Do your employee benefits reflect your values?

When your employee benefits align with your values, it helps you recruit and retain talented staff and fosters greater employee engagement. Using positive, value-led language in your marketing and recruitment literature is great, but employees and customers will soon see through it if your actions don't match your words. Your employee benefits package also influences and reflects your company culture and can help you create a positive employee experience.

Recent research suggests that more companies are investing in a benefits package that supports diversity, environmental sustainability and invests in their people. Businesses that were planning to develop their employee benefits were also focusing on those that aligned with their values and ethics.

Every business is unique, with differing values and approaches to business performance. There's more than one way to create a positive company culture. If you want to create a new employee benefits package or review your existing one based on your company values, it's a good idea to start by identifying what those values are. Depending on the size of your business, this process can be complex, involving input on your current behaviours, brainstorming new ideas, and clearly defining the meaning of words identified during those discussions.

You might want to be known for innovation, environmental sustainability or for your approach to teamwork. Once you've identified the values that define your brand, you can start to reflect on how to incorporate them into your employee benefits.

Some values will determine what you include in your employee benefits package. In contrast, others might influence how you communicate with your team about the employee benefits they value, as well as how you discuss your benefits package. If you're reviewing your benefits package, open communication and consultations with staff can help you understand their values and identify areas for improvement in take-up and operations.

If your core values include integrity, honesty and openness, it's vital you approach discussions with these in mind. Clear communication helps staff understand what their employee benefits package includes and how it operates. You can provide all staff with the same benefits or let them tailor their package to suit their needs if adaptability and flexibility are important to you.

Next, let's consider which employee benefits could demonstrate your values.

Your employee benefits can reflect your values in multiple ways, especially if you offer optional or customisable benefits. It's a good idea to include several benefits to give your team a positive employee experience. A benefits program that provides financial compensation, health and well-being benefits, and allows staff to create a positive work-life balance caters to employees' individual needs and preferences, as well as their changing circumstances in the long term. It also allows you to demonstrate your investment in your team's personal and professional development and desire to support your local community, if that aligns with your core values.

Health and well-being benefits

Health and well-being benefits demonstrate your commitment to caring for your people at work and in their personal lives. They can increase employee engagement and retention, and reduce the amount of sick leave your employees take. Some financial benefits can have a dual purpose, supporting good mental health and well-being as well as providing competitive compensation.

Employee health insurance

Employee health insurance provides your employees with quick access to private medical treatment without spending time on an NHS waiting list. If you prioritise employee health, investing in a group health insurance policy is an easy way to demonstrate this. The treatment policies provide varies depending on your chosen policy and provider, and you can tailor your coverage based on your needs and budget. Most policies also offer access to health screening, either as part of your policy or at a discounted rate for more extensive testing.

If you value treating people with compassion, promoting high levels of employee engagement and happiness, you can tailor your health insurance to reflect that. For example, 40% of employees value employee benefits that provide mental health support. Most policies offer 8-10 counselling sessions in their core coverage, along with free or discounted access to mindfulness and meditation apps. However, you can choose to add an employee assistance programme (EAP) or extend your mental health treatment coverage to provide a broader range of treatment options.

Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs)

An employee assistance programme (EAP) can provide counselling sessions and other support services. You can add an EAP to your health insurance or choose a standalone service.

An independent EAP demonstrates your commitment to employee mental health and shows integrity, as it's a confidential, third-party service that lets staff discuss their problems without worrying that it will impact their future personal or professional development.

Enhanced sick pay and critical illness coverage

Supporting your employees when they can't work due to illness or injury shows both compassion and integrity. We'd also classify it as a benefit that supports their mental health and well-being. If employees need to take time off for a serious illness, a loss of earnings may impact their ability to pay the bills or look after their loved ones.

Income protection insurance pays a percentage of an employee's usual salary for up to two years of absence, in contrast to statutory sick pay, which only pays for 28 weeks. Critical illness cover pays a lump sum if an employee is diagnosed with a serious illness named on the policy. These benefits can help employees feel able to relax and recover in their own time, knowing that their expenses are covered. If they're diagnosed with a terminal illness, it can also help to pay for care or fund funeral expenses.

