Guest post by Anastasia Iliou, Marketing Manager at Rain.
As we reach the end of this life-altering year, everyone is paying extra close attention to benefits packages. Your competitors are ramping up their benefits, and both current employees and future hires have their eyes open. One study found that since COVID-19 began its spread in America, employees have devalued their company’s health insurance and lost trust in their employers to provide support.
Now more than ever, American workers need the best healthcare, the best wages, and the best additional benefits possible. But how can that be possible for businesses that are struggling in the aftermath of the pandemic? The answer may be closer than you think. Here are some of the top FREE, voluntary benefits that you can start offering within days.
Career Counseling & Advancement Opportunities
Businesses have to understand and appreciate that their employees likely don’t want to be stuck in the same position forever. A Deloitte study from 2020 proved that “lack of career progress” is still the number one factor that causes people to seek out new employment opportunities. It doesn’t do a company any good to try to keep people in the same spot, either. The more your employees learn, the better they will perform. Employees should be constantly learning and growing – whether they want to move up the ranks one day or just improve in their current role.
HR Teams are in a unique position to not only provide advancement opportunities, but also provide guidance to employees who are excited to grow. Some companies may opt to hire a career counseling agency to coach their employees, but others would benefit from a free or low-cost internal program that includes regular one-on-one meetings, distributed materials, and publicized career opportunities.
Schedule Flexibility
Though not a tangible benefit, flexibility is an important part of any benefits package. Especially in 2020, when people’s lives have been flipped upside down, they’ll be happier and more productive knowing that they can schedule doctor’s appointments or be home with their kids and still be a valued member of their team.
You can implement flexible scheduling on your own or through use of a great vendor. There are several out there; here are a few:
- Beekeeper: Communication tool that makes it easy for employees to swap shifts and stay in touch.
- Skedulo: Makes it easy to visualize schedules and reduce inefficiencies.
- Humanity: Integrates with HCM platforms and is easy to access via phone, desktop, or tablet. Allows front line employees to alter and manage schedules on the go.
- TSheets: Track time via GPS monitoring and manage your projects all within one app.
- Planday: Includes a feature to track your financial reports using profits against worked hours.
- ZoomShift: This platform can remind your employees when their shifts are about to start and allow them to set their availability preferences as well as pick up extra shifts with the click of a button.
Some businesses can’t function properly with remote work, and that’s ok – flexible scheduling is still an option and it doesn’t cost a dime. The only disruption this might have is that it might create a need for a more organized employee scheduling system as listed above.
Employee Rewards and Incentives
Employee reward programs can be done relatively cheaply with the help of a platform like Reward Gateway, or can be done for free as long as someone in HR can dedicate a few minutes to it each week. This type of benefit can go a long way in making employees feel valued, especially during a time when so many people are risking their health to show up to work. Consider offering “employee of the month” certificates, small value gift cards for jobs well done, or even verbal recognition.
Verbally recognizing someone’s hard work in a way that other employees are aware can make a big difference in how much employees feel valued. Here are some examples of employee recognition and reward platforms:
Early Wage Access
Financial wellness benefits are immensely popular right now. Early wage access, also called “earned wage access” or “on-demand pay,” is a new concept that has picked up steam over the last few years. The idea is that sometimes employees don’t quite need a loan – they just need a few extra dollars so they can make it to payday.
Paying a few dollars to collect wages before payday is a healthier option than high-interest payday loans. It’s also healthier than paying late fees or overdraft fees.
Our partners at Rain created the “Rain Instant Pay” app to provide a healthy financial option for the 78% of Americans who are living paycheck to paycheck. It’s free for businesses to sign up.
To sign up for Rain, click here.
Pay Cards
Pay cards are a benefit that can save businesses time and money while keeping employees happy. Believe it or not, the FDIC reports that 25% of American households are unbanked or underbanked. If you have employees who are in that position and unable to collect their pay via direct deposit, issuing pay cards (which can be used like debit cards) is a great solution. There are plenty of pay card vendors out there, but if you choose to use Rain’s on-demand pay platform, you can use their pay card solution as well (at no additional cost).
If you use an outside vendor (like Rain), this doesn’t require much extra work at all. In fact, it can save payroll teams time because it eliminates the need for paper checks.
Low-Interest, Regulated Loans
Everyone agrees that traditional payday loans are predatory, right? With APRs reaching as high as 400%, it’s very easy for people to get caught in a payday loan trap. TrueConnect offers low interest rate loans up to $100,000 for those with good credit, as well as low interest rate, no-credit-check loans for up to $5,000.
Employers can help create change by offering TrueConnect as an employee benefit. It’s free to offer, and it gives employees a chance at collecting a small loan without paying astronomical fees. The more financial wellness benefits companies offer, the less financially stressed their workers would be – which then creates a more productive work environment.
Contact TrueConnect today about adding employee loans as a benefit.
