Top six unique and creative employee benefits

In an increasingly competitive marketplace for talent, standard benefits are no longer effective recruiting tools. Here are six of the top creative employee benefits ideas that showcase employers thinking outside the box:

Encouraging employees to take time out to experience other cultures is an imaginative way to spark personal development. International travel is often the best way to experience new places and people, helping businesses attract adventurous thinkers.

Offering sabbaticals is also a unique way to prevent employee burnout and retain top talent. If you operate a global business, encourage employees to travel between global offices to keep things fresh for them. For many, this will be hugely more valuable than an increase in wage.

2. All-staff lottery

Create a buzz with a lottery draw for all staff, with real cash prizes. One creative idea is to bring these into your in-house TV production or internal communications to get staff excited. Consider offering a big-money prize, and then multiple runners-up so more employees get chances to win. 

It’s one of the more expensive creative employee benefits, but hands-down can be the best-loved by staff. If you have less budget to spend, you could try doing this quarterly or annually instead, or offer fewer top prizes.

 3. Help your employees save more money

Anything you can do to stretch your employees' paychecks will be thoroughly appreciated by your workforce. A combination of financial advice and well-positioned employee discounts is the best approach to helping them save money, whether that’s helping them budget or easing some of their out-of-pocket expenses. Astonishing shopping discounts (like we offer via our employee discounts programme), subsidised gym memberships, tuition reimbursement and employee-matched savings are just a few possibilities.

4. Duvet Days and Duvet Mornings

Duvet days are an innovative way to tackle staff absence. The concept is simple - each employee is given license to take a day or a morning off at last minute notice. If a member of staff is feeling slightly ill or just doesn’t feel up to a hard day’s work, they can call in at very short notice before their shift and ask to take a duvet day.

With millions of bogus “sick days” taken each year, duvet days can help prevent burnout with flexible working and save businesses money.

5. Flexible working

Leadiig on from duvet days, flexible working is a growing trend in many sectors of the economy. Successful companies often try to create environments in which staff are empowered to take ownership of their work, and trusting them to direct their own time management and be innovative on their own time is part of that. By letting employees manage their own schedule to whatever extent you can, you can improve employee satisfaction and engagement.