How to Create the Best Employee Benefits and Rewards Program?

One phenomenon that occurred worldwide during the pandemic was “The Great Resignation.” One of the leading IT companies in the country recently announced an increase of 17.4% in employee attrition. Many experts believe this can be attributed to low pay, a work-life culture imbalance, no advancement opportunities, or a feeling of not being valued at the company. This is where a rewarding system like group insurance for employees can help.

Nowadays, employees care more than just about their compensation. They want to feel respected and valued. From paid leaves, work from home, retirement plans, wellness programs, and childcare facilities to health insurance, you can find multiple types of employee benefits. This article will explain how you can offer your employees the best employee benefits and rewards program. 

Reasons for Introducing Benefits and Reward Programs for Employees?

Let’s first understand the importance of introducing these reward programs for your employees. If you introduce such programs, you can ensure the following:

• Increase loyalty within the workforce;
• Motivated employees lead to higher productivity;
• The organization’s image in the market will improve;
• Attract the top talents during recruitment; 
• Lower attrition rate with higher employee satisfaction.

Steps to create the best employee benefits and rewards program

As per a survey, 80% of the employees stated that they would choose a job with flexible benefits over an identical position with even 30% higher pay. Thus, it is a must for an organization to have an employee benefits program in place. Here are the steps to implement one. 

Make a budget

First and foremost, you should analyze your finances and then set up a budget. Employee rewards and benefits are innumerable. However, it is impossible to implement them all. Understanding your organization’s size and other costs will help you determine how much you can allocate toward employee benefits. Once allocated, you can stick to this budget.

Take a survey

As mentioned before, employee benefits requirements vary with each organization. Some employees will be more concerned about retirement plans, while others might be more concerned about childcare facilities. Hence, it is better to take an employee survey. Using this, they can list out their top preferences, and whichever benefit receives the most votes can be implemented. In addition, this will help eliminate wasteful spending on benefits that employees do not even value.

Incorporate government-mandated employee benefits

With the onset of the pandemic, the government has made certain employee benefits mandatory for workplace operations in organizations. If the organizations fail to comply with these, they will be subject to fines and penalties. Thus, it is necessary to research thoroughly and implement these first.

Some statutory benefits include Employees Provident Fund, Maternity leaves, Gratuity, Statutory leaves, and more. Recently, the government has also made medical insurance for employees mandatory. 

Research market trends for other benefits

Now that you have set aside the mandatory benefits, it is time to research other benefits that will set you apart from your market competitors. To understand employees’ mindsets, research market trends both locally and globally. During the lockdown, the flexibility to work from home culture was an important consideration for employees when searching for new jobs.

Today, you can even read blogs by experts to help understand what the market forecast looks like in the coming years. By understanding these, you will also be making your organization future-ready. 

Design the rewards program 

Once you have researched, surveyed, and gathered all the data and information, put it into action. If you have a qualified team, you can design the same in-house. Otherwise, you can even take the help of a third party. There are many companies that can help you design a customized employee benefits program suited to your employees’ needs within your budget.

You may even include group insurance for employees among the benefits after consultation. Their professional experts can even guide you on which employee benefits are best for your company. 

Take feedback

After designing the rewards program, communicate the benefits to your staff before implementation. Employees must understand these benefits in detail. If they do not, then it is all a futile exercise. Further, when presenting them with this information, you can also take their feedback. This will show your employees that their opinions matter and give them a sense of belonging to the organization.

Implement the program after incorporating their suggestions. By doing so, you will create a higher level of understanding and appreciation among employees. Moreover, this will ensure better use of these benefits. 

Review it periodically 

If you think that your job is done after implementing the program, you are certainly mistaken. The economy, government regulations, and market trends keep changing, and all of these have a direct impact on the employee’s needs. Before the pandemic, no one would have even considered prioritizing work from home or mandating health insurance.

A successful organization moves and changes with the environment. Thus, similar to your organization’s policies, you need to periodically review the employee benefits as well. What may work now may not be a requirement in the future. For efficient evaluation, you can ask your employees to take annual surveys, fill in questionnaires, and more. This will also help you build a better employer-employee relationship in the future. 

Final thoughts

After reading the above article, you will have a better understanding of how to implement an employee benefits and rewards program at your company. Offering rewards and benefits such as group insurance for employees have been foolproof, tried, and tested strategy to increase employee productivity. Along with these benefits, simple recognition measures like birthday wishes, taking them out for coffee, or providing them with spa vouchers can also do wonders for employee motivation.

If you still feel overwhelmed about where to start, you can always take the guidance of experts like Plum Insurance to get the best-in-class services for your employees at affordable prices.

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