Employee benefits are a small but significant part of an employee’s time at a company. These benefits are perks outside of salaries that you provide to your employees as a way to show that you are invested in them and want to keep them satisfied. These benefits may vary from medical insurance to weekly meals to vacations.

If you haven’t thought about setting up employee benefits for your hardworking staff, it’s about time you do so.

But, finding the right employee benefit that will fit your budget or your preferences for perks may not be easy. This is why we’ve listed 10 types of employee benefits you can provide for your team members. After all, modern HR is all about employee happiness!

Types of employee benefits 

1. Set up cosy office spaces

A fun but effective employee benefit that you can set up at a very minimal cost is cosy and laidback spaces within the office environment.

Companies like Google have meditation and nap areas while one architecture office, Selgas Cano is actually within nature, with glass walls that overlook greenery.

While you don’t need to shell out a lot to revamp your office and make it more vibrant, you can make small changes like making the communal area more fun to relax in.

Paint the walls a bright colour and set up a few bean bags or nap pods and even put a Playstation within the space to allow employees to get away from their desks right within the office!

nap time - types of employee benefits

2. Provide medical assistance 

One of the most important employee benefits that you need to consider setting up is medical insurance. Taking care of one’s health is clearly a priority and companies must put this need on the top of their HR pile.

Make medical insurance the first employee benefit you set up.

Medical bills are usually through the roof and by protecting your employees— and even their families, if possible— you remove a huge burden off their shoulders. It’s one of the most important employee benefits policies. It also boosts employee satisfaction when they know you care.

types of employee benefits - medical

3. Let them redeem a fitness perk

One of the best types of employee benefits provided by large companies like Microsoft and WeWork is a fitness centre membership.

By providing fitness as a perk sponsored by the company, you make wellness a priority among employees and ultimately, keep them happy.

Encourage employees to get a membership at their favourite gym or yoga centre which can be reimbursed by the company. Boost employee engagement instantly!

Some companies even go so far as to reimburse employees for their fitness memberships only after they have gone for 15 or more days for their fitness sessions. This way, you can ensure that your employees are sticking to their fitness plan.

team fitness - types of employee benefits

4. Make learning and development (L&D) mandatory

One of the best ways to help your employees grow within your company is to provide the learning tools yourself. This is why learning and development is a prioritized perk within many companies.

You can set up learning as an employee benefit within your office by allowing employees to sign up for online courses on learning websites like Skillshare, Udacity, and Udemy, to name a few, which can be reimbursed by the company once they finish the course they signed up for.

Moreover, you can even have a policy that lets employees go for development events within the city and cover the costs of the event for them.

Encouraging learning within the office can help your employees upskill themselves and climb the ladder at work.

learning

Gallup found that 87 per cent of millennials considered professional development opportunities as important to making a choice of employer.

By providing learning and development as a perk, you can enable your employees to grow within their skill set and keep them satisfied within your company.

5. Set up monthly inspiration workshops

One employee benefit that can tackle both employee growth and bonding is having inspiration workshops that help employees thrive using their skills. Bring in life coaches and career experts to talk about how employees can grow within their field.

You can even turn this workshop into more one-to-one or department-based interaction where relevant industry leaders come in to talk to employees individually or to each department that they are specialized in.

6. Provide books for free

If you want employee benefits that cost little but add a lot of value to the lives of your team members, look no further than free books!

Many companies set up Audible, Kindle and even Amazon book subscriptions for their employees using which they can buy and read as many books for a certain dollar amount.

This way, you are helping your employees pick up a great skill— reading— and helping them grow within the knowledge they gain.

types of employee benefits books

7. Schedule weekly meals together

Employee benefits can be more than just a fun environment or a single employee activity. Instead, get your employees together for a bonding event like weekly lunches.

Some of the most successful tech companies have scheduled weekly lunches or weekend brunches as a way to get team members and their families together in a non-work environment.

Having fun events like this outside of work instills a friendship and makes members bond with each other.

types of employee benefits - lunch

Learn more about the different events you can have within your work environment to help bond and increase employee satisfaction.

8. Be open to flexible work hours

Companies that allow their employees to choose their own work hours have never lost out on positive work outcomes. In fact, 30% of employees prefer to be able to choose a flexible schedule, whether it is choosing the hours that work for them or choosing to work from home a few days a week.

While some of your employees may be early risers, others maybe night owls, and some others might just have childcare priorities that make it tough for them to get to work at 9 am in the morning.

Instead, by allowing flexible work hours as an employee benefit, you can take the load of your employees’ shoulders and let them choose the hours they want to work.

flexible work - types of employee benefits

Or, if you are letting them work from home, you can set up apps like AttendanceBot to let them send a note to their manager that they are working from home and even log in the hours they are working.

This way, your employees can work when they are most productive and you can still keep track of their active work hours.

9. Give parents their much-needed leaves

In this day and age, a workplace needs to be more parent-friendly and especially inclusive to new parents. Companies big and small have made parental benefits a priority in their rulebook. This is why one of the most important types of employee benefits you need to have is parental benefits.

From providing 5 months of parental leave to covering medical for newborns and parents alike, companies need to set down benefits that protect employees. And also ensure employees don’t have to worry about losing their jobs when they start expecting.

Some companies even make their work hours flexible for new moms during their first year of having a child so they can tend to the newborn’s needs without compromising on their careers.

10. Make employee interactions a habit

Some employee benefits don’t have to be shiny and redeemable in fun activities. If you want to ensure your team members are interacting more with each other, you can set up automated apps within your communication tools to fuel conversation among them.

Encouraging employee interaction is especially important in large companies. Because employees may not even meet each other in their daily work life.

Set up apps like Donut to perk up your employees’ week without distracting them from work. Donut automates connections between employees in the company. It persuades them to set aside 15 minutes to grab a coffee together and meet for a while.

Not sure how to break the ice between employees? Here are 10 team-building events and activities to spice up work routines.

If you haven’t set up benefits for your employees, it’s important you prioritize this task first thing tomorrow. With a great set of benefits, you can increase job satisfaction and see higher productivity levels from your employees!

Which employee benefits have you set up at your workplace?