10 Benefits For Employees Workers Actually Need Right Now

Annual leaves, 13th-month pay, free health insurance, and so on. If you’re lucky enough to work in a reputable company, these are just a few of the benefits for employees that you can enjoy. But let’s face it, employers also have to keep up with the evolving demands of the world and provide their workers the benefits they truly need.

Among employers, knowing the right mandatory benefits for employees can sometimes be challenging. This is for the simple reason that every worker has a different set of needs. Hence, making it almost impossible to cater to every single one of them especially if you’re running a company made up of thousands of staff.

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For the most part, people need jobs for financial stability, and eventually survival. But contrary to an old saying, even money (a.k.a. your “competitive salary”) can’t buy everything nowadays. And it certainly doesn’t always answer our needs in every other aspect of our lives.

To encourage employees to balance work with personal matters, most if not all companies provided annual leaves. These come in a variety of forms, from vacation leaves, sick leaves, and casual leaves, among others. When grave medical circumstances arise, they also often provide health insurance often in the form of PhilHealth benefits. Many employers also add extra monetary pay to workers who perform duties beyond their shift, on a holiday, or even as a yearly bonus (e.g. mid-year bonus, 13th-month pay, etc.)

Essentially, mandatory benefits for employees exist to remind employers and employees alike that, yes, salaries are crucial in helping us endure the day-to-day. However, without other forms of incentives, we are merely living to work and not the other way around, so to speak.

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As with everything else, workplaces evolve over time to fit new commitments in various industries. Work requirements become more varied. Roles become more complex. And people’s need to combat work stress becomes more serious. With that being said, the following are benefits for employees that employers should consider moving forward.

Maternity and paternity leaves, check. Insurance dependency, check! But families of working individuals also now need assurance that they can care for their loved ones beyond conventional needs. For example, by giving them special leaves dedicated to spending special occasions with family members. These include birthdays and anniversaries. Another could be free vaccination against and testing for emerging outbreaks.

No employee is the same. Whereas some enjoy the physical company of their colleagues while working in an office. Others tend to be more efficient in performing their tasks remotely. Then, there are those who also prefer hybrid workplaces, or a mix of both. Furthermore, some employees work better with a fixed daily schedule. Meanwhile, others are more productive when they are able to do things at their own pace. In such cases, employers should think about making flexible working setups readily available to employees.

In line with workplace flexibility, it’s about time companies also introduce reduced workdays to their employees. It’s a system that’s now being practiced as a norm in countries like Belgium and Iceland. Here, workers enjoy a four-day work week, leaving three days for rest. In such a case, companies must start investing more in the quantity of their workforce to continue operating without sacrificing quality.

With a typical work week, it can be difficult to fit all our personal enjoyment activities in just a couple of days. Some would want to spend an entire day out with their loved ones. Others would rather stay at home all day to catch up on sleep. Several also want to focus on doing other leisure activities such as playing sports, working out, or even spending a few hours in a cafe without the pressure of time.

Basically, let people choose when they want to take a break. For example, it’s mandatory in some companies for workers to stop their work during public or special holidays, even if they are feeling productive on those days. Alternatively, workers are sometimes forced to do their best on a Monday when it’s hard for them to concentrate due to weekend hangovers.

Some companies have taken the step of implementing mental health care benefits for employees. The even bigger step is to encourage everyone else to do the same. The issues of stress, anxiety, and depression related to work cannot be pointed out enough. Especially, when people have limited options in choosing between prioritizing work and health. The same goes for one’s physical well-being, which is also a paramount factor in helping employees function at work, and in life, better.

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Caring for pets can sometimes be just as demanding as looking after your family. Sometimes more depending on the kind of pets you live with. That being so, they deserve all the attention that they can get. When they get sick, owners find it hard to cope financially considering how expensive pet treatment can be in the Philippines. And if it’s not too much, they deserve more bonding time with their owners too!

Gone are the days when students only have to rely on their parents or their family for their academic needs. With the wealth of opportunities now available to people with little to no experience, employers should be more considerate to full-time student employees supporting themselves. Given the additional costs this setup can incur, these employees may need additional benefits in the form of subsidized tuition or allowances.

Who says you’d have to be in the financial industry to be financially literate? Knowing how to manage finances is a skill employers should teach their staff. They can start this by offering financial wellness programs. Not only will it help expand the knowledge of employees to aid the company in certain circumstances. It will also ensure that their workers are in their best shape (economically) and encourage their personal growth.

Lastly, and what might be one of the most important benefits for employees is the freedom to choose their own. As earlier stated, different individuals, different needs. A maternity or paternity leave may not work for someone who doesn’t plan on starting a family anytime soon. The same way overtime pays don’t apply to people whose roles don’t require working beyond the agreed hours. If employers can give customizable benefits to their staff, there’s more of a chance they can retain them.

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The first step to knowing how to provide benefits that actually matter to employees is to ask them. Distribute survey forms, encourage private catchups when possible, and open engagement platforms for a start. It will most likely take some time and work on the management, but it’s all for the long term.

Know more about what it takes to be a good employer by visiting Employers Insights. You can also sign up on JobStreet here and while you’re at it, use the Talent Search so you can grow your company further.