5 Unique Employee Benefits To Attract Talent

In today's competitive job market, it's important for companies to offer more than just a salary to attract employees, and keep your existing employees. A unique employee benefits package can make all the difference when it comes to attracting the top candidates in the job market.

Health insurance/health benefits, generous parental leave, hybrid working and the like are common place in most companies' employee benefits package these days. But, there are some more 'out of the box' options you can add to help your company appeal to more...

In this article, we'll explore five particularly unique employee benefits to help your benefits package stand out from the competition in your industry, and to boost your employee satisfaction.

Employee Volunteering 💚

More and more employees (especially those younger employees from the GEN-Z and Millennial generations) are looking for employers who value social responsibility. Offering paid time off for volunteering is a great way to show that your company cares about making a positive impact in the community, and an effective way to build a shared culture of giving back to your community.

Encouraging employees to volunteer for causes they care about not only helps the community, but it also helps to boost employee morale and engagement.

A staggering 83% of companies now offer virtual volunteering on average, and studies show that having an employee volunteering scheme that your staff connect with can help to reduce employee turnover by as much as 57%.

When most people picture corporate volunteering, they imagine planting trees, or a day out of the office painting a fence, but in reality corporate volunteering has evolved a lot over the last decade.

In particular, the rise in virtual/remote volunteering post-covid has made room for far more educational and skills-based volunteerism with strong learning and development opportunities for employees, and has created a more more flexible, high-impact approach to giving back from your desk, on your schedule.

Mental Health Support 🧘🏽

With the rise in remote working meaning less face-to-face interactions and relationship building, the mental wellbeing of your staff is more important than ever! Private health insurance or access to private health care are pretty common place employee benefits these days, but companies are sometimes at a loss for how best to provide mental health support alongside this.

There are various ways in which you can support your team's mental health that can make a huge difference in the happiness and lives of your employees. Some of these include:

• Virtual 121 counselling

• Mental health app subscriptions (meditation, mindfulness etc.)

• Paid personal days for bad mental health

• Good communication among teams, and creating a non-judgemental culture of caring

By investing in mental health support, you can create a workplace culture that prioritises employee wellbeing and promotes a healthy work-life balance. This in-turn can lead to improved productivity, and reduced staff turnover for you as a company!

In fact, in a recent report by Easy Offices, they found that 34% of employees equally rated mental health insurance, support groups and mindfulness tools as most valuable flexible benefits.

Unlimited Paid Holiday 🏝️

Offering unlimited paid holiday is a unique benefit that can help attract top talent by helping employees to feel valued, trusted, and empowered by their employer.

This flexible benefits system allows employees to take time off whenever they need it, without having to worry about accruing vacation time or running out of paid days off. Unlimited paid holiday can help you to retain employees by making them feel more in control of their work-life balance and by promoting a healthier work environment.

Offering 'unlimited' paid holiday can sound very risky at first, but in reality, the majority of employees do not abuse this privilege. In fact one study found that employees with unlimited PTO took an average of 13 days off per year, compared to 15 days from companies using traditional policies.

Giants like Netflix and Ruko are already leading the pack and offering unlimited holiday to their employees, and it's been shown to be the number one most valued emerging employee benefit.

Financial Wellbeing Support 💰

This is another benefit massively growing in popularity! Financial stress can be a major source of anxiety and disruption for many employees. So offering financial wellbeing support, whether in the form of coaching, money management tips, or help to save money, can lead to employees feeling more secure and less stressed about their finances.

Younger employees could really find value in getting some coaching around managing their savings, plotting a route to them getting on the property ladder, and potentially dealing with student loan debt. Whereas your older employees may need assistance planning their retirement!

With the current cost of living crisis raging on, today's workers place a lot of importance on financial wellbeing and and financial education. Providing this support to your team can have a serious impact on your ability to attract talent.

Wellness Classes 💆🏼‍♂️

Wellness classes such as yoga, meditation, and other mindfulness topics can really help employees reduce stress, improve focus, and boost productivity. This is often a good option for companies wanting more in-person, tangible solutions to maintaining their team's mental and physical wellbeing, while also providing additional team-building benefits.

Offering these classes as a monthly or quarterly optional benefit can help promote a healthy work-life balance and create a supportive workplace culture. Additionally, wellness classes can help employees feel more connected to their colleagues and can improve teamwork and collaboration.

Offering a broader range of ways to engage staff, and support their wellness outside of their day-to-day work can seriously help you to attract employees in the long run.

Building The Perfect Benefits Package ✅

In conclusion, offering modern employee benefits like those listed above can help your company attract top talent, and improve employee retention by improving your overall employee satisfaction.

In particular, adding more modern and innovative employee benefits like virtual corporate volunteering or financial coaching to your benefits package not only helps you stand out as an employer, but can have a serious positive impact on your success as a company.

We actually just wrote an article highlighting some of the more shocking employee volunteering benefit statistics!

If you're struggling to attract and retain employees, or simply want to be the best of the best when it comes to taking care of your team, then consider implementing some of these unique benefits now.