The labour market is running hot at the moment. For the first time since the pandemic, there are more vacancies than there are suitable candidates. While this is great for potential employees, it means that businesses have to do a lot more to stand out to the best candidates.
One way of standing out to stellar candidates is by offering a robust package of benefits to your employees. There are the usual ones, pensions, company cars, final salary schemes etc, but to attract the best talent, your business will need to stand out.
Flexibility
Employees are beginning to expect a certain degree of flexibility in their working hours and where they work from. Since the pandemic, working from home has become more common and employees have continued to value the opportunity to manage their work/life balance how they see fit, balancing things like childcare and their other interests. Work/life balance outranks any other job desire, according to statistics from Workest.
Flexibility can come in many forms. It could be allowing for working from home when appropriate, or arrangements such as job shares (two people split the hours for a role), compressed hours (working full time hours over less days) or ‘flexitime’ (employee chooses when to start and end work (within agreed limits) but works certain ‘core hours’, for example 10am to 4pm every day). Think about how your business currently operates and how you could incorporate these arrangements.
Employee discounts
A survey of over 1000 UK employees found that employee discounts are one of employee’s favourite benefits. Partnering with companies like gyms and retail groups to offer discounts to your employees is an immediate, uncomplicated benefit the advantages to which are immediately understandable.
There are businesses like perkbox that can offer robust packages of discounts to your employees, covering thousands of recognisable brands in a variety of sectors. Even small offers can make a big difference over time, and the recognisability of the brands offered will assist in the effectiveness of the incentive.
Training and CPD
The best way to retain high-performing workers is by offering them a robust training and CPD programme, and it benefits your business too. Businesses with comprehensive CPD schemes have 24% higher profit margins on average, and 70% of employees believe that quality CPD opportunities influence their decision to stay in a job.
Talk to your employees about where they see their career going and discuss how you can best support their goals and aspirations with training and CPD, incorporating your own vision for the business as well. Find common ground between the skills you need to grow your business and their goals. Try to make the benefits of training and the resulting paths for progression as tangible and clear as possible.
Minc can assist with designing training and CPD programmes for groups or single employees. To find out more, go here.
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