The cost of living is rising at a faster rate than wages, leading to many people feeling the struggle to get by. As an employer, you’re in a position to support your workforce by leveraging benefits and throwing in additional financial aid. This isn’t to say you’re going to increase everyone’s wages; you’re not made of money either. However, you can hold competitions and ensure everyone is utilizing existing benefits. Continue reading to find out more.
Highlight Existing Benefits
You can offer the best benefits around, but that doesn’t mean every employee is benefiting. Take time to educate your team on different benefits and how to access them. Further, you should make sure that receiving the benefits is straightforward.
If you don’t provide any additional benefits, it’s time to rethink your game plan. Having appealing benefits will help current employees and allow you to hire more qualified talent. A great benefit to offer through the financial crisis is prepaid over-the-counter (OTC) cards. Typically, these payment cards can be locked to a certain category for spending, like healthcare or groceries. For more information, take a look at this InComm Vs. Solutran comparison.
Have Wellbeing Provisions in Place
Working long hours and struggling financially will cause anyone stress. Fortunately, you’re in a position to alleviate some of the pressure. Make sure you have a health and wellness program in place. This could include anything from supplemented gym memberships to healthy recipes, to mindful app subscriptions. When your employees feel healthy in mind and body, you will see a boost in productivity.
Run Mini Incentive Competitions
You might be supporting your employees through a financial crisis, but that doesn’t mean everything needs to feel like a handout. To avoid making people feel like a charity case, run mini KPI (key performance indicator) competitions and offer beneficial rewards. When creating competitions, try to make everything fair. After all, there’s no point in running competitions that only favor one team or individual.
As well as competitions, you can implement a bonus structure. When employees receive money as a bonus, they’re less likely to feel as though it’s a handout. A mini bonus doesn’t need to be a lot, as the majority of employees will be grateful for an extra $50 – simply label it as a hard work bonus.
Support Employees Working from Home
If you have employees working from home, you may think they live a more financially sound life because they have no commute. However, with working from home comes the need for technology, which many people struggle to buy. To help relieve the financial burden, consider helping them set up a home office. There are many other benefits you can include as well. For example, if you provide subsidized meals in the office, send a supplemental payment to remote workers.
Working hard and struggling financially is never easy. To avoid losing employees to your competition, make appropriate efforts to ensure you’re helping them through the cost-of-living crisis.
