Human Resources (HR) professionals constantly struggle to keep up with the ever-changing workforce demands.
Employee benefits package that once worked for Boomers & Gen-X no longer attracts Gen-Y and Gen-Z.
The challenge to retain talent now lies in HR understanding what their employees truly need and what benefits can the company afford.
Don’t know where to start? The 2020 Hays Asia Salary Guide can give you amazing insights into current hiring trends and employee expectations.
Hays Salary Guide finds that work-life balance is the main reason employees are satisfied with their employers.
When employees are happy, employers reap the benefits too as a result of reduced staff turnover and decreased recruitment costs.
Work-life balance is so much more than just having game rooms, ping pong and pool tables.
If your company finds it hard to attract and retain top talents, consider reviewing your company’s work-life policy (or develop one if it’s non-existent).
Here’s a fresh list of work-life employee benefits to inspire you:
Flexible Working Options
Nobody likes being stuck in traffic especially during rush hour. With flexible hours schedule (flextime) in place, employees can come to work during off-peak hours.
Besides, employees who are night owls can also work at night when their energy levels are at the highest level.
Telecommute or work-from-home (WFH) would be ideal if your employees do not have to be in the office to get things done.
With the array of online collaboration tools available these days, companies can cut down overhead costs by having employees working remotely.
As HR, your challenge would be deciding:
- whether to implement a complete or partial remote working policy
- whether all or selected staffs get to WFH
Compressed Workweek
A compressed workweek means reducing the number of working hours in a week.
In Malaysia, the standard working hours are 8 hours per day from Monday to Friday, summing up to a 40-hours work week.
When companies go from a 5-day workweek to a 4-day workweek, employees get to spend more time doing the things they love, such as:
- spending more time with family
- working on their passion project or hobbies
- volunteering for a cause they care about
A New Zealand company ran a 4-day workweek trial and revealed employees became more productive and less stressed.
Parental & Caregiver Benefits
Current Malaysian laws only require companies to provide at least 60 consecutive maternity leaves.
Companies can think out of the box by offering paternity leaves to new fathers too, so their wives wouldn’t have to do parenting alone.
Having an onsite daycare centre could offer peace of mind for parents who cannot afford or do not trust a babysitter.
They could drop by the centre to take a peek at their little ones if they missed them too.
Citi Malaysia went over and beyond by offering 180 days of maternity leaves, 10 days of paternity leaves, plus 90 days adoption leaves for employees adopting a child under two years old.
Employees will feel valued knowing employers genuinely cared about their welfare and that of their families.
Vacation & Paid Leaves
As the saying goes, all work and no play makes Jack/Jill a dull boy/girl.
When productivity goes down, your employees are likely suffering work burnout. This could result in higher absenteeism from work.
Other than offering the minimum required annual leaves, you can increase the number of annual leaves based on work performance or seniority.
Some companies even let their employees go on a free vacation, where all expenses for the trip are fully or partially subsidised.
Hubspot has a generous 4-week paid sabbatical program to reward employees who have stayed with Hubspot for over 5 years.
This means that their employees get to take one month off work to do the things they love.
They do not have to worry about being out of work since their job will still be there when they get back.
So, let your employees take time off whenever they most need it, and they will return to work with fresh ideas and inspirations.
Conclusion
Bear in mind, this list is not exhaustive and merely serves as an inspirational guide.
Ultimately, you should craft your employee benefits package based on your organisation’s nature of work, resources and constraints.
On the contrary, if a policy that promotes work-life balance is already in place but it is underutilised, consider working on improving the communication of employee benefits in your company.
Check out how I designed this infographic from scratch.
Have thoughts to share? I’d be happy to hear them —
Let’s chat:
liewjinyean(at)gmail(dot)com
Let’s connect:
