By Alex Hind, CEO and co-founder of HEKA…
Fuelled by the pandemic, the Great Resignation has impacted sectors across the UK, with many employees leaving roles to find ones which they feel may be more fulfilling or provide the quality of life they’ve come to expect over lockdown.
At Heka, we’ve seen how personalised employee benefits can be used to improve employee satisfaction, by helping employees strike a better work/life balance and bust stress. These benefits can have a direct impact on staff retention rates and when attracting the best talent. Here’s how.
Differentiating your company from other employers
After over a year and a half of job instability in the form of mass redundancies and being furloughed, the job market has finally started to stabilise with a huge amount of opportunities on offer for those looking to move.
Furloughed or fragmented teams working from home have had plenty of time to reflect on the job at hand and to figure out if their career is really catering to their passions. As we move back to a point of greater stability, 95% workers in the UK are currently considering leaving their positions for something else, with a third feeling that this is the only way to progress their careers.
Working trends are moving towards a more personalised model, to cater to different employee needs highlighted by the pandemic. Personalised employee benefits are already demonstrating how a tailored approach can help retain the best talent by differentiating businesses as employers who cater to employee passions in addition to needs.
Supporting passions as well as needs
Employee satisfaction is an important yet often overlooked element of managing your teams. Statistically employees who feel more satisfied at work are more likely to stick around, to strengthen your business offerings as they develop their expertise. The right employee benefits can help maintain work life balance, and encourages employees to invest in their passions, bringing new skills and energy back to the business.
This comes down to having options flexible enough to suit every character – from painting and gym memberships for introverts, to exercise or salsa classes for extroverts. Happier employees are not only more productive, but also tend to be more loyal to their employers long-term, with employee benefits holding increasing sway in today’s job market.
The new workplace is personal
The workplace is becoming increasingly personalised, with new ways of working over the pandemic informing employees of the different options available to them. With some employees anxious about returning to the office full time, considerations need to be made for each employee’s unique set of circumstances.
Personal employee benefits enable employees to prioritise what’s important to them and to channel company resources into what would help them most – be it better WFH equipment, health services, or ways for them to relax.
Following the pandemic, 92% of companies are focusing on better supporting employee mental health. Providing the option for tailored stress-busting activities is one of the most potent ways a company can prioritise staff well-being: by giving them the space and resources they need to alleviate some of the stress we’ve seen accumulate over the last year and a half.
More than ever, employees are keen for their needs to be heard and respected, with personalised employee benefits providing an attainable way for every company, big or small, to prioritise this sentiment. There is a clear desire from all employees to take better control of their working day and improve their work life balance following the pandemic. Tailoring employee benefits to individual team members, turns this once overlooked element of every employment contract into a valuable asset for your company – a way to support happier, more fulfilled staff long-term.
