Types of value benefits you can give to your employees

Offering benefits to your employees is a sure-fire way to improve their morale and their productivity. This is because they will feel happier in the workplace and less stressed, allowing them to work harder and truly enjoy their time in your company. You could look into benefits such as group life cover or offer your employees a life insurance policy with life cover for their parents. This will be helpful because for many South Africans, their annual salary might not be enough for this type of insurance.

As well as offering them group life insurance, you can offer other benefits. For example, you could provide the option to contribute to a retirement fund or you could invest in retrenchment cover with a disability cover addition, to be prepared in the unlikely event of an accident.

These benefits will give your employees peace of mind that their living expenses will still be paid for should anything happen to them while in your employ. Below are just some of the different types of benefits to offer your employees.

Group Life Cover

One of the most valuable benefits you can provide for your employees is a group life insurance scheme. This insurance cover will pay out a lump sum should your employees become injured or pass away while in your employ. It allows their families to grieve with dignity during a stressful and difficult time.

You can speak to your employees and ask them for an amount they are able to contribute each month to the group life cover, and assure them that there are no medical tests that they will need to undergo for this insurance. Not only will this foster more loyalty from your employees due to you going out of your way to protect them, but you will also be providing them with cover to protect their family’s livelihood should something happen to them.

Flexible Working Hours

Now, this might sound as though it could be detrimental to your business, but in reality offering flexible working hours as a benefit can help your business immensely. If your employees are able to work from home once or twice a week, especially if they rely on public transport, they will be more encouraged to work harder for those hours they are in the office.

Another option for flexible working hours is to offer workers the chance to start work at different times, providing they work the right number of hours a day. Some people might prefer to start the day early at 7am and leave work at 3pm to collect their children from school. Those who do not have familial responsibilities might prefer to start working at 10am and end the day at 6pm so they can sleep in. Be sure you devise a plan to suit everyone.

Medical Aid Schemes

Your employees’ health is important to the success of your company, not everyone can afford to pay the large medical aid fees each month. You can offer them a group medical aid scheme to contribute to at lower rates or offer to pay for half of their medical aid provided that they choose the same medical aid scheme the company is offering.

In order to find out what your employees need in terms of a medical aid or hospital plan, set up a meeting with them and ask for their feedback. Allow everyone to contribute, as some people might have different and more pressing needs than others. You could set guidelines for what can and should be covered by this scheme based on the input from your employees so that everyone is covered equally and fairly.

Paid Maternal Or Paternal Leave

Having a little bundle of joy to welcome into one’s home is always a happy time, but for new parents it can be highly stressful, especially if they cannot look forward to paid leave. Offering new parents the ability to take paid time off to care for a new baby for a month or two will help to ease this stress through encouraging crucial parent-baby bonding, and also means that they will not have to worry about losing money for those weeks off.

Parenting is a two-way street, and many businesses tend to neglect allowing fathers time off to help with looking after their new child, so be sure to gauge your male employees’ feedback about possible paternity leave. This is a benefit which is sure to build your employees’ loyalty and show that you truly care about them. Be sure, however, that you do set a limit on how long the leave can be as you will need to keep your workflow running smoothly while the worker is on leave.

Happy employees mean good business

Having happy employees is good for your business. They will be more productive,will work harder, and they will also be covered for any eventuality. Start by offering group life cover and medical aid, then consider flexible working hours and the possibility of paid parental leave. These benefits can help your business grow and flourish as it should, while leaving employees feeling valued and protected, and thus more productive and loyal.

The content in this article was provided by Rogerwilco – a South African marketing agency based in Cape Town.