In an era of quirky agencies and trendy start-ups, there’s a lot of hype around employee benefits, and frankly, most of them are utterly pointless. Clickbait, if you will. I’m talking unlimited holiday allowances and office slides…
Firstly, if an employee decides they’re taking a 12-weeks’ out to travel Thailand and, dare I say it, “find themselves”, will their unlimited holiday allowance still stand? Are you really going to pay someone their full salary while they’re swanning around Thailand drinking Chang lager and eating fried scorpions? No, you’re not.
Secondly, you’re an adult, a professional, you do not need a slide.
The benefits employers should be drawing their attention to are the ones that help employees develop professionally and genuinely add value to, both, the employee and the business. Below are my seven probably boring, but actually useful benefits that I recommend all businesses start offering…
If you aren’t offering a properly decent training program, stop employing people. You’re going to lose them to competitors, and you certainly won’t be benefiting from their full potential. To keep employees engaged, they need to feel that they’re continually learning and improving. A result of this is you’ll help to upskill them, and they’ll begin producing better work faster. For each remit, ensure you have a specific training course for them to complete during induction, and a plan for their development moving forward. For sales professionals, I recommend Ken Wells’ Sales Skills Mastery Vol 1.
In addition to training, consider perks that will help employees learn outside of work hours. A subscription to Audible is invaluable.
People get itchy feet, or worse, complacent. They need to be challenged and rewarded to remain interested. You need an annual plan for reviews and appraisals to assess employee’s skills and achievements. If they’re doing well, promote them, they deserve it.
Promotions should be personal and based on what they’re good at. Just because someone is currently working as a Sales Executive doesn’t mean they should automatically become a Sales Manager. If they’re awesome at generating inbound interest from your target market thanks to all their social media efforts, let them experiment in a marketing role.
An ideal time for people to step up is between 12-18 months, and never longer than 3-years.
It’s no secret that the candidate market is scarce (every ghastly recruiter will tell you this when trying to sell you a candidate. Sadly, it’s true.). You’re literally competing against other businesses for talent. Why not stand out by offering £2000 over the market average?
That equates to £166 per month (hugely affordable), and you will only gain from it. It will enhance your employer brand, win you candidates over competitors and increase employee retention. You probably spend more than that on sponsored Indeed ads anyway, exactly where everyone is competing.
People don’t want to feel like robots, and they don’t want to be in an environment for most of their day where they don’t actually know anyone. Social outings like team lunches and going to the pub on a Friday will make the company seem more human and remove the corporate red-tape feel.
These outings also encourage team spirit and provide opportunity to create friendships, meaning people will work better together because, well, who wants to screw over their friends?
I’m going to keep this one short. If you were diagnosed with a scary illness and the waiting list for NHS treatment was 9-months, how would you feel about your employer if they privileged you with private healthcare which got you seen and treated within 14-days? AXA provides excellent cover options.
Simply put, good health means fewer sick days, improved productivity, and more cooperation — all ingredients of a high-performing business.
Ok, this one doesn’t really coincide with my above point, but come on, having a beer to wind down the work week and get ready for the weekend is surely the best way to end a Friday. Doing this will help employees de-stress, and they’ll share success stories of the week just gone. This gets high performing employees excited about succeeding the next week and will inspire the stragglers to follow in their footsteps. Plus, you can help provide clean water around the world while doing it.
So, there you have it…
Genuinely useful benefits that don’t involve installing a slide or waving goodbye to your recently appointed sales exec while they holiday for 3-months’.
Want to chat to get my advice on your benefits package? Click below to get in touch.
Jae Jackson-Loveridge | Director
