How to Build a Basic Employee Benefits Package?

We all need a little motivation sometimes and employees are no different. Rewards and compensation schemes like basic employee benefits packages or just extra perks are all vital to getting the most out of your workforce. Even if you’re not entirely convinced about the effectiveness of benefits, unfortunately, it’s no longer an option for businesses that want to stay competitive. 

Today the top companies are offering increasingly better basic employee benefits packages and perks, so to even get a say in today’s talent pool you need to be doing the same. Fortunately, we can show you that these basic employee benefits packages really are important to a productive workforce and there are plenty of ideas out there for you to get started.

The Benefits of Benefits

While it’s true your business no longer really has a choice about employee benefits packages if you want to stay competitive, the fact is you should want to reward your employees anyway. Great work deserves a great reward, and sometimes a basic salary just doesn’t quite cut it. Research has even shown that 75% of employees are more likely to stay with their employer because of their basic employee benefits package. That means not having an effective benefits scheme could be seriously impacting employee turnover and all the costs it comes with. Add to that the 78% of employees that say benefits are extremely important to them when choosing whether to accept a job offer and the 69% that would choose one job over another based on the benefits offered, and it’s pretty clear that businesses need to start excelling in this area.

The Benefits & Perks Your Employees are Looking for

Fortunately, there is a huge range of benefits and perks you can offer employees. You can start with what you think is most important for your workforce or the easiest to implement and add to your packages over time. Research from 2017 reported by the Harvard Business Review explored what are the most important benefits to employees and they discovered that health care, flexible working hours, more holiday time, work-from-home options and financial support with education were all seen as the most desirable perks.

Based on the most popular benefits and perks options available, we’ve divided them into three main categories. Take a look at some of these top ideas for a standard employee benefits package.

1. Health and Wellbeing

We’ve previously explored just how important wellbeing is at work and it seems that employees agree as well. Various health packages almost always seem to come out on top with private health and dental care frequently rated as the most desirable benefit to employees. If healthcare is an achievable addition to your basic employee benefits packages, then we highly recommend you look at providing it.

If private healthcare is off the table, for now, there are other alternatives that are also attractive to today’s workforce. Wellbeing programs that offer onsite fitness classes or activities could be one way to go, or you could offer vouchers or additional money to subsidise gym membership fees. In fact, why not offer to pay for gym membership outright or look to see if you could even install a gym onsite? Yoga is always a popular option.

The great thing about health and wellbeing packages is that they benefit your business as much as they do your employees. Research has shown time and again that healthier and happier employees are much more productive, so this type of benefits scheme could pay for itself in the long term.

2. Career and Wealth

Money isn’t everything as the most desireable benefits show; many employees opt for health and wellbeing as well as other lifestyle perks before they do money. Still, there is no denying that we all like a bit extra in our wallet. Additional bonuses and performance-based rewards can help boost employees basic salaries and let them know that you appreciate their hard work. onuses and monetary reward schemes are part of a true pay-for-performance culture so you should ensure these schemes are profitable for your business.

Besides basic bonuses, you can also look at providing vouchers for popular shops or even days out. Just like a birthday present, sometimes something more thoughtful and tangible is better than just a bit of money. Similarly, you could look at other financial support for employees, such as childcare or student loan support.

Don’t forget about education as well. Training in new skills is typically very costly, so funding employee education is a great way to help them progress with their careers while also helping them financially. This also benefits your business greatly as the skills they learn go directly in the work they produce. You could offer to pay for courses in different skills, or why not fund an employee’s full education so they achieve their masters?

3. Lifestyle and Culture

A good work balance is important to every employee and can have a huge impact on how productive they are and the quality of work they produce. While it may not seem like it, helping employees achieve this balance could directly impact business success.

The most popular and obvious choice here is work flexibility. From the hours and days, your employees work to where they can work from, flexibility can be hugely impactful on an employees life and is one of the most desirable aspects of any job. Look to see whether you could introduce more flexible hours or days. It doesn’t have to be complete flexibility although many companies are now doing that. You could have core hours during the day with flexibility at either end so employees can come in late or leave early on certain days that suit them. Similarly, offering the option to work from home either some or even all of the time is becoming hugely popular with today’s workforce.

As well as flexibility, look at other areas of your employees’ lives. Could you provide a better maternity and paternity package that goes beyond the basics to help them out? What about offering perks to employees that already have children to make family life easier such as childcare support?

Finally, what about life actually in the office? Office parties, activities and team-building exercises should be a regular part of office life to help break up the monotony and motivate employees. These types of schemes are great for the whole company and can help to cultivate a much more inclusive, communicative and tight-knit culture. Think about what kinds of activities suit your company culture as it stands, from cooking and baking at work to more physical activities like fitness or games.

Managing Your Employee Benefits Packages

Coming up with the basic employee benefits packages and perks you want to offer is just the first step. The next is managing rewards and benefits so you can create a true pay-for-performance culture and give managers autonomy over benefits to their team while still remaining in company-wide budgets. To ensure your benefits schemes are profitable for your business and are motivating for your employees, talk to us today about SuccessFactors.