Best Perks and Benefits to Offer Your Team in 2023

Employee benefits are rewards and bonuses offered by an employer to employees to supplement their regular salary and make the overall package of working with a company more attractive by increasing the overall value. The benefits offered can vary greatly from company to company and while the most popular tend to be medical or insurance related, there are other health, lifestyle, and fun bonuses which many companies choose to offer. The perks offered to an employee can depend on their position at the company, if they are full-time, and how long they hey have been with the company.

Offering your staff a good benefits package is also in a business’ favour. Impressive employee benefits can play a role in boosting workplace morale, reducing stress and associated absences leading to improved overall productivity of staff. The perks you offer in the workplace can be used to reflect company values, ethos, and brand, conveying how you care about the physical wellbeing and mental health of your workforce. It also helps with employee retention and satisfaction, as well as giving you the edge against competition when it comes to recruiting the top talent when you do have job vacancies.

Here are 14 of the best perks and benefits you should be offering your workforce in the new year:

1) Health Insurance

According to Hooray Insurance, 57% of employees chose Business Health Insurance as their top benefit. Health insurance which stretches to include the employee’s family members can also be a major bonus. Offering health insurance can also be in the company’s best interest as it can allow the staff access to higher quality healthcare in a shorter amount of time compared to if they did not have health coverage. Therefore, the employee is less likely to have to take as many sick days if they do encounter health issues and will also be more productive as they will be put under less mental and physical stress.

2) Dental coverage

Many employers offer dental coverage as part of their overall healthcare packages or as a separate benefit. Dental coverage can include exclusively routine check-ups, or in some cases will extend to any procedures your employees may need.

3) Vision coverage

Companies which offer medical and physical wellbeing benefits may also include vision coverage. As with dental, employers may group vision coverage under a general medical plan, but they may also have deals with certain insurance providers or opticians. This policy usually covers appointments such as eye tests and contact lens checks, but it could also include glasses, contact lens prescriptions and procedures such as laser eye surgery.

4) Therapy or counselling coverage

As employer’s become more aware of the links between mental health and the productivity, retention and satisfaction of their employees some are beginning to offer coverage for counselling as a perk at their company. In some cases, this will be included in the healthcare package, and in other cases they may have deals with particular providers where they can offer you ten fully covered therapy sessions for example.

Many factors can impact employee mental health, from stress or loneliness at work causing poor work-life balance to more personal circumstances which can greatly vary. No matter what it’s important that the mental health of every worker is taken seriously by everyone – particularly your leaders and HR team.

5) Retirement plan

Retirement schemes are available through most employers and usually refer to private pension schemes. A retirement scheme is often one of the most important parts of the benefits you offer potential new hires, with very few employers not offering them. To be a competitive contender against other roles candidates may be interviewing for having some kind of pension scheme included in your benefits is crucial.

A part of a retirement plan should be a pension scheme. A workplace pension scheme allows a worker to save for their retirement through contributions to their pension deducted directly from their wages. You can make sure pension scheme more attractive to top talent by also making contributions to the employee’s pension through the scheme.

6) Family leave

Family leave includes both statutory maternity leave and pay, statutory paternity pay and either paid or unpaid allowances for emergency family leave or compassionate leave. Some companies choose to only offer the statutory requirement, but many also include extended periods or improved pay rates for family leave in their benefits. This is often done to retain any top talents that may be required to take parental leave for example during their career.

7) Gym membership

Many companies partner with local gyms to offer gym memberships or discounts as a perk of working with them. Some employers also have gyms at their workplace to make it easy and convenient for employees to look after their wellbeing. If you’re company is part of the health or sports market in any way, it might be particularly in line with your values and brand to offer this as a benefit.

8) Student loan repayments

Employers that commonly hire graduates sometimes offer to contribute towards student loan repayments. The amount that an employer contributes can vary, but this perk can be especially successful in appealing to younger people if you want to recruit fresh talent into your business.

9) Paid training and development

If you are unable to offer a salary which is as competitive as you’d like it to be, offering for your company to pay for a new hire to do a course can significantly increase the overall value of the package you’re offering depending on the courses you would be willing to support. Paying for your staff to receive extra training is in their interest in terms of giving them an edge as they progress in their career, as well as being highly likely to improve the quality of their contributions whilst working with you.

10) Company equipment

Some companies choose to offer free equipment to a worker as a perk of being with their company. This could include office chairs, monitors, headphones and more, so that your worker has access to the highest quality, up to date tech and most comfortable working environment as possible.

11) Group life insurance

45% of employees according to Hooray Insurance chose group life insurance, also referred to as death in service benefit, as their top benefit. If your employee dies while working for your company death in service benefit pays out a lump sum to the employee’s family or next of kin. The lump sum is usually based on a multiple of their salary, such as two or three times the salary.

12) Flexi time

Flexi time refers to a system where employees work their set hour – 35 hours a week for example – and they have flexibility about when exactly they work these hours. Including this in your company’s benefits package can be a smart move as when a worker is given the ability to start or finish their work at times that fit best into their lifestyle it allows them to create a better work-life balance, leading to improved employee satisfaction overall.

13) Childcare resources

Childcare can be incredibly expensive, causing significant stress for your staff who are parents. There are multiple ways a workplace can ease this worry using employee perks. Some businesses have a workplace nursery allowing parents to save tax and NI on the full cost of a nursery. Workplaces can also arrange discounts with certain childcare centres for their staff.

In some cases, companies choose to combat this in a different way, such as by offering extended parental leave or more flexi time.

14) Gifts and rewards

Gifts and rewards you can offer your staff could include a discount on your products, which is especially appropriate if you are a retail or B2C company. Perhaps you could offer employee perks which are specific to someone’s birthday, such as offering them a bigger discount, free products or other gifts such as a cake! These kinds of gifts, especially on special occasions, can contribute to employee wellbeing as they feel valued.

To conclude…

The perks and benefits you offer are foundational to your recruitment marketing efforts and form a major part of your employee value proposition.

If you want to learn how Hireserve ATS can boost your recruitment efforts, book a demo today.