Every business owner knows that keeping employees healthy, safe and happy is one of the best ways to encourage loyalty, productivity and engagement. This is why it is so important for your company to offer employee benefits that will help you attract and retain top talent.

Businesses are starting to get creative when it comes to employee benefits, and if you don’t follow suit, it’s likely that your dream candidates may choose to work for your competitors instead of you.

If your company wants to keep your current pool of talented professionals and attract new ones, you need to be able to offer similar benefits or even raise the stakes.

In this article, we go over 5 unique benefits your company should have if you want to attract high- quality candidates.

1. Flexible Work Hours and Environment

Working in the office Monday-Friday from 9-5 is no longer necessary for many companies, as more and more businesses move online. By simply offering flexible work hours and environment, you can attract quality candidates.

According to a recent study, over a half of workers chose work flexibility as their top perk. Because of this, a lot of companies have started changing their company structure to keep up with this new trend.

For example, Netflix has removed normal work hours from their methods. Instead of tracking how many vacations, working days or breaks their employees take, they measure everything in terms of productivity.

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You can work for as long or as little as you like, provided you do everything you’re supposed to do for the day. And if you finish what you need to do for the week early, then go ahead and take the rest of the week off.

2. Social Responsibility Support

Workers, especially millennials, are big on social responsibility. They have causes they believe in and want to connect their work to those causes.

Believe it or not, as much as people still care about the pay and benefits they’re getting at work, they also care about how socially responsible a company is. They want a company that is willing to support their cause without dipping into their paychecks and also has their own socially responsible initiatives.

A company like Salesforce offers a socially responsible benefit. The company gives their employees an allowance of $1,000 per year, which they can donate to their charity or foundation of choice. Employees also get 6 paid days off per year for volunteer work.

3. Financial Assistance on Student Loan Repayments

Employees work to earn money for both short-term and long-term financial goals. Short term financial needs include food, rent and other necessities. Long-term goals include purchasing a house, a car, paying off student loans and other big life goals.

Applicants are often drawn to companies that will not only indirectly help them with their financial goals via wages, but also directly through student loan financial assistance programs.

Group of students making construction sketch in college

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Take, for example, PwC, a company that provides its employees with $1,200 a year to pay off student loans. 76% of millennial applicants surveyed said they would consider accepting a job if an employer offered student loan repayment as one of its benefits.

It’s important to note that you should never confuse paying off an employee’s debt with their salary.

4. Freebies or Discounts On Company Services

It’s probably not surprising that employees want to work for a company whose services or products they want discounts or freebies for.

This type of perk used to be reserved for products or services that were unsold or defective, such as bakeries giving away some day old bagels. However, things have changed for the better. Standards for employee perks have gotten higher, with companies giving their employees royal treatment for their loyalty.

Disneyland’s employees can take their friends and family on rides and exhibits using their free admissions perks, as well as get discounts on merchandise and hotel bookings.

Airbnb employees are given an allowance of $2,000, which they can use when staying in any of Airbnb’s establishments when they travel.

Airline employees like those that work for Southwest get free flights for themselves, as well as friends and family, plus discounts at hotels, car rental services and theme parks.

5. Family-Friendly Benefits

Employees want to know that their company will be understanding if they need to take some time off for maternity or paternity leave. Therefore, if you want to attract top talent, it’s important to have a clear policy in place that allows new parents to spend an adequate amount of time with their new baby.

Pinterest provides new mothers with 3 months of paid time off. Mothers may then work part-time during their first month back, complete with counselling sessions to help them adjust.

Netflix has the longest maternity and paternity leaves, which last up to a whole year. Parents may return to work earlier on a part-time basis if needed and can take time off throughout that year to attend to the needs of their baby.

The Final Word

Of course, there are other perks and benefits that didn’t make the list but still have value. This includes more paid time off, concierge services, on-site gyms or supplemental gym memberships, in-office massages, free lunches and on-site medical clinics for employee use.

The goal of employee benefits is to provide employee services and perks so that they are able to enjoy life while they work.

This might seem like a lot to invest in and set up just to attract employees, but with the cost involved in recruiting, training and lost productivity, it’s well worth it to get the best employees for your business.

Alsco would like to thank David Waring, the co-founder of Fit Small Business for this article. Fit Small Business is an informational website that reaches out to over 800,000 small business owners, sharing tips and information to help them succeed.

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