Businesses that have emerged from the pandemic have been in a war for talent. Most of them provide perks like unique hiring rewards or signing bonuses to appeal to the best candidates. These offered perks are designed to flexibly accommodate the needs of employees and motivate them to be more productive. It can also enhance the employer-employee relationship.
Business owners like yourself should focus on helping their people in these financially challenging times. More and more workers are having a hard time with their financial wellness. And you can reduce their financial and personal problems. Find out how you can do that in this guide.
Start an employee discount program
Offering an employee discount program is a good starting point. Think about the top things your employees need. Some are searching for low-budget socializing and entertainment opportunities, while others want to spend time with their families. These details will give you ideas on what options to include in the program. You might have older employees who want concert or sporting event tickets or travel opportunities. Or people who are more interested in discounted amusement-park tickets can enjoy them as a family.
Before launching your discount program, discuss it with your team and answer their questions and concerns. You can then start setting goals and establishing expectations with the chosen vendors. Other aspects to consider include employee registration, ongoing usage, and regular check-ins.
Offer financial education
When it comes to finances, education is of top importance. Most individuals have not received formal lectures about essential financial skills like saving for retirement or managing income and expenses. For such reason, many are confused when talking about financial management. Help fill in the gaps through your HR leaders to connect your people to financial resources. You can find tons more to obtain financial knowledge from social media and web articles to podcasts.
Apart from resources, you can also invest in a training or seminar led by financial experts. This can help your employees learn more about the topic and guide them in creating a long-term financial plan to achieve their goals. If you have extra money to spare, you can fund financial counseling for your people and their partners.
Provide the right benefits
Many employees are struggling with their financial and personal responsibilities. By offering perks such as paid time-off, retirement savings plan, on-site childcare, free meals, or gym memberships, you’re making those responsibilities more manageable. But if you want to help more, you need to offer new benefits to improve their financial situation.
For example, you can offer health programs or insurance to help your people with their medical expenses, which is a major financial concern for most people. Other perks you can offer include debt counseling, supplemental insurance, flexible spending accounts, and tuition reimbursement or assistance. Take time to speak to your people to understand their financial wellness more.
Support savings and loan plans
If your company simply doesn’t have the resources to offer the benefits in-house, you can direct your employees to financial institutions that can. Start by helping your employees find the best banks to use for their savings or investments. Many financial institutions will be happy to discuss related plans with business leaders to help their people with their finances.
At the same time, you can also help them find a reputable lending company that provides various home loan programs. This is a great help, particularly for your employees starting a family or those looking to improve their home life. If you can ease the burden of finding credible financial institutions, your people will appreciate the effort.
Remove the financial talk stigma
If there are barriers between your employees and proper financial management, it’s time to help them take control. Create a workplace culture that encourages money talks. Ensure your HR team understands their role in overcoming the stigma. You can organize and host conversations about financial concerns within the workplace. Have your HR leaders collect the data and train department heads to conduct transparent discussions about things like raises or salaries. The more you normalize financial conversations, the more your employees will be motivated to learn about the topic.
Supporting your people on their financial well-being is one way of showing that you care for them. If you’re a business leader who aims for better employee engagement, these tips can help you with that. Give your people more chances to improve their financial wellness, and they’ll help you too in growing your company.