Let’s start this party with an incredibly boring but highly incentivising statistic: it costs seven times more to find and hire a new employee than it does to retain a current one. Seven times. That’s a heck of a lot of money to be throwing around all willy-nilly. Unfortunately, attracting and keeping top talent is one of the most challenging-challenges around today, with more and more people treating the whole career thing less like a ladder and more like a series of lily pads.
That is why we have been doing some digging – both literally and metaphorically – and come up with a legitimate list of employee perks that actually work in attracting top talent. So, without further ado, we bring to you, workplace incentives you would be absolutely insane not to implement:
- Flexibility
Netflix is arguably the most successful company in the world at the moment. Apple is up there, but they are moving backwards. Netflix, however, wow, they are storming forward. They also have a work from home policy where absolutely no one tracks the hours you’ve worked and vacation days are uncapped. Yeah, maybe the whole work from home thing does boost productivity.
- Pension
There was a time in recent history where people let the need for saving fall to the wayside, which has led to this forgotten generation having the lowest level of savings in recorded history. This is changing, though. By having a Safe Harbor 401 k plan in place, you will be staying ahead of the kerb by offering your employees the chance to make their money work harder and actually invest in their own futures, something that is becoming more popular that Ariana Grande’s Instagram account.
- Food
There are so many reasons why offering food has a profound effect on people’s productivity rates and at the top of that list is Google. Yeah. Just the fact Google is doing it will make your employees happier. Then mix in the fact people will be less like to leave the office to get lunch, as well as the belief healthy snacks can boost brain power, and you are onto a winner; an absolute winner.
- Health
Generation X and Y are more concerned about their health than any generation to come before them, which is something a lot of successful companies have cottoned onto by offering programs to boost employee engagement. Starbucks, for all the evil they impose on the world, is good at this. They offer all their staff (even the lazy part-timers) access to health insurance. Another coffee chain (that I won’t mention for fear of it looking like we’re getting paid by coffee chains) offers their staff three hours of paid gym time a week and $350 to compete in races. Guess what? They don’t have high employee turnover to worry about.
- Childcare
So, in the US of A, the average cost of child care is just shy of $12,000 a year. That is enough to throw any employee off their work slightly and have them distracted by personal stress. That’s why a lot of businesses are coming up with ways to help out, such as Facebook. Not only do parents get four months of paid leave, they also get day care reimbursements and a parachute sum of $4000 to help them out a bit. That’s so cool.
