Compensation is a hot topic for both employers and employees, encompassing everything from minimum wage debates to comprehensive benefits packages. As an employer, meeting your staff’s needs and expectations can be challenging, especially when balancing your payroll budget. However, by implementing certain strategies, you can effectively manage your total payroll cost while still maintaining a competitive edge.
The job market is constantly changing, and with that, employees' expectations have also shifted. They now demand not just competitive pay but also respect, recognition, and a higher quality of life outside the office. As an employer, you have the power to positively influence their overall well-being and job satisfaction by addressing these broader concerns. This makes their positions more appealing in the long term and shows your commitment to their welfare.
Compensation can be stressful to navigate; with limited budgets, it might be difficult to offer competitive salaries to your team. However, because today’s employees are looking for more than fair wages, we’ve gathered a variety of non-monetary ways you can boost your retention and recruitment efforts. When implemented effectively, these strategies can lead to a more engaged and satisfied workforce.
Do Non-Monetary Benefits Matter?
Happy employees are 20% more productive than unhappy employees. Non-monetary benefits are one way you can help boost employee morale, engagement, and overall satisfaction. Though it can take a bit of effort upfront to get these programs up and running, they can save you time and money once integrated into your work operations. The impact on employee productivity and satisfaction is well worth the investment.
Employee turnover can significantly undermine team morale, productivity, and the quality of work. Moreover, the time and financial costs involved in hiring a replacement are substantial—often exceeding 24 days to fill a position and costing up to 33% of an employee's annual salary. Implementing non-monetary benefits alongside a livable wage can effectively reduce turnover, fostering a more stable and engaged workforce.
In addition, non-monetary benefits are of little to no cost to you as an employer. Once up and running, these benefits often maintain themselves with minimal ongoing expenses. Offering such benefits can create a more fulfilling work environment, encouraging employees to stay longer with your company. This approach not only reduces the frequency and costs associated with turnover but also builds a reputation for your company as a caring and desirable place to work.
Non-Monetary Benefit Examples
Ensuring employees are content and motivated extends beyond providing a living wage. Younger generations (Millennials and Gen Z) specifically prioritize meaningful work, positive culture, and work-life balance over traditional incentives. As an employer, it's crucial to understand these changing needs and expectations. While it’s still necessary to consider monetary compensation, there are several options that can help boost employee engagement, productivity, recruitment, and retention:
- Flexible work arrangements: Options such as remote work, flexible schedules, and compressed workweeks allow employees to effectively balance their personal lives with professional responsibilities. Generate a policy that works for your team, with set expectations around project completion and core operating hours. Include potential repercussions if the policy is abused, work goes unfinished, or remote employees are unreachable during core hours.
- Health and wellness programs: These can include gym memberships, mental health days off, and recreational activities. Even if some team members don’t utilize these benefits, offering and encouraging them can help boost employee engagement and satisfaction.
- Professional development: Offering tuition reimbursement, access to courses, workshops, and seminars, and opportunities for upward mobility within your company can motivate employees to stay long-term. Not only does this show investment in your team’s professional growth, but often, what they learn can be brought back and help your business grow.
- Recognition and reward systems: Implementing peer recognition programs or performance-based awards can boost morale and encourage a productive workplace culture. Fostering a culture of appreciation gives employees a sense of belonging, which helps increase overall job satisfaction.
- Financial well-being programs: These programs could include financial planning services, retirement planning sessions, and workshops on budgeting and economic health, helping employees feel more secure about their financial future.
- Student loan repayment assistance: Given the rising concern over student debt, offering help with student loan repayments can be a significant relief for younger employees, making your business much more attractive to this demographic.
- Time for volunteering or passion projects: Offering your team time off, specifically for volunteer work or to spend on a project they’re passionate about, is a simple but effective benefit. As younger generations are more motivated by meaningful work, giving them a few days a year or hours per month to dedicate to projects can lead to a more engaged and content team.
While some of these tools, such as a gym membership or student loan assistance, will require a small budget, they can often be cheaper than offering your whole team higher salaries than other companies.
While some of these tools, such as a gym membership or student loan assistance, will require a small budget, they can often be cheaper than offering your whole team higher salaries than other companies.
Implementing Non-Monetary Benefits
When rolling out new company-wide initiatives, anticipate some initial challenges, such as general confusion or underutilization of the new benefits. To mitigate these challenges, it's important to develop comprehensive policies and communicate them effectively and regularly to your team. These policies should outline who qualifies for these benefits and how to use them. Make your benefits accessible and appealing to encourage your staff to utilize them.
Moreover, actively seek feedback and involve your team in refining and improving these benefits and policies. It’s crucial that the benefits you offer align with your team's needs and interests. Offering benefits that no one uses is not only a waste of resources but also a missed opportunity to enhance employee satisfaction and engagement.
How GMS Can Help With Your Employee Benefits
As a business owner, retaining and attracting quality employees is vital for business growth. Offering a competitive benefits package is critical to securing top talent. However, this can be costly and time-consuming. As a professional employer organization (PEO), GMS will work with you to find the benefits package that makes the most sense for your business operations, employees, and bottom line.
In addition, once we’ve helped you find a benefits package, we’ll help you manage it. Our outsourcing small business benefits services include:
- Group employee health benefits
- Supplemental insurance plans
- Diabetic management
- Metabolic wellness
- 401(k)/profit sharing
- Telehealth
Let us help you provide competitive and cost-effective benefits while you focus on running your business effectively. Contact us today!