Now that Covid has hit, it’s more important than ever to keep our employees feeling engaged and satisfied in their jobs. With an increase of working from home, it can be tough to know where your employees are at and how they are feeling. One of the best ways to keep your staff engaged is by offering employee perks. Treat them to a reward to show that you appreciate all of their hard work.

What Are Employee Perks and Benefits?

If you want to offer your employees something extra to boost their job satisfaction and their mood, then employee perks and benefits can be a great way to do it.

Employee perks and employee benefits are very similar. There is only a slight distinction between the two. Employee perks are more like a one-off reward that you offer when someone has done an excellent job — for example, a Christmas bonus or a free item. Employee benefits are more long term and cover expenses the employee would usually pay for themselves — for example, a gym membership or health insurance.

Why Offer Employee Perks and Benefits?

There are numerous benefits to offering employee perks and benefits to your workers. These include:

• Productivity and satisfaction – benefits and perks show your willingness to invest in making your staff happy. This alone is enough to increase the satisfaction and productivity of your workers.

• Staff retention – if you don’t want huge employee turnover, you need to make your staff feel valued. Employee perks are one way of doing this.

• Reinforce company culture – when a lot of your staff are working from home, it can be harder to cultivate and maintain your company culture. With benefits you can offer to remote employees, these can reinforce your culture.

Top 10 Employee Perks and Benefits

Right now, employee recognition is more important than ever. Maybe your team is still working from home. Or they might be back and forth between the office and home as Covid levels increase and decrease. These shifts cause a lot of stress and worry for many staff as things are continually changing. So, what you can offer to lift your employees’ spirits even when Covid is still in the mix?

Education

While everyone is at home with not much to do, this is the perfect time for staff to upskill. If your employee wants to undertake a higher qualification, you could financially support them to do this. Depending on how related the course is to their role, you may offer to pay the fees and/or give them paid time off to study.

Work at Home Set-Up

When people are working from home, the set-up they have can make all the difference to their productivity. If you want your staff to be able to focus on their work, there are a few things they need. They will need a quiet space to work, a suitable desk, a computer, and a comfortable chair. If you now have many of your staff working from home, you need to make sure that they have all of these things. By paying for these items, you can save money in the long run by keeping productivity high.

Flexible Working Hours

An easy and free employee perk that many companies offer is flexible working hours. It costs you nothing to let your staff work whenever it suits them, as long as they complete their hours. If not everyone is coming into the office, it doesn’t make sense to make people stick to an office schedule. Some people may prefer to get up early and work from 7 – 3, so they can spend time with their children after work. Alternatively, others might choose to work later.

Day Off on Your Birthday

Another low-cost part of your benefits package could be giving staff a day off on their birthdays. This perk shows that you value the person and is a great way to show your appreciation for their hard work. A gesture as simple and cheap as this can make all the difference to productivity.

Free Music Subscription

Now that your staff are working remotely, there’s no reason that they can’t blast some music while they are working. Music is a great way to make people feel less lonely if they are working on their own at home. Offer a free music subscription to your employees to help them feel good about working away from the usual hustle and bustle of the office.

Health Insurance

One of the best employee benefits is health insurance. Many people struggle to pay these costs themselves, and it’s necessary to have health insurance. Without it, you will likely have staff who are more stressed. If they need any procedures done, they could be in massive amounts of debt. When someone’s personal life becomes stressful, they are often less productive at work. So, it’s not only great for employee happiness but your bottom line as well.

Online Gym Membership

When people don’t get moving enough, they can become sluggish and tired. Getting people exercising is a great way to beat the blues. So, offering an online gym membership will encourage your employees to work out at home and help them feel happier.

Snack Allowance

If you’re looking for a way to boost morale in the office, the go-to remedy is bringing in snacks. Instead of this, you could consider providing a stipend for healthy snacks while people are working remotely.

Team Building

Just because your team is currently geographically dispersed, doesn’t mean that you can’t all hang out. Dream up some online team building activities to keep everyone engaged and communicating. When you do this, employees feel more connected to each other. An online quiz or an online happy hour are a couple of ideas you could try.

Employee Discounts

Whatever products or services your company specializes in, your employees may enjoy a discount program. By gaining access to your company’s services at a discounted rate, you will keep employees happy at minimal cost to the business.

With a few-lost cost additions to your employee perks package, you can find yourself with much happier staff. Putting in a little effort to come up with ideas for benefits and perks can help make your company more profitable in the long run.