While a higher salary range is the obvious catch for employees to finalize on a job offer, benefits also make a significant difference. The 2017 employee benefits guide by Glassdoor reveals that 57% of the respondents agreed that perks and benefits were one of the most important factors in their decision about a job. However, apart from making a job offer more attractive, ‘benefits provided to employees’ can also tell you a lot about the employer brand. Organizations that choose to go beyond the statutory benefits and offer more employee benefit packages tend to spell out their employee culture and the kind of relationship they want to build with employees. So, apart from the statutory ones, what are the employee benefits that companies offer, and what can you infer about the employer brand from it? Let’s take a look.
career growth benefits
When looking for a job opportunity, candidates also pay special importance to the additional benefits they can avail. Some of the additional benefits that a lot of employers can provide to attract and sustain their workforce are:
- Educational assistance or tuition reimbursement
- Rewards for additional certificates
- Assistance for executive programs
- Reimbursement for general training courses
- Mentoring and counselling
These benefits provided to employees also focus on the professional and intellectual growth of employees. Student loan assistance, for instance, is the most preferred employee benefit in the US. By providing employee benefits solution, organizations exhibit a keen interest in enhancing their knowledge and learning. It also tends to reflect that the employer is focusing on building a long-term and mutually-beneficial association with its employees by investing in their knowledge and skills. Employees, who are eager to learn and grow, are keen to join such workplaces.
work-life quality benefits
- Paid and unpaid parental leave
- Day care/ crèche
- Flexi work hours
- Monetary assistance for day care/elder care
- Vacation time
Benefits such as part-time working hours or work-from-home opportunities, which touch upon the lives of employees beyond work, fall under work-life benefits. These benefits help the employers to contribute to enhance the quality of their employees’ lives. Organizations that include such benefits in their compensation plans tend to build a more empathetic relationship with their workforce. According to a Harvard Business Review Survey, employees have ranked benefits favouring ‘work-life balance’ second, after healthcare.
further incentive benefits
- Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP)
- Profit sharing scheme
- Pension or savings plan
- Company car
- Loan assistance
- Housing
Further, incentive benefits focus on assisting the employees in their financial growth. ESOPs, contribution retirement plans, and other saving plans are no more considered as fringe or secondary benefits. Companies are using these financial benefits to reward and retain their high potential and ambitious employees. Take the example of Walmart-backed Flipkart, where they have gone ahead and made its employees a part of its profits by offering ESOPs to them. This is also the company’s way to cash-in on its employees’ stockholding.
fringe benefits
- Profit bonus
- Gratuity
- Leave with-pay
- Housing allowance
- Meals
A considerable proportion of fringe benefits are given in the form of monetary bonus, etc. As per the employers Federation of India, fringe benefits were about 21.3% of the total wages paid in a year. These benefits have more to do with the nature of the job and are provided primarily for the actual or perceived needs of employees. Employers who provide such monetary or non-monetary fringe benefits to their employees foster a more committed and productive environment at work.
As a well-informed employee, you must look at what the organization has to offer beyond the regular compensation. The benefit offered can help you gauge its organizational values such as employee-friendliness, work culture, social responsibility, innovativeness, etc. Look for companies that will invest in your growth along with them. Seeking such benefits from your employer is a symbiotic way of working which will only motivate you to be more productive and loyal.