Everyone wants to work for a “people-first” organization. Who wouldn’t? These are companies who clearly understand that their people and the culture they create means positive results for work satisfaction and revenue growth.
According to recent surveys and studies released on this topic and job advertisements, the top “benefit” criteria for these companies include:
• Flexibility in scheduling and work options, both in person and remote
• Time off, including vacation, personal and medical days
• Wellness, emotional wellbeing
• Professional development for people’s growth and learning. Staying current and competitive with the marketplace you serve
• Financial support, outside of salary, which includes financial education, group RRSP’s, pension, share options, and employee discounts
• Personalized perks like gym memberships, fitness classes and training, and nutrition
• Community involvement encouraging volunteer options and charity as an extension of working time
The real asks
Not to discredit this very important list, at all, but it overlooks some fundamental needs and asks of staff members. In fact, as we have seen from the union negotiations this last year, this listing seems to side-step the real “boots on the ground” needs of employees in their day to day.
• Salary protection in the event of death, diagnosis, illness, disease, and other health issues.
• Inclusivity benefits like fertility, obesity, smoking cession, erectile disfunction, gender affirmation
• Increased vision and hearing benefits to match the actual costs of services so employees can perfect effectively at their job and response to team and customers alike.
• Accommodation for those who work non-traditional schedules, like temporary, contract, commission, remote and gig workers.
These are the often overlooked core value of the employee group benefit plan when seeking to really put your people first.
Top talent have choice
As a colleague pointed out, if you are seeking to attract and retain top talent, so is everyone else and the very items used to attract such a person to the organization need to be constantly maintained, and update to current standards in order to continue to retain the same talent.
In the same manner when hiring staff, it is not expected that they will bring with them, at their own cost, the technology equipment, so too, is it unreasonable to expect them to fundamentally pay out of pocket for their other needs to get the job done.
• Glasses—see the screen, read the reports, interpret data and instruction.
• Hearing Aids—understand and respond to instructions from management, co-workers, and customers alike.
• Back, knee, wrist braces—work effectively pain free.
People First
It takes just a smidgen longer to create a benefit offering that looks first at people’s needs to align flexible benefit program to compensation, productivity and safety.
Not a checked box
This kind of alignment builds employee engagement, encourages team members to utilizing the program to enhance their ability to do the job well, and hence creates a more profitable company.
Let’s have a conversation.
Reach out if you would like to explore your corporate benefit options, like:
· Protection of salary
· Vision care options
· Health Spending Accounts
· Employee Wellness Programs
Note: this was written without the aid of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
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