HR professionals can agree that benefits impact employees in many ways, both in and out of the office. While benefits are not wired to a bank account bi-weekly, they cover the indirect pay of the workforce through several offerings, including insurance, profit sharing and retirement funds.
Now that life is returning to normal post-pandemic, HR professionals can take a step back from learning a new COVID plan every other week and use that time to review modern benefit offerings and update accordingly. Here are a few categories HR professionals should focus on in a post-pandemic world, along with suggestions on how to make new and existing benefits more accessible.
Flexible working arrangements
During the past two years, professionals at every level had to learn the ins and outs of their job while sitting at their kitchen table. While some employees enjoy a more traditional work setting, most can agree a flexible working arrangement helps improve work-life balance. And by creating a better work-life balance, workplaces simultaneously improve productivity on the job. Hybrid offices allow employees who enjoy the office environment to do so while allowing others the freedom to avoid rush hour traffic when necessary.
Financial wellness
Finances are the number one stressor for Americans in 2022, and stressors outside of the workplace can lead to problems inside the workplace. There are many methods for improving holistic employee satisfaction outside traditional retirement plans and paid time off offerings. One way is teaching employees, in a sense, how to fish. There’s an expression, “If you give a hungry man a fish, you feed him for a day; but if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.” There are many online financial literacy programs that companies can offer employees on any budget. One free option HR departments can provide employees is an online financial literacy workbook. There are multiple reasons to support employees in their financial literacy journey. One big reason is stress. Reducing outside stressors can elevate mood and allow team members to be more productive in the workplace, boosting office culture for all involved.
Healthcare and Wellbeing
According to SHRM, employees rank healthcare as the most important benefit their company can offer, and we don’t foresee that changing anytime soon. However, the idea of what falls under ‘healthcare’ has changed. Employees expect the same medical, dental and optical insurance they have grown accustomed to during their career, along with mental health-related perks that many companies started rolling out during the pandemic.
The last few years have been hard for everyone. One in five adults in the United States lives with a mental illness. This reality necessitates modernized offerings for mental health, such as access to telehealth and counseling. A top-of-the-line benefits package will take this into consideration and extinguish workplace stigmas surrounding mental illness.
What’s Next?
Accessibility is essential to implementing new benefits and capitalizing on old benefits. Employees cannot take advantage of offerings they’re not aware of. Taking time to educate new and existing employees on their benefits packages can make employees feel more valued and therefore more willing to go the extra mile.
A well-thought-out and balanced mix of modern benefits show employees they are essential to the company’s well-being. To offer the most beneficial package that leads to the highest satisfaction and productivity, take time to listen to employees about what is meaningful to them and apply that information seriously.
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