Employee benefits can not only support staff with their festive spending but can also support employees in managing the cost of living.
Managing finances over the next few months will be the number one priority for many employees as energy prices increase and Christmas becomes even costlier.
Promoting your existing benefits and how they can help will be crucial.What’s equally important is that these communications are sensitive and empathetic.
It’s best to avoid promoting savings on big, unnecessary purchases and focus on how your benefits can help with day-to-day, essential costs.
Putting a festive or New Year’s spin on your communications will help cut through the noise, spread some festive cheer and help support your team over the festive period.
Employee discounts
Employee discounts are without doubt one of the best employee benefits to help staff save and manage their finances through the winter.
With the employee discount scheme we provide, savings can be used on top of in-store and online sales promotions too for even further discounts.
Employee discounts can be used to save on the festive food shop, last minute gifts and even flowers and bouqets.
Your range of discounts could even give staff gift ideas with a wide range of retailers to choose from.
Following on from Christmas, employees can continue to use their discounts for even further savings in the Boxing Day and New Year sales.
Making employees aware of all these advantages of the employee discount scheme through the festive period should be a key objective for any employee benefits communications.
Savings on days out
The festive period isn’t just about gift-giving, it’s about spending time with friends and family, whether it’s a cosy night in or a big day out.
Discounts can make the cosy nights in a bit cheaper, but they can also make those big family days out much more affordable too.
When communicating employee benefits close to Christmas, consider any savings your benefits can make for staff on days out, whether it be a big Christmas light switch-on or a family break, for example.
While there’ll be a lot of focus on savings and managing outgoings this Christmas, making it easier for employees to get away from it all and enjoy some quality time with friends and family could make a massive difference.
Employee Assistance Programme
The EAP is a powerful and popular employee benefit that’s much more versatile than many employers and employees realise.
In any year, the pressure on festive spending can leave many stressed and worried about their finances.
Poorer mental wellbeing can lead to poorer financial decisions, so nipping this in the bud is important to help stop employees spiralling with their overall wellbeing.
The EAP is a 24/7, confidential support channel for employees to help manage all manner of challenges.
The EAP can not only support staff with mental wellbeing and stress but with financial challenges too, helping employees not only manage stress but manage their finances too.
Communicating not just the value of this benefit but the various support options it provides will be even more important over the festive period.
Using the right channels
When communicating and providing cost of living support, it’s important to allow staff to take up the support as they’d prefer.
For example, unfortunately many people feel there’s still a stigma around using cost of living support in general, whether it be using food banks or even buying items in discounted ranges at certain supermarkets.
While this should never be the case, it’s important to allow staff to take up the support you provide in a way they feel comfortable with.
In some cases, employees may want to take up support anonymously.
Understandably, finances can be a very personal subject and should be approached as such.
What about after the New Year?
Following on into the next year, benefits like the Christmas Club scheme can help employees save for the following festive period through salary deductions with a discount on what they spend their final amount on to help their savings go even further.
Financial Planning advice through employee benefits can also help give employees more control over their future finances and a strong financial goal to work towards to create a more solid financial foundation against any future macro-economic challenges.
There’s also other religious festivals and celebrations throughout the year your employee benefits could support your staff with, for example Diwali and Eid.
How can your range of benefits help employees celebrate these occasions? Benefits like Holiday Trading helps staff buy extra annual leave which could be used where there aren’t bank holidays for particular festivals and celebrations.
Getting the most from your employee benefits
There are so many different employee benefits out there to choose from, each with their own selection of advantages and uses throughout the year.
An all-in-one, centralised employee benefits platform can help your business take advantage of the power of employee benefits by bringing everything together under one roof, boosting engagement and helping really support your team.
At caboodle, we provide a range of employee benefits platform options and a whole host of benefits to choose from, each of which can be incorporated into your very own employee benefits platform alongside flexible benefits and reward and recognition technology.
For more information, browse our range of employee benefits platforms or take a look at our wide range of employee benefit schemes that can be incorporated alongside your existing benefits.