Where employee benefits and wellbeing meet – part 2

Last week we shared six tips on how to bridge the gap between benefits and wellbeing to create a positive employee experience. Here are another five, highlighting that when it comes to putting employees first, the link between business disciplines is narrower than you think.

Let go of what you imagine wellbeing to be, or what employee benefits are about. Take it back to basics: do you really want your employees to feel good about coming to work? If so, this will be embedded in your organisational culture in lots of ways.

1. Your physical environment: is it safe, pleasant and easy to get to? A long, traffic-fumed commute really adds to people’s stress levels. You can’t always help that, of course, but you can offer flexible start and finish times, and ensure that your office space has peaceful, appealing décor and restful breakout areas.
2. Equipment and ergonomics: from comfortable desks and chairs to efficient, easy-to-use technology, do people have the tools they need to perform well? If inanimate objects frequently take the rap in your organisation, your kit may need updating.
3. Flexibility: as above, can you allow people to set their own hours to accommodate the school run, look after a sick child or avoid horrendous rush-hour bottlenecks?
4. Pay and reward: can your employees look forward to salary increases? Money isn’t everything, but of course it’s an important part of your reward package so think about bonuses, incentives, commission and other forms of recognition.
5. Just as importantly, do you offer employee benefits? Seen in the context of these other things, benefits become more than just reward. They form part of a wider strategy to improve the employee experience on every level. This means your choice of benefits is important too – will they really meet the needs of your particular employee demographic? Is life assurance as important to 25-year-old as, say, discounted gym membership or online shopping?

Just to add a few caveats to this list (and our previous one), bringing wellbeing and benefits into one strategy doesn’t mean you’ll get everything absolutely right. Clear-headed analysis will show where your strengths and needs lie. There’s no one size fits all, but it’s fairly safe to say that clear values, strong leadership and good management go a long way to creating a positive employee experience.

Secondly, you can only influence how your employees feel, you can’t control it. They’re affected by the wider world too. But you can acknowledge that they have a life outside work (through flexible working, empathic managers, lifestyle benefits, and so on), which will help them give more to the job.

For smaller businesses, making these changes may seem daunting – but a trusted partner can analyse needs and provide practical, workable solutions.