Employee benefits are a type of non-monetary compensation provided to the employees. These benefits can help improve job satisfaction and engagement, as well as the overall happiness of an employee. As per Charles Spinelli, modern businesses tend to offer a wide range of employee benefits, starting from health insurance to retirement plans.
Employee benefits can cater to diverse aspects of the life of the employees, including family, leisure, health, and future financial stability. The benefits valued most by the employees have changed significantly over the years. The employee benefits popular today is pretty different than the ones common in the 1990s and 2000s. Moreover, the most coveted benefits are likely to continue to evolve with time. Here are some of the most common types of employee benefits popular today:
- Physical health wellness benefits and programs: Many modern companies prioritize supporting the physical health of the employees, and have established wellness programs for promoting healthy employees. In addition to just paid vacation time, many employers today also cover things like gym memberships. They may offer stipends for in-home gyms as a part of the wellness program of the company. This program can significantly help promote a strong work-life balance.
- Mental health programs: Several companies provide mental health programs as a part of employee benefits. Investment in mental health has especially become common in the post-pandemic world. While certain companies provide expanded health benefits that now include mental health services, others offer access to mental health apps. For many businesses, mental health investments pay for themselves, in the form of healthy, happy and productive employees.
- Childcare assistance: For many working parents, affording daycare can be a huge challenge. For many families, finding safe in-home options for their young kids can also be an issue. Figuring out the right childcare centre, and getting on a wait-list, can be a hurdle for working parents. To help their employees deal with this issue, many companies are offering childcare-related benefits as a job perk these days. Certain companies provide stipends to cover the costs of a nanny, while others offer on-site childcare or better-paid parental leave.
- Flexible scheduling: If a company does not have the budget to cover childcare costs, the next best thing to offer to the employees would be flexible scheduling. The employees can be provided with benefits like later start times, earlier leaving times, flexible hours, and/or the option of working from home. The more flexible a company can be with a workday, the better. Doing so can simplify the life of the employees, and encourage them to be more productive.
- Flexible PTO (paid time off): Much like flexibility around scheduling, flexibility in terms of paid time off has also become a popular benefit. After all, not everyone celebrates the same holidays, and not everyone will require the same number of paid sick days as others.
Charles Spinelli mentions that the employee benefits package provided by a company is an excellent indicator of its corporate culture. While wages and salaries can be dictated by the economy and industry trends, the benefits provided by a company, and the way it is structured, say a lot about the culture and work environment of the specific firm.
