Dominic Taylor
2 min read
Let’s not beat around the bush. Everyone wishes they got paid more. It will be the same next year as well and the year after that.
There are very few companies I know of that can reward all their staff in that way, so if you are the majority, you need something to substitute cash.
And this is where employee benefits come in. These things are great! It is no surprise that some of the most attractive employers have a range of benefits available to employees.
Take 10k and make it feel like 100k. Now that's a return!
So how can you pick the right ones?
Well for starters; the things you are required to do by law.....aren’t employee benefits. Something forced is never genuine. If you asked your people, would they say getting a pension is an employee benefit? Would it be what they bring up when people ask what they like about working for you?
We live in a place where everyone wants everything now. With the range of employee benefits out there, which ones are going to strike a chord with this generation?
Lets take a look:
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP): Such an important and valuable service. We have an EAP. But consider whether or not it's going to change people's view of how they are rewarded.
• Death in Service: The majority of people struggle to plan for next week. And you want them to think about dying?
• Private Medical Insurance: Fantastic if you're sick. How many times were you actually sick last year? (Sickies don’t count.)
• Life Assurance: Really important. But for Gen Y does this solve the problem of their rising cost of living?
Now all of the above, I think are super important, and very valuable. But... None are REMARKABLE.
When we talk to Reward and HR professionals, there has been a recurring desire to raise awareness of their overall package, and the ones who have been able to achieve really great things have been people who have done something REMARKABLE. They have invested in providing something to their people that is different. Something away from the doom and gloom of death and insurance, and something that they can use now. Something that is really having an impact, and encourages their people to talk about it to each other. Suddenly, their people are a new comms channel for their Reward team.
You may not have been able to escape my emphasis on being REMARKABLE. Take a look at this great Seth Godin talk and let's see how we can make your employee benefits package truly remarkable.