Well-being allowances

If trust between management, staff and customers is an essential part of your approach to business success, consider including flexible health and wellness allowances in your benefits package. These are financial allowances that staff can use as they wish to support their health goals. They offer flexibility and control, demonstrating your trust in their judgment.

You could also offer other benefits that employees can opt into, which benefit their health while aligning with other company values. For example, the cycle-to-work scheme supports environmental sustainability by encouraging staff to cycle to work, while an active commute also has health benefits.

Providing financial security

A competitive compensation package provides your team with financial security now and in the future. Financial benefits and education can show your team that you care about their personal development. It can also help them to avoid financial stress, which can undermine their physical and mental health.

We've mentioned the role an EAP can play in supporting employees' mental health. However, most EAPs also provide telephone helplines with general financial and legal guidance, and signposting to tailored advice and support.

Income protection insurance

We've discussed how income protection insurance can protect your staff from a dramatic drop in their income during a sickness absence. Providing income protection insurance requires a financial investment, but it can also demonstrate your commitment and loyalty to your team, even when they can't work. It fosters trust and can boost employee engagement and retention, as they know they can depend on you throughout life's ups and downs.

Death in service benefits

You can provide death-in-service benefits with a group life insurance policy that pays a lump sum if an employee dies while employed by you. The amount a policy pays is a multiple of an employee's usual salary and goes to their nominated beneficiaries, usually their spouse or children. The payout can help their family maintain their quality of life even when they're gone. It demonstrates your loyalty to your employees and your commitment to the broader community, particularly through the support of their loved ones.

Pension contribution matching

The rules on workplace pensions state that employers must pay a minimum of 3% of an employee's salary into a pension, with employees contributing a minimum of 5%. However, you and your employees can choose to pay a higher percentage if you wish. Pension contribution matching guarantees that you'll match your employees' contributions up to a set amount. This boosts their retirement fund, demonstrating your loyalty and commitment to investing in their life after work.

You can also increase contributions according to length of service, demonstrating and encouraging loyalty from both sides.

Long-service awards

We've mentioned pension contributions that increase based on length of service, but other benefits can show your appreciation for their loyalty. You could offer financial rewards, either as a cash bonus or in the form of gifts that employees can select according to their interests.

You could also increase holiday allowances, giving long-serving employees more time to spend with their loved ones and demonstrating your commitment to their health.

Performance bonuses and profit-sharing

If you value innovation and sustainable business growth, offering performance bonuses or a profit share linked to performance or creative ideas can motivate employees. It can also show that you value accountability and giving credit where it's due, which in turn leads to increased job satisfaction and trust. You can provide individual bonuses or reward teams if teamwork is important to you.

Investing in staff development

When you invest in staff development opportunities, you show your workforce that you want to see them grow and succeed. It's a great way to foster loyalty, as it can provide opportunities for career development within your company. This avoids a situation where a valued employee resigns because they've outgrown their current role and can't progress.

Professional training and qualifications

Paying for training that helps a staff member do their job better makes perfect sense, but training can also support their career progression. There are various approaches to training, from funding in-house sessions run by third parties or existing staff to external training days and courses. Supporting training that isn't directly relevant to an employee's current role can demonstrate your commitment to their career and encourage loyalty by enabling them to move to a job in a different department. Equally, you could allow employees to seek training and advanced qualifications, such as degree courses, that aren't directly relevant to your business objectives.

How you approach training and development shows whether you value knowledge and the pursuit of excellence. It's important to consider how you will approach funding. For example, you may fully fund training related to your business objectives, but offer subsidies or loans for other courses.

In-house mentorship and training

In-house mentorship programmes with relevant training can help your employees feel valued and understand the other opportunities your business offers. It allows employees to gain a deeper understanding of the work other departments do, which could enable a move or greater co-operation between teams, ideal if you value teamwork and collaboration.

Mentorship can also help staff learn about more senior roles, letting them spend time with line managers or other management staff and encouraging progression to a management role.

