When you own a business you want your employees to know you appreciate them. There are some benefits you are required to give your employees by law. Then there are other benefits or perks that you can share with your employees. You want your employees to feel special and be happy so they will continue to be productive at work. Here are seven creative employee benefits that will keep your top employees happy and working hard for you.
1. Work from home
If your employee seems to be starting to burn out at the office or they tell you they have to be home with their sick child or spouse, instead of making them take a vacation or sick day you can let them work from home. This way your employee is being paid but they can also take care of the emergency situation at home. Your employees will be grateful that they can still work and get paid while dealing with their life situation.
2. Tuition reimbursement
If your employees are trying to earn a degree that will allow them to advance within the company you can consider offering them a full or part tuition reimbursement. That way your employees can concentrate on their work and their studies and not worry about paying for their degree. This is a great perk to encourage your employees to better themselves for the good of the company.
3. Gifts
Birthdays, marriages, and the birth of a child are important days in your employees’ lives. You can celebrate these occasions with gifts for your employees. You can give them a gift certificate to a toy store when their child is born. For a wedding gift you can give your employee wedding dance lessons at a local dance studio. On your employee’s birthday you can take them out for lunch. There are many different gift opportunities out there you can give your employees.
4. Pet Insurance
If your employees have pets you can offer them pet insurance. This will give them peace of mind when it comes to their fur babies. Pets can get sick and their bills can run in the thousands of dollars. Having pet insurance will help ease the cost of caring for their pets. If they are not worried they will work more diligently for you.
5. Gym membership
Having employees that are in good physical shape means less stress in the office and less sick days taken. Working out is healthy for your employees. Exercise lowers stress and helps build up immune systems. Both of these features will keep your employees in office more and keep your business running on schedule.
6. Maternity/paternity leave
Offering extra maternity or paternity leave can let your employees know that you value them and want them to spend time with their families when a new baby is born. Spending time with their newborn will help lessen the stress your employee feels with a newborn in the house. Rather than sitting at a desk getting phone calls from home all day, they can be there with their newborn or supporting their spouse. Their priority is with their family and they will appreciate you acknowledging that fact.
7. Floating Holiday
You can give your employees a couple of floating holidays off with pay. They can pick their two days off and spend time getting de-stressed away from work while not losing any pay. Regular holidays can be a stressful time for people, so being able to take a day off with pay any time of the year can help balance the stress of the normal holidays. Your employees can relax on their day off and come back ready to work.