6 Added Employee Benefits Business Owners Can Offer to Keep Workers Happy and Motivated   

With millennials rapidly entering the job market and an increase in dual-income households, professionals are looking at employee benefits and workers’ rights with a renewed intensity and focus. Issues like paid sick and maternity leave, collective bargaining rights and a living wage are hot topics.

As a business owner, thanks to ongoing changes to regulations, along with the increasingly competitive job market and advances in all kinds of technology, you have likely started thinking about what kinds of benefits to offer your employees. You want to be able to recruit the best talent for your company, and also retain the top talent you’ve already got. What are your options?

To keep up with emerging trends in employee benefits, begin considering these four fringe benefits.

Flexible Work Schedules
Due to the Internet and advancements in a host of other technology fields, more and more businesses are migrating online. With the ability to work from any location in the world that has an Internet connection, the modern worker is more empowered than ever. Naturally, this has given rise to a focus on flexibility.

A flexible work schedule allows employees to work remotely — from a home office, say — and also be flexible with the hours they spend on company property. This is especially important when you consider how valuable the elusive work-life balance really is. For traditional companies, including those that have historically relied on a more predictable schedule, something like this may seem scary or impractical to implement. The truth, though, is that what little impact flexible scheduling might have on your company’s bottom line will almost certainly be made up for by your stable of happier and more productive employees.

In the end, the most important thing for your company is that you see results. If your employees are every bit as able to “get results” from home at 3 a.m. as they are in the office at 9 a.m., why not let them make that choice?

BYOB: Build-Your-Own Benefits
Thanks to technology, it’s now easier than ever to let employees pick and choose from their benefits options. Listing everything online and letting your team select their own options streamlines the process and also takes some work off your hands. Additionally, the easy-access online options let your employees adjust their coverage and benefits to their changing lifestyles.

BYOD: Bring Your Own Device
Yes, it’s another acronym. This one refers to the increasingly popular practice of letting employees bring their own computers, tablets or smartphones into the work environment instead of making them dependent on company-issued devices.

Naturally, BYOD is not without its potential pros and cons — some of which are obvious and some of which may be a little more difficult to anticipate. The first and most obvious advantage is that employees get to work on a platform they’re comfortable with. Mac and Windows fans can be pretty hardcore about their shortcuts and workflows, so it stands to reason that your company’s productivity could see a big boost if the learning curves associated with working on an unfamiliar machine were eliminated.

Some of the disadvantages include (but are not limited to) the security concerns associated with privately owned devices and the slight risk of employees being tempted by some of the distractions (apps, games or more) on their devices. At the end of the day, BYOD definitely deserves to be considered in the modern workplace.

Health Care Add-Ons
Health insurance is a must for any growing business, and you should always make sure you’re offering healthcare benefits correctly to avoid any legal consequences. To take your healthcare benefits up a notch, consider some add-ons. Items like subsidized or discounted gym memberships, nutrition workshops and in-office flu shots or similar health care screenings are great ways to let your team know their health and well-being is important to you.

Unlimited PTO
This isn’t as crazy as it sounds. Offering employees unlimited vacation or personal time is a great way to compete with the multitude of benefits that larger corporations are better equipped to offer. Of course, a policy like this needs to be monitored, and you need to set clear boundaries. Often times, just having the option for unlimited vacation is enough to entice potential employees. It also helps your company out in the long run as well, since you save by not needing to pay out unused vacation time if an employee leaves.

Paid Sick Days
All over the world, countries are awakening to the fact that paid sick leave is a matter of human dignity. It just doesn’t make sense that the United States is one of the few industrialized countries that does not mandate paid sick days at the federal level. Countries like Norway and Germany, for instance, require that employees be allowed 50 and 44 paid sick days per year, respectively. While you’re at it, reconsider your doctor’s note requirements as well. It doesn’t make a lot of sense to require sick employees to shamble into a doctor’s office and wait around, risking making their condition worse, when all they should be doing is sleeping it off in bed.

Enhancing your fringe benefits is a great thing to do year after year. By making small updates, your company can recruit top talent and keep current employees happy. When your employees are happy, the company wins.