Innovation and research days

Suppose you value innovation and want to show your employees that you trust them to focus on projects that will benefit your business. Scheduling regular innovation days, where staff can choose what to work on, encourages teamwork and can yield improvement in areas you may not expect.

You'll likely prioritise income-generating work for clients. However, giving staff the freedom to pursue personal projects lets them tackle issues that affect their productivity, such as inefficient internal processes that may take a back seat when focusing on client work and sales.

Creating a positive work-life balance

Employees increasingly value employers that enable them to create a positive work-life balance that reflects the demands on their time outside work and the need to look after their health. Various benefits can help your team find the right balance for their needs.

Flexible working

Flexible working can include flexible hours and working location. You can decide what options will give employees flexibility while still supporting your business goals, then give staff the option to choose the combination that works for them. For example, some may enjoy working in the office but want to alter their hours, while others want to work at home full-time while keeping to standard office hours. There are many potential combinations. Offering flexible working demonstrates adaptability and shows respect for your employees as individuals and trust in their ability to understand what they need to perform well.

Leave for parents and carers

Parents and staff with caring responsibilities will likely benefit from flexibility, but offering them generous parental leave or carers' leave can demonstrate your core values in other ways. New parents or those adjusting to a change in circumstances will often benefit from time away from work. Offering extended parental leave in excess of the statutory minimum shows that your business is committed to supporting your employees and the community around them.

Flexible annual leave

If you decide to offer annual leave beyond the minimum 5.6 weeks of paid time off required by law for full-time workers, there are various approaches you can take. You can offer more days off for all staff, or increase the amount of annual leave an employee can take according to their length of service. Some companies offer unlimited leave, although this can create uncertainty, which results in employees taking less time off and experiencing burnout.

Consider implementing mental health days (or duvet days), a day off for an employee's birthday, or floating bank holidays, so that staff can take days off for religious holidays occurring on working days. These all show respect for diversity and the need for employees to take a complete break.

Sabbaticals and career breaks

We've explored the benefits that can support career progression or enable employees to adjust to a change in their personal lives. Sometimes, employees may need to take time away from their role to explore other options or take a break for personal reasons that don't attract other benefits or statutory leave. Consider allowing staff to take a sabbatical or career break to explore other opportunities. Sabbaticals can help to prevent burnout, strengthen employee engagement and productivity and lead to greater job satisfaction.

There are no legal requirements for sabbaticals, meaning any agreement you make with an employee is discretionary. This shows your trust in your staff and adaptability to new ways of working.

Building strong workplace and community relationships

A good working relationship between employees can positively impact employee engagement and promote good health by improving mental health and reducing stress and social isolation. Many employees now prioritise good workplace relationships over a pay rise, so promoting positive relationships can also increase employee retention.

If teamwork is vital to your business, fostering relationships makes sense. If you've identified service to the community as a core part of your company culture, some benefits can promote staff participation in charity and other community events and initiatives.

Social and team-building events

Structuring your work processes in a way that encourages teamwork is a great starting point. However, in larger businesses, it can be challenging to develop relationships across different teams and departments. Team-building events help employees in the same team get to know each other outside of work, revealing different aspects of their personalities. Consider whole business or inter-departmental away days to enable communication between teams with shared goals, thereby increasing collaboration.

Social events outside work can help colleagues get to know each other in a relaxed environment, but consider how to make these accessible to staff with commitments outside work. Helping your employees build good relationships shows you care about community and their happiness.

Charity and CSR

Charitable projects and fundraising events can support good workplace relationships across the business and encourage teamwork. Many UK charities invite business partnerships, where your company can choose an office charity and help them with fundraising and time spent volunteering.

Offering staff paid time for volunteering lets them choose a personally meaningful charity. Both options show your interest in supporting the community outside your business.

Your company's employee benefits package can send a powerful message to your employees and customers. It demonstrates that you're willing to invest in living your values. At Globacare, we help you find the right insurance products to support high-quality employee benefits. Contact us today for tailored advice.