How to keep your employees happy with (affordable) unique perks

Employee turnover is a concern for all companies both financially, culturally, and logistically. The impact, however, is magnified for small and medium businesses. A lower end of the estimate for the cost of losing a single employee is measured at 20% of the employee’s annual wage; the estimate grows ten folds for high-skilled positions.

Many startup founders and small business owners would point out that building a culture (such a prevalent yet vague concept, isn’t it?) is one of the most challenging and poorly done aspects of the organisation. The employees might be expected to wear too many hats or may not be able to get paid as much as they’d like with steady and healthy annual increase.

Trying to accommodate your each employee’s preference might not be a luxury that your business can realistically prioritise or afford.

But it certainly isn’t an issue you want to dismiss. So what are some creative ways you can start building employee loyalty? Here are some ideas.

Offering education programs that are truly valuable to employees

One of the best ways to show that you care about the employees’ well-being is by investing in their personal development. For instance, many employees (especially young people) struggle to understand superannuation, retirement plans, and personal investment strategies.

You can offer free (or heavily subsidised) financial planning courses for employees of all levels to obtain the advanced financial knowledge and skills to build their wealth. You can offer a myriad of different learning tools or courses that your employees might not otherwise be able to access easily. It can also help increase their productivity if they are spending less time worrying about their personal finances.

You can use this perk as a way to attract/retain employees or reward high-performers by offering more attractive courses (or % of cost covered) to those who stay on at the company and consistently demonstrate competence.

Creating a sense of community in the workplace

Ultimately building an organisation’s culture is about building a community and giving employees a shared place they all belong to ignite a sense of belonging and collaboration based on shared identity.

This would be a powerful perk to offer to employees – it’s harder to leave if the place feels like home and your colleagues feel like your family.

Hosting a weekly meditation or yoga session or allowing each team/division 48 hours of paid volunteer time could encourage employees to form a stronger bond.

Offering ‘mix and match’ discounts

According to Mercer, a company that experimented with various different employee benefits which resulted in a significant boost in their average employee tenure, workers appreciate when they can customise the benefits.

So offering access to sample sales, travel deals, entertainment discounts, etc. that they can choose from (mix and match) would be impactful. As most companies cannot afford to offer too many perks, you can impose a maximum number of discounts (or amount) to manage the costs.

In addition, you can send out a survey to ask employees what kind of perks they would want next year or quarter and simply incorporate their feedback each year, making the employees feel heard.

Allowing flexible work environment and learning opportunities

What about allowing employees to work from home? Allowing them (within reason) to work in different offices if they want to travel to those locations? This wouldn’t cost the company a dime yet will have a powerful impact on employee loyalty.

You could also give rare opportunities for employees to learn from executives by allowing an employee to ‘shadow’ a leader for a day or accompany them to certain meetings. This type of bite-sized mentorship could get the employees to feel as though they are being groomed as a future leader and help them believe in a long-term career path within the firm.