How to overhaul your benefits package to attract the very best talent to your roles …

Dealbreaker or dealmaker … ?

Crafting the perfect benefits package for your employees can be a dealmaker or a dealbreaker in the final stages of your hiring process.  Especially when top talent is considering other offers from different employers, the benefits package often moves the needle for those leading candidates. 

All too often our experts at Sunny see companies assuming a salary alone will be enough to persuade top talent to join their company, usually neglecting benefits packages and their ability to give their company the edge when it comes to recruiting top talent. 

Offering the bare minimum is simply not enough to attract and retain top talent in a recruitment world of skills and talent shortages, so throughout this article, we’re here to help you get clued up on developing your benefits package so you can boss your recruitment!

The Basics

Most people will know what an employee benefits package is, but as with everything recruitment, there are many nuances (challenges) that we say time after time!

In almost every circumstance, benefits can be categorised within one of the following four categories… 

1. Health & well-being benefits
2. Financial benefits
3. Personal and professional benefits
4. Benefits to improve work-life balance

Just what do great employee benefits packages look like?

There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and the same applies to putting together a competitive employee benefits package.

Perhaps the most important aspect to consider, is that the benefits truly benefit your employees and your company overall.

What essential benefits do I need to offer my employees? 

To help you narrow that down, consider the following categories (stated above) to work out the best employee benefits scheme for your business.

Health and well-being benefits

Several benefits fall under this category, and over the years many of these benefits have adapted and evolved but the overarching benefit is offering some degree of extended health, dental or vision benefit. 

Often, companies offer lifestyle and well-being benefits alongside the more standard health benefits, to improve the employee’s health which in return may reduce sick days, and improve performance and employee happiness. 

Some examples include:

• Mental health support
• Fitness-related benefits like workout videos, yoga classes or gym memberships
• Vouchers for healthy food or free food in the workplace

Experts here at Sunny also feel that it’s important to really dial in on incorporating mental health benefits due to the rise in mental health illness in the last decade, matched with recovering from the pandemic, cost of living crisis and generally living in a more stressful time. 

These benefits may be funded counselling sessions, access to mindfulness apps and training or mental health days off.  Stats also show that an increased holiday entitlement improves employee happiness and efficiency, as employees have more time to decompress and better their mental health. 

Financial benefits

On the surface you may feel that these benefits will be the most popular, however, it’s important to remember that employee benefits must have actual value to the employee and benefit the business too!

Here are some of the most popular: 

• Retirement contributions
• Tuition reimbursement
• Employee discount schemes and rewards
• Financial planning resources
• Transportation vouchers or stipends

Several of these benefits make salaries go further, which will be greatly appreciated by the employee and will result in a happier and more productive employee that enjoys working for your company. 

Employee engagement benefits

Another potential area to add value to your employee benefits package and enrich your workplace environment is employee engagement benefits. 

Not only do they encourage employees to interact, engage and work better with each other, but they’ve been shown to drive individual performance and foster company loyalty, which of course benefits your company in so many ways!

Here are some examples of employee engagement benefits:

• Employee recognition programmes
• Team building activities and days out
• Volunteering initiatives
• Mentorship programmes

Professional and personal development benefits

Successful companies not only hire great staff, but they invest in their employees to help them become the best versions of themselves.  Both professional and personal development benefits are great for businesses as they help develop great teams, enabling companies to hire from within for more senior positions. 

‘48% of HR professionals reported that training existing staff was one of the best HR tools when it came to hiring hard-to-fill positions’ 

Some examples of professional and personal development benefits include:

• Career counselling and future planning resources
• Funding for professional development opportunities and courses
• Professional development days and events (such as conferences and summits)
• Personal project programmes
• Therapy and personal counselling

Work-life balance benefits

Possibly one of the most in-demand benefit categories is those related to work-life balance. 

Finding time for all the demands and responsibilities that come along with life is a struggle for working professionals, and top talent looks for these benefits when applying for jobs.

Fortunately, an increasing number of businesses are implementing benefits to address this issue, such as:

• Specific days with reduced hours (for example, offering Friday afternoons off)
• Flexible hours rather than sticking with the traditional office schedule
• A remote-friendly schedule that allows employees to work from home either part-time or as much as they want
• Extra time off around life milestones or holiday periods
• Birthdays off
• Mental health days

Fun extra benefits

There’s always a place for a little fun, and there’s nothing wrong with adding that to a workplace, we certainly embrace fun here at Sunny, and many of these benefits are low-cost but offer a high reward, making for a fun, dynamic environment the workers enjoy.

• Weekly traditions like a team breakfast, lunch or after-work drinks
• In-office activities like a pool table
• Team games nights (this is a great option for remote teams that don’t often see each other in person)
• Relaxed or no dress code days

What will your business gain from offering a company benefits package?

Save money

Reduce employee churn, increase employee attraction and retention, save on admin costs and reduce sick pay coverage and other health-related costs. 

So, you’ll get healthy, happy employees and save your business some money in the process. 

Ideal.

Attract top talent

The job market is competitive nowadays, and your business will need to do more than offer an attractive salary to attract the best talent out there. Now more than ever, job seekers are looking for a competitive employee benefits package when weighing up their job options. 

Glassdoor found that some of the most in-demand benefits for top talent are flexible working hours, medical, dental, and vision insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance, and well-being programmes.

Retain employees

Developing a brilliant employee benefits package isn’t only useful for recruiting employees; it will also help your current employee retention.

Investing in employee benefits makes workers feel valued and can lead to an increased level of satisfaction and morale, which of course can only benefit your company. 

They’ll also feel more loyal to your company and be less likely to look elsewhere for a better job offer.

‘78% of employees said they were more likely to stay with their current employer due to their benefits programme’

‘41% of employees state they’d be likely to look for a new position with better job benefits’ 

Increase employee engagement

Deploying an employee benefits package has been proven to increase and drive employee engagement within a company because they foster a trusting, sustainable and mutually beneficial relationship with the employer that contributes to a healthier working environment.

So what can we do … 

Here are some great ideas our yogis have come up with to help you craft your benefits package:

Feel like you’re clued up on all things employee benefits? 

Great!

But still have vacancies and shortages in your workforce you’d like to fill before embarking on your employee benefits mission?

We’d be delighted to help you boss your recruitment, read more about why our clients love us here or feel free to contact us here.

Good luck!

#teamsunny