Employee Benefits Packages – for recruitment and retention

The financial package on offer to candidates is clearly important in attracting applicants, and recruiting staff in the first instance. If your headline salary is not competitive, you will struggle to recruit.

However, we regularly tell employers to consider their wider benefits and make sure they think creatively as to what they currently offer or could offer.

It is quite clear that benefit packages help recruitment and down the line, job satisfaction leads to retention too.

We have attempted to cluster together a few of the benefits we have come across in the course speaking with employers and seeing their graduate recruitment adverts. There are overlaps, and some things can go in more than one category, but we headline four areas of benefits we regularly see: Work-Life Balance, Health & Wellbeing, Professional Development, and Financial Reward.

Work-Life Balance

• Bereavement leave
• Day off for birthday
• Discretionary time off over Christmas and New Year
• Duvet Days – days off with no notice, just ‘phone in on the day
• Flexible working – hours worked and/or working from home
• Holiday entitlement / annual leave (statutory minimum no longer cuts it)
• Holiday purchase scheme – the ability to buy more leave from your salary
• Sabbaticals – provide the opportunity to take 6 months or longer off for personal gain, with the job remaining open on return

Health & Wellbeing

• Annual flu jab
• Canteen
• Childcare vouchers
• Employee assistance program
• Employee recognition scheme (e.g. employee of the month)
• Free Eye Tests
• Free food/drink
• Green Travel Scheme
• Gym membership (fully or partially funded)
• Shout outs – postcards, badges etc. given to colleagues by colleagues and managers to praise good work or attitude.
• Showers, lockers, changing facilities
• Team socials
• Travel incentives / vouchers
• Wellbeing programmes
• Cycle scheme

Professional Development

• Activities underpinned by company ambition, values and behaviours – encourages buy-in to company goals supports retention where these align
• Comprehensive role based training, in-house coaching programmes, leadership and management development
• Digital Champions – using staff in-house to upskill colleagues in digital
• Engagement in business strategy and ownership of vision
• Professional qualification support (time off to study, a financial contribution)
• Removal of unnecessary qualifications as entry requirements plus relevant training on induction, and on-going
• Volunteering days – opportunities to ‘do good’, and to learn new skills

Financial Reward

• Company bonus
• Critical illness cover
• Death in service
• Employee discounts / staff accounts / discounts on products / services
• Employee referral bonus
• Enhanced maternity / paternity pay & leave, adoption pay & leave, shared parental leave
• Enhanced pension contributions
• Enhanced redundancy pay
• Flexible payment – draw down salary when earnt rather than a fixed monthly payment
• Free parking
• Income protection
• Joining bonus / Relocation incentive
• Loyalty bonus (long service)
• Pension
• Personal accident cover
• Private medical insurance
• Salary

It is clear from our list that the options for employee benefits are wide ranging, with some costing more than others. Some are actually very low cost for an employer to implement. It is worth considering your benefit package – and what better time to do it than right now!

This list is not comprehensive, and we’d love to hear from you about things you offer or have come across.

What have been your most successful benefits at attracting and retaining staff?