What extra benefits can you offer employees?

Nowadays, employees want a lot more than just their paycheque and an allocation of holiday time.

You, as an employer, need to be able to offer a great working experience for your employees. One of the best ways you can do this is with benefits you can offer employees that they might want to take advantage of. Here are some ideas for the best benefits that employees and potential hires might like to have to help them get the most out of working for you.

Birthdays off

To start things off, it is normally nice to offer employees the opportunity to take their birthday off without having to use their holiday time to do so. Everyone loves to spend their holiday doing something nice – whether they have plans with friends or just want to spend it chilling out – but at the same time they might not want to use up their holiday time for just one day off.

It is a simple gesture, but it is one that you will find to be very much appreciated by those under you. Together with celebrating birthdays in the office with cards and cake, it can be a great way to make your employees enjoy their day.

Private health insurance

Depending on your industry, it might be a good idea to consider offering private health insurance to your employees. There are several benefits to offer employees for private health insurance. The wait times can be shorter, so your employees will be able to get a diagnosis and other help that they might need faster than through other channels. There can also be a higher standard of care in private healthcare than there might be in other sectors too.

However, this can also be one of the pricier options that you might face. Getting some health insurance quotes should help you to realistically work out how much it would cost you to offer private health insurance to your employees. For smaller workforces, this might be achievable, but it could be slightly difficult to offer if you have a lot of workers.

Getting health insurance quotes will also let you know what type of insurance you might be able to get. After all, there are many different types of healthcare. You might want to offer private GP or mental health cover, but not dental and optical treatment. The right quotes will let you know what policies will be included in your insurance purchase.

Office snacks and coffee

There are many different ways to motivate your employees. One major productivity killer can be hunger, so having healthy snacks standing by as an option for your employees can be a great move. If you have a staff kitchen, look into some of the different snacks that you could stock up with. Things like yoghurt and granola can be a great choice and having a few sweeter options on standby will also be appreciated.

Many people in your workforce might also drink tea and coffee, so providing them with facilities to be able to make their drinks means that they won’t have to spend too much on running out for a hot drink. Since vending machines can make pretty bad drinks, it might be worth investing in a proper coffee machine. If you are concerned about the waste that might be generated by it, look into some of the eco-friendly coffee pods on the market.

Travel discount

How many of your staff use public transport to get to your office? If you are located in a busy city like London, there is a strong chance that they will be using public transport rather than driving themselves to work. It is just more convenient than trying to navigate traffic, but it does come with a disadvantage in terms of cost.

Even with travel passes like an Oyster card, the cost of public transport can quickly add up when you are using it every day. For this reason, many companies like to offer some form of travel discount to help their employees cover the cost of travel. This could be given out in the form of a bursary paid each month, or it could be handled on a case-by-case basis. As an example for the latter, if an employee was to present a receipt for a season ticket for their rail route to the accounting department, they would be able to claim a portion of the cost of the ticket back.

Gym discounts

If your business runs from an office environment, it is important that you are able to offer some options to your employees to help them live healthier life overall. Sitting at a desk for hours at a time isn’t always the best for our health, and as an employer, you should think of some of the measures that you might introduce that could be of benefit to your employees.

Many gym franchises offer some sort of corporate contract. This means that your employees would be able to get access to the facilities for a discounted rate each month. Whether you have staff members with detailed and targeted gym routines or folk who just want to go in for a pressure-free half-hour walk on a treadmill, there are many who might want to take advantage of this.

Flexible working

Flexible working is also a scheme that might work for your company, depending on your working environment. After all, your employees will have many responsibilities beyond their role with you, and you should try to accommodate these as much as possible.

This is often best to be employee-led. They might need to spend several days working from home, or they could need to shift their hours at certain times. Some employees might even want a slightly different schedule compared to others in your company. Though most of you might work the standard 9 to 5, you might have a few employees who would work better on 10 to 6, or even 7 to 3. Everyone is slightly different, and if they find that work better in a slightly different manner compared to the others then you might want to allow them a little flexibility.

Ask your employees what they would like

The benefits you can offer employees that we have listed above are some of the basics that we see businesses across all industries offer. If you are struggling to come up with some options that you think your employees would genuinely use, you should think about asking them what they would like to see. After all, offering benefits is going to represent some sort of expense for you, and you need to make sure that it is a cost-effective one for your business. By asking them which benefits they would like to receive, you have more of a chance of including ones that they are likely to make use of.

There are so many benefits that you could choose to offer your employees. By choosing to do so, you will be able to create a fantastic working environment that they are happy to be a part of. Try to cost up some of the benefits that you think your employees would like, and try to work out if this is something that could fit well with your business.