What Are the Most Popular Employee Benefits and Perks?
Offering incentives and perks that excite your staff and attract top talent is essential — not only for employee satisfaction but for your company’s overall success. Even though everyone loves a salary increase, there are other ways to reward workers besides monetary compensation. According to a study conducted by Glassdoor, 4 out of 5 employees prefer company benefits over a pay raise. But what benefits are the most popular among employees? On which ones should you invest in? To find out, let’s dive into the world of perks, benefits and perquisites.
What Are Employee Benefits?
Employee benefits, also known as perks or fringe benefits, are various forms of non-wage compensation that a company provides for its employees on top of their regular salary. These employee benefits may include paid vacation days, medical insurance, free childcare and retirement benefits, just to name a few. Offering a substantial selection of benefits is indispensable nowadays, as the competition between companies is constantly expanding and ordinary salary increases are no longer enough to attract and retain talent.
Why You Should Offer Employee Benefits
Offering a solid benefits package is an absolute must these days. Not only does it increase the appeal of your company, but it can also be used to minimise the turnover rate.
Here are the main reasons why you should implement appealing benefits in your organisation:
Increase the Appeal of Your Company
Nowadays, skilled workers are very selective about where they want to work. Having benefits that differentiate your business from competitors makes you standout. A strong benefits package will help you to attract new talent and can be a crucial factor for them when deciding whether to join your company or not. According to a survey conducted by Aflac, 55% of employees would accept a lower-paying job if they were offered better benefits at the new company. This proves just how important perks and benefits truly are during the recruitment process.
Reduce the Turnover Rate
Employee turnover, known as the number of workers who leave a company and are replaced by new workers, is very costly. Every time a change in staff occurs, many expenses come into play, including the cost to recruit, train and hire. However, offering company benefits has been proven to increase employee loyalty and thus reduces the turnover rate. By investing in your employees, you demonstrate that you have their best interest in mind and truly value their job performance. Remember that employees who are looking for a new job must consider the offer in its entirety, not just the differences in earnings. As it happens, 36% of workers say improving their benefits is one measure their employer could take to keep them in their jobs.
If you want to know more about the causes of turnover and how to fix them, I recommend reading our comprehensive Employee Turnover Guide.
The Most Popular Employee Perks and Benefits
Food Benefits
Food benefits are one of the most popular perks among employees. According to a study conducted by USA Today, free food at work increases job satisfaction by 67%. Not only that, eating a balanced and nutritious meal also improves employee focus and reduces the chances of errors, poor productivity and other related problems.
A good way to provide food for your employees at work is by making use of catering companies. For example, we at Bella&Bona deliver healthy and affordable food to office workers every day and provide a convenient lunch experience for everyone involved. Companies can choose whether they want to share the meal costs with their employees or cover the expenses completely. If you are based in Germany and interested in our service, you can find more information on our website or contact us directly: info@bellabona.com. In case your company operates elsewhere, here are some other solutions:
- Fooda (USA)
- Foorban (Italy)
- City Pantry (UK)
- Phosh (Spain)
Providing food at the office reduces time spent preparing and eating meals by more than 50%, allowing employees to make the most of their time and focus on more important tasks at hand.
Professional Development
Funding the professional development of staff members is a great opportunity for employees to extend their knowledge base and improve their skills. Even though training opportunities are seen as a major perk by employees, only a third of them are satisfied with their employer’s commitment to professional development. Unfortunately, training is often overlooked as a profitable retention and recruitment tool. However, offering training as a benefit can not only make your company more appealing and attract in-demand candidates, it also increases the collective knowledge of your team. Supporting your employees’ education can have an immediate effect on productivity and raise overall staff expertise when staff members with vastly different backgrounds and levels of experience are encouraged to share information with each other.
Health and Fitness Programs
Apart from providing the aforementioned food benefits, you can also invest in your employees’ health and wellbeing in other ways. Possibilities include covering the costs of gym memberships and fitness programs, paying for massages, providing access to a physician or even hosting yoga classes.
FYI: Gympass is among the most popular fitness platforms which gives access to gyms, live-stream classes, virtual personal training and wellness partner apps.
Health and wellness benefits are not only one of the most popular ones among employees, they also have a direct impact on the success of your company. Maintaining a healthy workforce leads to fewer sick days and reduced health costs for companies that provide cover. 75% of companies that offer wellness programs even state that looking after their staff member’s health has a positive impact on their engagement.
PTO for Volunteering
Paid time off for volunteering is employer-sponsored time in which staff members take part in volunteer work for their community. Nowadays 51% of workers expect their employers to allocate work time and resources for their employees to volunteer for social causes, according to a Glassdoor survey. PTO for doing charitable work gives employees inclined to donate their time to help others the opportunity to do so without sacrificing a paid holiday. As an added advantage for companies, this perk reflects highly on their corporate culture, which can help retain employees and recruit job seekers who want to work for companies whose values align with their own.
Commuter Benefits
Commuting. Traffic. Delays. Those words alone trigger headaches for most employees. Getting to the office and back home, particularly in metropolitan areas, if often a very timely and costly addition to everyone’s workday. Because of that, some companies have started offering commuter benefits to provide free public transportation (a monthly pass can cost employees up to 100 Euros in Germany), company cars or carpooling programs. Commuter benefits enable your company to positively influence your employees’ travel choices, promote a more productive work environment and improve employee retention.
Company Culture
Company culture is important to employees because workers are more likely to feel connected to their work when their personal needs and values are consistent with those of the company they work for. A cooperation that has an outstanding company culture and a vision its employees are truly aligned with, is the toy manufacturer LEGO. The company’s purpose is to inspire and develop children to think creatively, reason systematically and use their potential to shape their own future. Their culture is based on openness, trust and their core values: creativity, imagination, fun, learning, quality and care, which are reflected in everything they do.
“LEGO is a wonderful product and great brand. The company and its employees are truly committed to its mission: to inspire and advance the children of tomorrow.” — LEGO retail manager
Best Practice: Google
The tech giant Google provides an extensive list of phenomenal perks and benefits for its employees. With a 4.5-star rating on Glassdoor and over 15.000 reviews made by former and current employees, Google has landed the top spot on Fortune’s list of Best Companies to Work For. The tech company is famous for its luxe perks and benefits, including matching their employees’ monetary charitable contributions, providing a laundry service and offering excellent healthcare. But perhaps one of Google’s most well-known perks is the free gourmet-like food.
“Google has a lot of benefits, from free food to massages to employee development. The environment allows you to live on campus as needed. You also get to work with bright colleagues. Very Good company to work with.”
Google offers healthy, high-quality meals for free. Providing an array of free food is a legendary Google perk and one most of its employees couldn’t live without, according to a Quora survey. Not only does providing meals for free cut down the personal costs for employees significantly, but having food at work also strengthens Google’s company culture and saves countless hours that would normally spend looking for a place to eat.
Conclusion
Providing employee benefits is essential in attracting and retaining talent and a perfect opportunity to set your business apart from competitors. The most popular perks and benefits include free food, training opportunities, paid time off for volunteering, commuter benefits and wellness programs. By offering the right selection of benefits for your employees, you demonstrate that you understand and care about their needs, which in turn leads to higher loyalty from your staff members. How does Bella&Bona fit into all of this? We offer food benefits for your employees by letting them choose their daily lunch in our online canteen. Signing up and ordering is hassle-free for everyone involved and allows you to easily boost productivity at work while making sure your staff receives healthy and delicious meals every day. If you are interested, contact us here.
Written by Charline Will
