Spring is a great time to rethink your strategy, especially when it comes to your workplace benefits. As days begin to get longer, and workers look forward to sunnier summer days, it could be time to run a little audit of your workplace benefits and give your workforce a motivational spring boost.
Perhaps it’s been a while since you last examined what your offer your workers in the way of rewards, or maybe you’ve had some employee feedback about better inclusivity. Either way, it’s wise to regularly review your workplace rewards so that you keep things fresh for your current workforce and continue to attract and engage great talent for the long term.
In this article, we guide you through what questions to ask when it comes to reviewing and renewing your workplace rewards.
The benefits of refreshing your rewards
You’ll soon see the advantages of giving your rewards strategy a spring clean. Here are some of the key reasons for changing up your benefits on a regular basis:
· Giving a little something back to your employees
Your team work very hard. Your people are an integral part of keeping the business operating and driving revenue. It never hurts to make sure there’s something on offer that conveys your gratitude and makes them aware of their worth as part of the big picture.
· Driving diversity and inclusion
Taking a step back to examine your current benefits gives you the chance to see how inclusive your workplace rewards really are. It might be that your rewards were introduced years ago, and because of your industry, could be more aimed at a specific demographic. In which case, have a rethink, and see if there are ways you could be more inclusive with your benefits strategy.
· Retaining and attracting great talent
Keeping your workplace benefits fresh and exciting could make a big difference when it comes to engaging and retaining your existing employees. With rewards that appeal specifically to them, you’ll have a better chance at reducing your overall staff churn. Likewise, as your team grows, you’ll find it easier to attract new talent if you offer fair salaries and a great selection of workplace perks.
How to spring clean your benefits strategy
A lot has changed in the last few years. Perhaps you had to pivot or expand into new territories, and maybe you’re operating with an entirely remote workforce. However you want to grow, your benefits programme needs to grow with you. Reviewing and refreshing your benefits is essential at a time when innovation and flexibility have become part of our everyday working life. So, here are a few tips on how to start freshening up your workplace rewards programme.
Establish what your employees want
Nothing is more crucial than listening to your team. Take the time to consider your workforce demographics and set up platforms through which they can openly convey what they expect and need from their employer in terms of the benefits available to them. Perhaps it’s a survey, or maybe you want to run a focus group, but if you want to invest in a comprehensive, tailored benefits programme, you’ll want to ensure you identify exactly what your workers want.
Cater for the individual
Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to benefits isn’t going to suffice in a post-pandemic era. These days, workers want flexibility, and they want to be able to choose their own benefits. In fact, according to a report by MetLife UK, half of workers would sacrifice some of their salary for more tailored rewards, and 74% said they’d work harder for an employer that offered benefits that address their individual needs.
Whether you want to make sure your benefits appeal to different age groups or you simply want to personalise your perks better in general, make sure you have the individual in mind when building your benefits programme.
Align your workplace benefits with your wider objectives
It might be that you want to improve staff wellbeing, in which case you might think about benefits such as gym memberships, cycle-to-work schemes and office yoga classes. You might be working towards reducing your carbon footprint, so offering vouchers for sustainable brands instead of high-street names might help. Perhaps you want to drum up engagement in your community, so you want to offer a paid volunteer day for your team members to get involved in local causes. Aligning your benefits programme with your broader business goals can be a powerful way to get your staff on the same page, and engage with your business as part of the bigger picture.
Work out how to communicate the new schemes
You might have trouble getting workers to engage with your benefits because the communication isn’t hitting the mark. Somewhat shockingly, 42% of workers don’t know about or understand their employee benefits. That means it’s important to communicate effectively, regularly, and educate your staff on exactly what’s available to them, to ensure you get a better uptake on your programme. Using technology can be a great way to better convey the rewards choices available to your team.
Tools such as Strait Logics Communicate services ensure your workers know what’s available to them. Whether it’s comprehensive, printed statements, or an accessible online portal that conveys everything to them at-a-glance, your employees won’t be in the dark about what their benefits are.
By reconsidering your benefits offering and refreshing your workplace perks to fit a more modern, flexible workforce, you not only re-engage your existing employees and attract new talent, but you’ll also improve staff retention, and ultimately drive ROI as a result.
