Building a happy, high-performing and strong team starts with employee retention. Investing time, effort and resources into building a working environment employees love is one of the keys to long-term success.
Part of that is having employee benefits in place that resonate with your staff. It’s your company’s chance to offer an employee experience no other company can. Employee benefits also help solve some of the key fundamental needs employees have.
With this in mind, how can you support retention with employee benefits?
Tailor your benefits package
The question is, what employee benefits would your employees love to have? The answer, not so simple.
This is where employee surveys and feedback are crucial. The questions you ask employees are really important here.
Rather than asking “What employee benefits would you like to see?” or “Which employee benefits do you use the most?”, design your anonymous surveys or questionnaires to find out what needs and wants employees have and what key problems they’re facing.
The goal is to build a benefits package that helps solve problems and cater to the wants and needs of your staff.
For example, many of your employees have reported that they’re worried about their finances. In the current climate this wouldn’t be too surprising.
How can employee benefits help? We’ll explain the financial wellbeing benefits further on in this article, but there are lots of options when it comes to financial wellbeing employee benefits that in this case could benefit your staff.
How does all this help with retention? Really understanding the wants and needs of your employees and providing an employee benefits package tailored specifically to this adds huge value on top of your overall pay and compensation package.
It’s a chance not only to add value but to differentiate your business from competing employers. There are lots of employee benefits options out there. Use this to your benefit and build a unique benefits offering to help solve the needs of your employees in a way that no other employer can.
Health and wellbeing benefits
On top of providing a tailored benefits package, supporting both the physical and mental wellbeing of employees is crucial to retention.
There are a range of employee benefits that can help with this.
To support mental wellbeing directly, employee benefits like the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) can provide vital 24/7 confidential support.
Providing mental wellbeing and healthy living educational resources through your employee benefits platform can also provide valuable support.
To support physical wellbeing there’s benefits like gym discounts, a health cash plan, health assessments, dental cover and eyecare to name a few.
Good physical wellbeing strongly supports good mental wellbeing. So, how do these link to retention?
Providing the right health and wellbeing benefits shows a commitment to the overall wellbeing of your staff.
Healthier often equals happier and happier staff are much more likely to stay and be part of your team, particularly if your health and wellbeing benefits are a key part of this.
Poor mental wellbeing in particular can lead people to seek change in their lives and changing habits is key to improving mental health. When someone looks to change their habits, they might first look at their career. After all, with the typical full-time employee working around 40 hours a week, you could forgive someone for thinking they may need a change of scenery in their career to help get out of a rut.
Its worth noting that providing mental wellbeing support goes beyond benefits too. A door-always-open policy is important and adequate line manager mental health training can make a huge difference.
Financial wellbeing benefits
Another key pillar of good mental wellbeing is good financial wellbeing. Financial wellbeing is often overlooked when it comes to improving overall employee wellbeing and happiness.
In the current climate, it’s more important than ever. It’s important to provide educational tools and resources as well as schemes that not only help prevent poor financial wellbeing but help employees out of poor financial situations too.
Helping employees financially now goes beyond the pay and compensation package. Fair remuneration is without doubt the foundation of this but providing financial wellbeing support on top of this is now key.
Providing financial planning support as an employee benefit is an option, as is providing educational materials and tools through your employee benefits platform.
Workplace ISAs are important too in helping protect long-term financial wellbeing. Given the financial challenges the economy is likely to face in the coming years as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, benefits like this are now more important than ever.
There are a few ways financial wellbeing benefits can support employee retention. It goes beyond the obvious benefit that link to financial motives, where employees are more likely to be financially better off if they stay with you.
When improving employee retention, it’s important to consider the bigger picture. As mentioned, improved financial wellbeing supports better mental wellbeing. Financial wellbeing benefits are a big part of building an overall employee experience and working environment that supports employees in their overall wellbeing. Doing this will have an immeasurable impact on employee retention.
The ROI of employee benefits when it comes to employee retention
A study by the Society for Human Resource Management found that the average cost-per-hire is £3,223, while they also found that the average annual turnover rate is 19%.
Based on these figures, for a company with 100 employees, the cost to replace employees that have left the business would be £61,237 a year. In this case, by reducing turnover by only 5% a company could save themselves over £16,000 per year.
There are lots of factors to consider when measuring the ROI of employee benefits. However, just the cost of poor retention alone highlights the importance of having an effective employee benefits offering in place.
Finding the right benefits for your business, therefore, is key. At caboodle, we’ve helped companies of all shapes, sizes, industries and sectors find the right benefits for them and their employees. To find out more, take a look at our wide range of employee benefits or get in touch today.
