Is your business wellness policy based around free beers? Seems that a good number of companies are relying on freebies and office perks to fix the issues around employee health and wellness now. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a free beer and plenty of people will enjoy these quick perks, but do they really make an actual difference? Are there alternatives we should be looking at which offer meaningful ways to motivate employees? We think so!
- Flexibility
Life gets in the way, traffic on the way to work snarls up and kids forget their homework! If you find you are struggling to motivate employees or increase employee engagement, try giving them a little more freedom with a flexible hours policy. Just that little bit of breathing space can make a huge difference and help them achieve a healthier work-life balance. Moods improve and emotions are lightened as people feel trusted and valued.
Trust can be one of the main reasons companies do not want to consider flexible working. Employers can be nervous their employees will take advantage and not deliver. If you feel like this, maybe it is time to consider if you have the right people working for you and, if you do, are you treating them the right way? Trust breeds trust and the same applies to loyalty. Offering some flexibility can demonstrate that you care about your employee’s work-life balance and still trust them to deliver. You might just find you get higher levels of motivated employee productivity without the huge beer bill!
- Stay open to ideas
We can probably all name a friend or colleague who has lost their job due to mental health issues and yet we still do not feel comfortable talking about mental health at work. Try and keep that dialogue open and be honest about your own mental health. If you need time off to get some balance, it is very likely that your employees will feel the same at some point. Some time to reset the balance can be incredibly powerful.
In this article placed in Metro, companies share their experiences on offering ‘duvet days’. A perk which not every company will embrace but there are some interesting findings, including one CEO who has seen a massive spike in productivity and a reduction in sick days. Another describes how they value expertise above fixed working hours and attendance, so duvet days are just part of their culture.
- Company perks!
There are a number of keys to attracting and retaining the highest quality staff and these are dependent on many things, from salary to Company values, to location, right through to perks.
Not every employee will want to take advantage of the low-cost gym membership, the childcare vouchers or the free fruit, but an awful lot of them will.
The key to company perks is offering a balanced range which people can chop and change to suit their values and lifestyle.
Whether your budget is large or small, it is about finding the employee perks which suit your team. Popular ideas include:
- Access to standing desks
- Healthcare
- Gym membership
- Office dog days or creche
- Regular access to chiropractors or physiotherapists, for desk and manual workers
- Ability to work from home
- Ability to take unpaid sabbaticals
- Ability to take volunteer days
- Access to a healthy lunch – free or otherwise
- Flexible parental leave
- Onsite nursery
- Personalised training budgets
- Savings with online or high street retailers
- And yes, free beers!
- Ask for feedback, listen and then do something with it.
We’ve all worked for those employers who tick the annual employee appraisal box by offering a form, a 20-minute conversation and nothing further! They might go as far as offering for a 360-degree survey, but how many of us have worked for companies that do something with the data they collect.
Having your say but then being ignored is certainly not a great motivator.
Some of the reason this data can be useless is that it really does not go beyond the surface of what’s going on. It could also be that the survey providers do not offer any sensible feedback or actions on what to do next.
That is why we, at Ei World, offer programmes which go deeper and help employees and employers really understand what is going on. We then offer follow up actionable steps so both can chart their progress. For teams, we offer the unique and in-depth Team Ei Survey. The Team Ei Survey plays an important role in helping teams have the dialogue that leads to more effective collaboration and decision-making, and drives not only progress and better performance, but breakthroughs in strategic thinking and action. For team leaders, Ei World runs a bespoke programme ‘Succeed as a team leader’. This programme is focussed on helping leaders learn how to achieve optimal team performance by being the best leader they can. Working with renowned assessment tools, 1:1 coaches and personalised action plans to meet agreed goals, this programme is suitable for new and established team leaders.
