Hiring Top Talent: 7 Attractive Benefits You Should Offer

However, when it comes to securing talented new recruits, setting out the salary and key responsibilities in the job description is no longer enough to attract the best. You need to find other ways to sell your business and show why you’d be a great employer.

This means that organizations need to ensure they’re offering a range of exciting and enticing benefits that employees want, if they hope to not only find, but also retain talented professionals.

But how do you know which benefits you should be offering?

Well, the good news is there has been extensive research conducted over the last decade to determine which benefits and workplace perks are most attractive to employees.

So to help you out, we’ve pulled together a list of seven of the top benefits your business should be offering to new recruits this year.

1. Flexibility around shifts

There are several different ways you can offer flexibility to your employees. For example, self-rostering allows employees to set out their preferred working hours, so a fair schedule can be drawn up that is as close to their requests as possible.

What’s more, flexible shifts allow employees to start and finish at different times each day, often working staggered shifts. This could be a choice of 8am-4pm, 9am-5pm, 10am-6pm, etc. Although this will vary depending on the different operating hours of your business.

Changing working hours like this allows your staff to fit their work around their life, for example, school hours, college hours, or care arrangements. This way, they arrive at work each day feeling valued, present and ready to work.

And embracing tools like Connect from Payactiv make this even easier! Messaging systems allow employees to communicate with one another to ask colleagues to cover their shifts. Plus, employees can request days off, check for open shifts and request to work.

2. Wellness programs and initiatives

Employee wellbeing has become a key priority for businesses in recent years, and this includes their physical, mental, and even financial wellness. This is because we now have a better understanding of the importance of caring for ourselves and putting our wellbeing first.

As such, recruiters should look out for these types of wellness programs and initiatives because it shows employers care about their workforce and want to do what they can to keep them happy and healthy.

The perks you offer could include access to free financial counseling to help ease stress and help employees with saving and budgeting strategies, reducing and paying off debt, and understanding and improving credit scores.

And in terms of financial wellness, tools such as Earned Wage Access can give employees immediate access to their money for the hours they’ve already worked. This can help to alleviate money worries and stress, which lead to better mental health, higher employee engagement and increased levels of presenteeism at work.

3. Rewards and bonuses

It’s important that you recognize employees for their hard work, especially when they go above and beyond to achieve results. This can be done through thank you emails or messages, reward programs such as employee of the month, team lunches or monetary bonuses.

The aforementioned Connect tool from Payactiv is a great way for you to share these rewards, kudos, and team communications. What’s more, you can also use tools such as Payactiv to make payments directly to your employees card as a way of saying thank you.

4. Staff discounts

Let’s look at some other perks you can offer to your teams. Why not consider discounts to practical, everyday amenities such as movie theaters, gas stations, prescription medicine, car insurance and more?

Plus, if your business is a chain or affiliated with a large chain, why not arrange staff discounts outside of the local area as well. For example, if you run a large restaurant or hotel chain, allow staff to receive a discount for using these establishments around the country.

Though you may not be able to offer bonuses or monetary rewards very often, staff discounts can be a great way to help your employees save money in the long run - and who doesn’t want that!

5. Free food and snacks

Depending on the nature of your business and whether you have a staff break room or not, you could offer a selection of healthy snacks and drinks for employees to help themselves to during the day.

Alternatively, if your business serves food in some capacity, why not offer a free meal to workers who are on shift. For example, a free lunch or dinner during their break.

6. A paid day off

An employee benefit that is becoming increasingly popular is giving workers a paid day off.

And if they receive paid annual leave, this doesn't count towards one of their holiday days.

Because let’s face it, who doesn’t love having time off work to enjoy with friends and family. Many may be less inclined to book a day off because they don’t want to lose out on the money.

So, a paid day off can be a wonderful way to have employees relax and show them that you value their hard work.

7. Social events

And finally, social events are an important way to build team relationships and keep your employees happy and engaged. This is because it encourages them to socialize outside the office environment and gives them a chance to blow off some steam.

After all, it can’t be all work and no play. Otherwise your employees can become overworked, stressed, and disconnected.

So, some ideas for social events you might want to organize and offer your employees include happy hour, team building exercises, or charity events such as bake sales.

Further reading:

• The Benefit Your Essential Workers Actually Want
• Numbers Show Earned Wage Access Can Cut Turnover +30%
• Four Big Benefits of Offering Earned Wage Access
• Bridging the Gap to Financial Wellness