Employee Benefits: Why These Should Flex In The Cost-Of-Living Crisis

The cost-of-living crisis has made the ‘war for talent’ even more challenging to navigate. One thing’s for certain, you can’t offer the standard employee benefits or simply an increased salary anymore. Candidates want a working culture that’s more flexible that changes to meet their needs at any given time.

Join us as we discuss the importance of a flexible benefit model, and what you should be offering your employees right now.

Why do you need a flexible employee benefits model?

Too many organisations are living in the past, simply offering benefits that they deem suitable. Instead, employers should be seeking input from their team as well as potential future employees. After all, not every benefit will suit everyone – someone might already have a discounted gym membership through a family member, for example, or maybe they just aren’t interested in working out.

What’s more, these benefits should alter over time – that free or discounted gym membership might be useful now, but it may quickly be discarded in favour of childcare vouchers, for example, as people’s circumstances and needs change.

The cost-of-living crisis presents another situation which calls for a review of your benefits. We’ve noticed a trend towards those that focus on financial wellbeing…

Discount schemes

There are a variety of partners you could work with to offer discounts on everyday products or services. These can cut the cost at the checkout for key retailers like supermarkets, or help them save on things like the daily commute. You can also help employees to afford recreational activities by providing discounts on restaurants and days outs – supporting their mental wellbeing and work-life balance.

Preferential rates

In addition, you can negotiate with partners for better rates on fuel, energy, mortgages and financial planning in general. Another idea is that larger businesses might want to offer interest-free loans, which can help people through difficult times or with a big life milestone such as a house move.

‘Fringe’ benefits

These benefits help to offset the cost of all those crucial aspects of life, such as housing, travel and childcare. Popular offerings include childcare vouchers, and cycle-to-work schemes where team members ‘sacrifice’ part of their salary to spread the cost of a bike over time. A similar suggestion is loans or subsidies for technology, for example personal phones and computers.

Healthcare

Whilst your employees will have access to free NHS services, post-COVID waiting lists are longer than ever. Health is a key concern for the vast majority of people, so you could help to ease their minds and put wellbeing first by providing related employee benefits. Perhaps you could offer health screenings, dental cover, eye care vouchers, and free flu vaccinations.

Discover more about winning the war for talent

Our recent webinar took a deeper dive on offering a flexible employee benefits model that suits their current needs. But it wasn’t the only tip. We’ve detailed the key findings on how to win the war for talent in our guide – you’ll learn from industry experts what they’re doing to secure the best candidates and tackle various recruitment challenges. From here, you can be well on the way to winning the war yourself.