Staff benefits

[rainydaysandwednesdays]

Looking into extra benefits we can offer staff.

Care home setting - lovely place with good rates of pay, well over national average and overtime bonuses in place already.

Death in service has been in place for a couple of years

Childcare vouchers? Don't offer these currently but I think they have been moved away from the employer now and centralised from what I can work out?

Aside from remuneration, can I have your ideas please 🙏

Ability to build up flexitime that can be used for extra annual leave.

Childcare voucher scheme closed to new applicants in 2018 so you won't be able to offer that.

Cycle to work?

Season ticket loan type thing if people need to travel to work?

Negotiate any discounts with local businesses?
Thinking gyms/leisure centres/bookshops/cafes.....
.
Duvet days?

Unpaid time off?

Option to purchase extra holiday allowance?

Extra pay or holiday for long service? 5 or 10 year incentives?

Healthcare?

Let them have their birthday off as paid holiday

Trouble with flexi is, it's normally a "use it or lose it" situation and at the managers say so you can take it and normally a max amount you can carry forward each month.

I always lost out with it.

Income replacement & personal injury schemes, discounted gym membership,Cycle to Work scheme, health care benefits (private healthcare, health cash plan/assessments, dental schemes), buy/sell annual leave, charity donation options direct from salary, car hire schemes

Staff breakfast or afternoon tea served at work from time to time or for special occasions

Volunteering days are a good idea too, so you can use X number of paid days per year to volunteer

My old job would have someone come in once a month and give a free shoulder massage !

HSF health care plan. Corporate membership - loads of different levels so that it doesn't need to cost the company anything as individual staff members can chose the plan that works best for them and save money via the corporate membership.

I had it via a charity 14 years ago and kept it on as an individual.

Got a maternity grant, DD broke bones and got £150 each time. Pays for dental and optical treatments. Various levels of insurance bundled in. GP advice line. It's really brilliant.

Do it on an opt in basis. I advised a colleague (when I was at the charity) to start it a few weeks later he had a massive heart attack and it really helped him. Covered home help etc.

Gives you access to HSF perkbox.

Company itself is non-profit so gives over any profits to its grant making foundation to invest in health charities.

Meant to say my membership covers my DH and DC under 18 all for one payment.

Increased employer pension contributions. Boring but very beneficial!

I think time is the most valuable employer benefit. So something like an incentive scheme where extra days' holiday are added according to number of years' service, that sort of thing.

If it's a small business, you probably have a pretty good idea of staff circumstances. So e.g. do many commute on public transport (season ticket loan might be valued), do many have young children or other caring responsibilities (some sort of time off for dependants might be appreciated)? Young staff might appreciate sponsored training/qualifications to improve their career prospects, whereas older staff probably value flexibility and pension contributions. Obviously I'm generalising, but you will know if your staff typically fit into one demographic or the other.

I'd also ask yourself, what are you hoping to achieve by offering benefits, is it recruitment or retention? If recruitment, things like extra holiday days or higher than usual pension contributions will help you stand out. If it's about retention, then a positive culture where people feel valued, are allowed some flexibility, and are bonded as a team (maybe regular company sponsored team events) are harder to measure but make the world of difference to retention IME.