What are the benefits of work benefits?

Free carpools to the office are just one of many work benefits you can offer your employees...

Okay, so this might not be the greatest headline ever made – our Pulitzer prize might have to wait – but we truly believe that company benefits can really contribute to the running of a good, healthy business.

In this article we’ll quickly outline all of the greatest advantages to implementing a range of benefits for your staff members and by the end you’ll see why more and more businesses are changing tack and offering new reward schemes.

Retention

Companies are slowly becoming aware that they don’t need to look elsewhere for the greatest talent on the market as it is often under their own nose. Whereas previously businesses would pump thousands of pounds into finding the best and brightest for their firm, it has become apparent that retaining current staff is as, if not more, important.

But how do you retain staff? Pay rises will work for sure but the challenging economic landscape makes this a difficult option for many businesses, who are instead opting to deliver a platform of company benefits for personnel instead.

Childcare vouchers, for example, cost little to no money for employers to put in place but could help staff members to save thousands of pounds per year – an attractive prospect. Simply implementing this utility will really help in your efforts to keep your best staff.

Happiness

It might seem a bit strange to say, but keeping your staff happy is really important. Yes, we all know that work isn’t meant to be all smiles and laughs, but encouraging overall life satisfaction among your workforce is a great way to improve productivity.

Benefits are a fantastic way to help your workers out and assist them in some of the more challenging aspects of life outside the office. Health screenings, for example, can remove a great deal of stress and worry from personnel that might have a nagging complaint like a bad back or a sore leg – allowing them to focus on their job.

Happiness is, at the end of the day, the most important thing in life, so cheering your workers up a bit by taking care of them through a proper benefits package is a great approach to take.

Evangelisation

Evangelisation is essentially a posh way of describing when people talk about how great it is to work for your company. Naturally, this is a great way to get new personnel onboard and will improve your standing in the business community.

Benefits are a fantastic method to get your staff members evangilising, as there’s no better way to get people talking about your firm in a positive manner than word getting around that you treat your workers properly.

Although a more informal advantage, implementing something like a Cycle to Work scheme, where personnel can get the VAT taken off the price of a new bicycle to the tune of a 20 per cent discount, could result in one of your staff members saying to a fellow cycling commuter: “Oh yeah, my work paid for 20 per cent of this bike and I pay the rest through a salary sacrifice scheme.”

Not only will their pedalling counterpart be green with envy, but word will likely spread quickly about how well you treat your workers, which can only be a good thing in this challenging labour market landscape.