Employee retention remains one of the most pressing challenges for modern businesses. Frank Mengert, founder and CEO of ebm, explains how strategic company perks can significantly boost engagement and loyalty. By focusing on well-being, flexibility, skill development, and financial security, organizations can strengthen staff retention and long-term productivity.
If you were to ask a business what its most valuable asset is, you’d likely get a range of different answers. Some might focus on their customer service, the quality of their products and services, or their overall market positioning. However, it’s important not to underestimate the value that employees bring to the table.
Staff engagement and retention can often mean the difference between steady growth year-over-year and stagnation. However, finding ways to reduce turnover isn’t something that happens on its own – it usually requires real effort and a strategic approach by businesses to keep employees long-term.
Although the first place many employers look when trying to retain their employees is their compensation, providing other company benefits and perks can often help ensure teams feel valued and motivated to stay long term.
Below, we’ll cover a variety of practical strategies you can use to introduce perks that help improve your staff retention initiatives.
Investing in Employee Well-Being
In today’s job market, most businesses offer standardized benefits to their employees, including health insurance coverage, disability insurance, and extended coverage such as vision and dental benefits. However, these types of offerings can be enhanced with other initiatives that support your teams’ “complete” overall well-being.
For example, mental wellness resources like Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) or providing access to counseling services can be a great way to show you’re employees you view them as individuals, not just workers. These kinds of support services help teams navigate more nuanced challenges they may face, which can impact both their workplace satisfaction and their physical or mental health.
Providing Flexible Scheduling
There has been a lot of talk about having a healthy “work-life balance” in modern businesses. While some have viewed this as simply a preference for employees to work from home, the fact is that there is a lot of business value that comes with supporting employees’ ability to have more flexible working arrangements outside of a typical 9-5 schedule.
There is a lot of planning and stress that can come with commuting through heavy traffic while juggling a range of personal obligations. This stress can inadvertently affect an employee’s performance, leaving them less motivated or capable of focusing throughout the day. Offering more flexibility by allowing for hybrid or remote working can help to minimize or eliminate much of this stress.
Flexibility on where and when to work helps employees have more control over their own schedules, allowing them to create an optimal working arrangement that’s best for them. This helps teams work at their best, allowing them to focus more intently on their tasks while being less distracted.
Implementing Skill Building Opportunities
No employee wants to feel they’re stuck in a position with no apparent path for growth. While certain staff members may be more than happy to stay in the current role they’re in, it’s important to consider individuals who may have certain career goals they’d like to achieve.
Investing in your team’s career development and incorporating this initiative as part of their employee benefits can be an effective way to show that you care about their current and future success with the company. Career-building opportunities could include perks such as offering partial or complete tuition reimbursement or helping them find certain educational courses that can help them become ready for a promotion.
This can be especially helpful if your business is positioned in a fast-moving industry or the company is experiencing periods of rapid growth. Another benefit you could incorporate is to create a program where you pair up newer employees with more tenured ones, giving them the ability to learn new skills on the job and build a deeper connection with the business.
Helping Employees Save for the Future
Financial stress doesn’t stay at home. It can easily follow your employees to work, distracting them from their core responsibilities and overall satisfaction. By offering perks that help them to build financial stability, you can reduce that anxiety and build a deeper connection with the business.
A great place to start is with a retirement savings plan. 401(k) plans help demonstrate your investment in your team’s long-term future, with even a small contribution to employee savings showing your commitment to their family’s security beyond their regular paycheck.
You can also help to improve your team’s money management by giving them access to financial assistance resources. Hosting workshops on practical topics like budgeting, managing debt, or investing can also help your employees make smarter financial decisions in their lives to help reduce financial stress and save for the future.
Increasing Paid Time Off
Another impactful perk you can offer to your teams is generous paid time off. When you give your employees the freedom to recharge their batteries, they often come back to work more focused and productive. Companies that only offer the bare minimum PTO often struggle with employee burnout and higher turnover.
Outside of simply increasing the allowance on your standard vacation policy, you can also show your support to employees by offering leave for significant life events. Whether employees are having a child, caring for sick family members, or doing volunteer work, having additional paid time off can go a long way to helping build a stronger relationship with the business and its team.
Keep Your Benefits Programs Flexible
When you administrate employee benefits that support your team’s health care needs, career goals, and financial well-being, you help to show them just how important they are to your business. This, in turn, allows you to build the kind of trust and loyalty that makes people want to stay with the company and grow within it.
About the Author
Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions. Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology-driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.
