Best Benefits to Retain Employees

In such a tight job market, finding, hiring, and retaining good employees is a full-time job for employers. And even when companies have been able to hire top talent, they then move on to worry the good employees might leave. In this current job market and economic scenario, retaining top talent might be even harder, but there’s always a way: see below the best benefits to retain employees.

What benefits can employers offer to improve employee retention?

Taking care of a workforce is an important job, and companies that understand it have been working hard to ensure their teams are productive, happy, and healthy. With that, a swarm of new perks and benefits has made its way into offices and headlines worldwide.

Click here to download how to get a tax break and offer home cleanings as a benefit to your employees

But what do employees really care about?

The Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp) recently launched research that showed burnout as the main culprit for resignations across the board: 67% of employees said it's the leading cause of quitting. That’s an interesting point to consider when offering benefits – definitely focus on mental health and work-life balance, for once.

Right after is the lack of advancement opportunities, meaning that offering a career plan/path within the company is a must for the majority of employees. So companies should consider having some sort of benefit in their compensation package that covers that.

It’s easy to see those actually work: just look at Inc’s 2022 Best Workplaces List. Most of those companies – if not all – attend to the concerns employees mentioned in i4cp’s research shown above in some way.

If you’re still confused about where to start, see our list below for easily implementable benefits to retain employees.

Best Benefits to Retain Employees

Flexibility is key: we’re passed the times of clocking in and out, of time sheets, and monitoring productivity by time spent on tasks. With that in mind, the benefits below are good options to retain employees.

Paid Time Off and Paid Parental Leave

Paid time off beyond the more common vacation and sick days are more usual among companies. (Considering your company already offers paid vacation time to its employees, of course). Since 2019, according to SHRM, paid family leave has increased tremendously, and it should continue to do so as the job market understands its importance.

Other types of paid leave include sabbaticals, retreats, incentives to study abroad, and companies are even going one step further: some offer a two-week vacation before starting with the company.

Flexible work opportunities

The pandemic has changed the work environment forever. Flexible work options are here to stay, and offering them to your employees can be a huge factor in retention. Work from anywhere, work from home, and anywhere office are terms more common in headlines and research since 2020. When not doable for specific industries, a hybrid model is expected by individuals.

The flexibility should not be limited to the workplace but also affect work hours. Offering flexible hours such as compressed workweeks or alternative schedules so parents can be there for school pick-up and drop-off are a considerable advantage for employees, for example.

Career advancement and planning

Career advancement and planning was number two among employees for quitting their current jobs. Professionals feel more motivated and engaged when they have purpose and know they are working for a goal and their growth within the company.

Coaching or mentoring sessions and having a plan mapped out for the employee within a company are great ways to show the employer sees potential in them, wants them to grow, and values their contributions.

It’s all about mental health

Covid-19 caused a surge in anxiety, depression, and different impacts on our mental health. Burnout is the number one cause for employees leaving companies. Those two facts alone should be enough for any employer to care about and for their employees’ mental health.

Offering more than gym memberships or the ability to have an ergonomic workstation is a must: ensuring the company invests in training, programs, and education regarding the topic can be a game changer.

That can look like offering therapy or coaching in-house or through a partner company. It can be setting up scheduled sabbaticals for team members, having meditation sessions, Fridays off, or doing anything that can soften the load for employees.

Of course, excellent pay and health care are mandatory. But in this context, with the number of job opportunities available and the possibility to work remotely for any company, anywhere, employers need to think outside the box.

A great way to do that is by offering home cleanings as an employee benefit. Depending on the scenario, companies can file it as a janitorial expense, and their workers don’t have to worry about cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming after a workday. TIDY can help with that.

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