers for the employee for up to 6 months while long-term covers a worker’s lifetime’s salary.

3. Tuition Reimbursement

Organizations offering employees to pay back for their education expenses is an excellent employee benefits idea. Employees have to pay on their own before taking up a course. But once the system gets over, the employer decides to pay either a part or the full amount for the course.

4. Corporate Discounts

Refers to the discounts offered to employees on the original price of goods or services by the employer. These are discounts that are developed exclusively for corporate employees. Companies also use this method to test their products internally before launching them to the market.

Vantage Circle’s Vantage Perks program is the same. It provides the best deals and offers handpicked for corporate employees at prices discounted exclusively for them.

5. Paid Vacation

As the name suggests, these are benefits where an employee is paid even when he takes time off from work. An extension of this benefit is providing unlimited vacation. Many companies providing this benefit have seen it be the most popular benefit among their employees. And employees also tend to take almost the same amount of vacations as they used to earlier.

6. Retirement Plans

A great employee benefits idea to add to your compensation package is providing your full-time employees with financial security. These are done through various methods like pension plans, 401(k)s, and more.

7. Paid Sick Leaves

Taking care of your health is important. When employees will be weak but still have to work, it will directly affect their productivity and efficiency. So creating a policy where they can avail paid sick leaves is a great way to show that you care for your employees’ well-being.

8. Performance Bonus

Everyone wants to and loves being appreciated. And when you understand employees for their hard work and achievements, they continue to perform well. Rewarding them for their performance motivates and encourages them to achieve goals more effectively.

9. Office Perks

Organizations now try to merge both work and life together. They give out perks designed to make the office fun and joyous. Some of these perks involve having board games at work, nap rooms, free food.

10. Stock Options

The company offers the employee the right to buy shares in the company at an agreed-upon price by a particular date. This price is generally lower than the market. This helps employees have ownership over something that they are working to build too. It makes them feel as one with the organization.

11. Paid Parental Leaves

It’s providing paid time off to employees to take care of their child or a family member. Parental leaves can be in the form of paternity leaves, maternity leaves or even adoption.

12. Childcare Facilities

It is a type of child care sponsored or managed by an employer. The employer usually provides working parents the privilege to find work-life balance. Some ways are through company provided child care spaces, covering or sharing the expenses of the child with the parents.

13. Wellness Programs

Integrate your benefit program with your employees’ health and wellness journey. Wellness programs are initiated by the company to encourage employees to maintain a healthy lifestyle. These include programs such as gym memberships, weight-loss competition, smoking cessation, health screenings.

14. Employee Training

Another great way to retain talented employees is by letting them grow. Provide them with the resources and the capital required to undertake training courses. You can also do the same for new employees to enhance their skills. Some ways are by paying them to attend lectures and conferences, e-learning methods and more.

15. Profit-Sharing

It is a compensation program to award eligible employees a share of the company’s profits. The company contributes a portion of its pre-tax profits to a pool that gets distributed among eligible employees. This motivates employees to work towards increasing the profitability of the company. It also enhances commitment to organizational goals.

Some more unconventional employee benefits include :

• Pet-friendly office
• Free food and beverages
• Movie, concert and match tickets
• Free library membership
• Paid time off to volunteer
• Clubs- photography, board game, music clubs

Best Employee Benefits For Millennials

A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work anymore. With the rise of millennials and diversity in the workforce, the need to implement various employee benefits packages is high.

Millennials now take up almost 35% of the workforce. They are smart, ambitious, energetic and will not conform to the traditional norms. And they are good at their work.

So, what do you do?

Well, you give them what they want. The benefits they need and try your best to fulfill their expectations.

Here are 7 Most Sought-After Employee Benefits for Millennials

1. Student Loan Assistance

Education loan is the one of the biggest cause of stress among millennials. Millennials seek employers who help them pay off their student loans. This might also be one of the best ways to attract and retain the best minds of this generation.

2. State-of-the-art Technology

Millennials have grown up with everything available to them at all times. Information has forever been at the tip of their fingers. And they expect the same at work. Equip these digital natives with the best and latest technological devices for excellent job performance. That’s how they’ve always functioned.

3. Bonuses through Time-Off

Millennials are more focused on creating a fulfilling lifestyle than maintaining work-life balance. And they work hard to create this lifestyle. But research has shown that 25% of millennials feel nervous when requesting for time off. But employers are trying to change this. They are moving from traditional monetary bonuses to providing paid weekend getaways.

4. Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

This is a generation which wants to work and give back to society. Their engagement in philanthropic causes has been seen to be constantly increasing. The best way to engage millennials would be to involve them with NGOs, red cross societies, and other such organizations.

5. Remove The 9 to 5 System

These are employees who don’t believe in conforming to the traditional workforce norms. They don’t think that working 9 to 5 is the only way to be productive. Reports also show that 45% of employees would prefer flexible scheduling over pay. The rise of the gig economy and self-employment is another reason to change the 9 to 5 system at your workplace.

6. Remote Working

Remote working or work from home opportunities is the ultimate way to seal the deal. Millennials enjoy flexible hours. They love working at places where they don’t have to be constantly and physically present to do their job. Almost 92% of millennials have desired the option to work from home, even if only once a week.

7. Personal Growth Development

Giving millennials the means and the time to pursue their hobbies is another great way to engage them. One way to do this is to pay for their hobbies. Another way is by setting up diverse clubs as per the interests of the employees. These clubs may include book clubs, photography clubs, drama clubs, etc.

Some more benefits sought by millennials are napping areas, event passes, co-working spaces, free food, and snacks.

Low-Cost Benefits for Employees

Not all businesses have the resources or the means available to provide hefty benefits to their employees. But, providing benefits helps motivate and encourage employees.

But since employee benefits are non-monetary, there’s a lot you can do without burning a hole in your pocket.

Listed below are 11 benefits offered by small businesses that require little or no budget:

• Flexible Schedule
• Free Snacks
• Casual Dress Code
• Event Tickets
• Telecommuting
• Bring Your Pet to Work Days
• Paid Time Off to Volunteer
• Maternity and Paternity Leave
• New Hire Welcome Packages
• Movie Nights
• Benefits at work – office Olympics, library

Why You Need to Implement these ASAP?

Engagement surveys show that 50% of employees would leave their job for better employee benefits.

So, benefits are definitely important. We have listed down some points highlighting the importance of employee benefits:

1. Increases Productivity

For employees to perform their best, they need to be completely focused. Most of the times they can’t focus because they are worried about things at home. These include paying medical bills, giving their children the best facilities and more.

20% of employees perform better when provided benefits.

Offering benefits to employees helps relieve their stress. When they know that things back at home are being taken care of, they sleep better and perform better.

2. Increases Loyalty

A manager who cares about his employees will surely build a more loyal employee base than others. When your employees’ personal and professional lives are being cared for, they will want to build their career in your company.

60% employees say benefits are very important for their loyalty.

Building a benefits package that advances both their personal and professional development is important. It makes employees more engaged and doesn’t make them leave.

3. Lowers Absenteeism

Some of the main causes of absenteeism are – health issues, low workplace morale, stress, childcare issues, disengagement. Absenteeism makes employees demotivated, pushes back deadlines and decreases their overall productivity.

43% of employees agree that having benefits helps them take lesser leaves.

Employees are less likely to take leaves for their health issues if your company can offer them medical insurance. Similarly for tuition classes, family issues, parenting problems and other issues faced by employees.

4. Improves Recruiting

Considering the benefits package of a company before applying for a job is a real practice done by employees. Even to the extent that 55% of employees would do a job that pays less but has amazing benefits packages.

57% employees say benefits are their top considerations while applying for a job.

Therefore, the benefits you provide can help you greatly to attract and retain skilled employees. Give them the benefits they need in order to get the best out of them.

5. Increases Retention

Employee retention refers to the ability of the employer to hold on to his employees. And one of the best and easiest way to retain your best employees is providing them the best benefits.

51% of employees are planning to leave their jobs.

In order to stay at a company, employees need to be happy. And providing them the right benefits will surely make them feel valued and want to remain at the company.

We here at Vantage Circle keep the above aspects in mind and help companies provide the best employee benefits to its workforce. Check the video to know more.

Conclusion

Providing your employees with the right kind of benefits and perks is important for attracting and holding on to your top talent. It also helps in making your company more diverse and inclusive. You can develop these benefits depending on the size of your company. Another way is by understanding the needs and interests of your employees.

Having a single platform, like Vantage Perks, can go a long way in effectively managing your benefit program.

But no matter how you do it, it is of utmost importance that you have a comprehensive and dynamic employee benefits plan.

This article is written by Shreya Dutta who is a content writer and marketer at Vantage Circle. She is passionate about all things literature and entrepreneurship. To get in touch, reach out to editor@vantagecircle.com