5 Competitive Employee Benefits to Retain Your Top Talent

You know how difficult it is to attract and retain the best talent.

In the past, traditional benefits packages — including health insurance, vacation days, pension funds, and other basics — were enough to secure employee loyalty. But as competing organizations vie for the best candidates, many have identified a need to step up their game.

Some have followed the example of high-tech startups, which tend to favor perks like fitness classes, gourmet meals, happy hours at the end of the working week and a fridge stocked with snacks and drinks.

These additions might be fun, but they are not the kinds of employee benefits that will help you retain and engage your best talent in the long term.

In this article, we are going to explore the top five employee benefits to attract and retain employees in the current business landscape.

5 employee benefits that your employees want

1. Continual learning and development

While it may not be the sexiest perk, we can’t overstate the importance of continual learning and development.

The best talent will always want to be the very best. They want to learn and grow so they can stay at the cusp of the talent pool and boost their careers.

Investing in learning and development opportunities will not only improve employees’ skills, but it will also show them you care about their individual success.

In the digital age, learning opportunities are endless. Low-cost online courses that cover a broad range of topics are easily accessible and can be done remotely.

Dive Deeper: How to Thrive Amid the Global Talent Shortage

2. Flexible work schedules

According to Forbes, a Global Talent Trends study carried out in 2018 discovered that 51% of respondents wished their employer offered a more flexible working environment.

Pretty soon, the classic model of working five days a week in the office from nine to five will be obsolete. As employers place greater emphasis on the employee experience, staff are seeking employee benefits that better accommodate their busy lives.

Employees can easily access their emails, documents and other information stored in digital tools on-the-go.

With the right approach, people can essentially work anywhere.

Allowing and enabling a flexible work environment as an employee benefit not only demonstrates trust in the employee but also fosters an atmosphere where the employee is empowered to get the work done during the hours that best suit them.

3. Top-grade tools and resources

If you want to offer flexible work schedules, you’ll also need to make sure you provide the best tools and resources to your staff.

With the right equipment and support, employees will able to do their work wherever and whenever.

For example, providing employees with the most capable hardware and software is the first step to ensuring their productivity on a remote basis. Paying for their phone or internet services when they are abroad for business will empower employees to perform at the highest level.

To ensure a productive and frustration-free scenario, employers also need to make sure employees can easily access their work outside of the office. For example, this could include using a reliable VPN that grants access to shared drives, or installing strong malware detection software to comply with security standards for those not at their desks.

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4. Going green

Today, employees want their organizations and leaders to take a stance on important conflicts — one of these is climate change.

Many employees would be proud to work for a company that is taking steps to become carbon neutral. Taking a greater initiative to reduce waste and lower your carbon footprint can actually affect employees’ enthusiasm about their jobs.

Research has found that employee opinions about management can be significantly influenced by a company’s green policy.

Certain employee benefits that help your staff and protect the environment could include providing video conferencing technology instead of flying employees abroad for meetings or short business trips. Another example could be giving employees personalized coffee cups and water bottles to reduce the quantity of plastic waste.

For the individual, this could mean offering incentives to cycle to work such as financial assistance to purchase a bike. Employers can also incentivize the use of public transport by offering interest-free loans to purchase season tickets.

5. The basics

Even though top-tier candidates know they can get the best employee benefits, they will always need “the basics.”

Good salaries, generous annual leave allowance, health, vision, and dental healthcare packages, and ample sick days are staples. These will always remain the foundations of best practices for employee benefits, even in the current competitive environment.

A combined approach

The most capable employees expect an employer to give more. Whether that is investing in them with the latest technology, offering continual professional development programs, or flexible working arrangements, employees will have their sights set on benefits that yield the highest return.