The Top 10 Most Popular Employee Benefits

When it comes to tactics for attracting top talent, companies are now offering a much broader range of employee benefits to stand out from the crowd and create a genuinely great place to work.

In this blog post, we'll cover the top 10 most popular employee benefits that companies are offering today.

Paid Employee Volunteering

Now...we might be a tad bias here, but in our opinion paid volunteering is one of the most important employee benefits you can offer. It's an excellent way for employees to give back to their community and therefore build a sense of empowerment, fulfilment, and shared values within their team.

Plus on a basic level, it's another 1-5 days of paid time outside of their usual responsibilities that you're offering candidates!

Many companies are now offering paid time off for employee volunteering as a benefit, and some even organise company-wide volunteer events to help with cross-department team building.

Here at Matchable, we're revolutionising the employee volunteering industry with our platform that matches individuals in minutes with their perfect volunteering opportunity based on their person skills, interests, and availability.

Remote Working

With the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the trend of remote working, and transition to more online, global work not showing any sign of slowing down, this is one of the most valued and topical employee benefits at the moment.

Companies that offer remote working options are more attractive to candidates, as it improves work-life balance, and demonstrates a level of trust that employers have by giving them that autonomy.

Flexible Hours

Flexible working is another big one that you should considering adding to your employee benefits selection.

Employees value flexibility in their working hours, and companies that offer flexible schedules are more likely to retain their employees. Flexible hours allow employees to prioritise their personal and family needs and maintain a healthy work life balance.

Many companies are now adopting the opinion that, if an employee is completing their tasks to a high standard, and are generally available to communicate during office hours, what does it matter when they complete the work?

Mental Health Support

With the majority of companies moving to a hybrid or remote approach to work, keeping an eye on, and providing support for your teams' mental health is a growing concern.

So, it goes without saying that companies that prioritise mental health support for their employees are more likely to retain them. After all, your employees' happiness and state of mind is obviously going to affect the quality of their work!

Mental health support can come in many forms, such as counselling, therapy, or access to mental health resources.

There are some brilliant options out there for online therapy or mental health support to add to your employee benefits, so have a look around and see what you think your team would get the most out of.

Personal Finance Advice

Financial wellness is the new kid on the block when it comes to employee benefits, but it's growing in popularity among both employers and their workforces.

In the modern world of crypto, NFTs, endless options for your personal savings, and a housing ladder that seems to keep extending into the clouds, personal finance advice is seriously appealing.

Financial advice can include financial planning, debt management, budgeting, and retirement planning. Maybe that's something your team could use?

Private Health Insurance

Private health insurance is one of the more common employee benefits on this list, and is highly valued for obvious reasons. But it's surprisingly one that's often excluded from smaller companies' employee benefits package.

Whether it's used as a lifeline for an unexpected critical illness, or time saving tool for regular GP appointments, it's a seriously useful benefit that companies can offer their employees.

It provides peace of mind to staff, and ensures that employees can access the healthcare they need when they need it. Employee health is vital for the success of your company, and a robust health insurance plan, and perhaps even private dental insurance plan goes a long way towards keeping your team healthy and happy.

Team Social Events

Team social events are an excellent way to build company culture together, forge stronger bonds between teams, and improve employee morale. These can be anything from team lunches to company-wide events, such as holiday parties or team-building activities.

One big negative of employees working from home is that they miss out on the social aspects of working in an office with their teammates.

Opportunities for cross collaboration are harder to come by, and often this lack of social interaction can lead to feelings of isolation for employees. So offering regular social events in and outside of office hours are an essential part of a good employee benefits package these days.

In-Office Perks

In-office perks are small (and often inexpensive) benefits that can actually make a big difference in employee satisfaction and motivation. These can include free food, coffee, and other amenities that make the workplace more comfortable and enjoyable.

They're easy to implement, but go a long way towards making your staff feel welcome, valued, and comfortable in the office.

Food and Travel Expenses

Offering an allowance for food and travel costs involved with work can seriously push someone over the edge when deciding between multiple job offers! It's a more expensive employee benefit to offer, but if you're looking to attract (and retain) the best of the best on the talent market, especially for leadership positions, it's actually pretty standard.

This could be a monthly allowance for meal delivery apps, an employee discount scheme, or just a reimbursement process for travel costs for employees that commute - anything to save money for your team!

Generous Paid Vacation Time

A generous paid holiday allowance is, as you would expect, one of the more highly valued employee benefits that companies can offer. It allows employees to take time off to recharge and spend time with family and friends without worrying about lost wages.

Some employers even go one step further and offer what's called 'unlimited annual leave' or 'unlimited holiday', where employees have an uncapped number of paid days off, giving them much more trust and autonomy to manage their workloads and personal lives.

Paid parental leave is another perk on top of the standard paid vacation time that is expected for most roles these days. If you're trying to compete for the best talent in your industry, you might want to seriously consider being more generous with your holiday packages!

Your Employee Benefits Package

In today's competitive job market, companies must offer attractive benefits packages to attract and retain top talent. These top 10 most sought after employee benefits are excellent examples of what companies can do to set themselves apart and attract the best of the best.

In today's job market, the power is shifting to the job seeker, and so such benefits can make your company that extra bit attractive over your competitors.

There are of course 100s of other employee benefits that we haven't covered in this list, like discounted gym memberships, life insurance, and more obvious ones like a workplace pension, but hopefully we've given you some great ideas for employee benefits you hadn't yet considered!