Having drug and dental plans are great benefits to have, which is why almost all companies will offer their employees some variation of each. They help reduce the anxiety of having to pay out of pocket for expensive medicines or needed dental work. Some plans may in addition provide vision benefits or access to massage therapists or chiropractors. They are important incentives when looking to entice new employees or for employees choosing where they want to start a career. According to the 2018 SHRM Benefits Survey, 3 percent of employers offered concierge services, and, in 2016, almost one-third of Fortune‘s 100 Best Companies to Work For offered concierge services to employees.
Over the years many organizations have realized that the benefits they provide may be as significant to their employees staying long term and being productive as the wages they earn. With today’s technology the line between home and work life is becoming more blurred which means employees are surrendering the most valuable thing they have to give – time. There is much debate about ‘work – life balance’ and how important it is. Some maintain that this is impossible to achieve, others say it is required. Where ever you side on this there is little doubt that most of us need to work for a living. In today’s hectic world work will usually account for most of your day leaving little time during the week to get daily home or personal tasks completed and who really wants to allocate one day of their weekend to catching up do they?
Wouldn’t it be great if employees could spend weekends doing the things they enjoy? Think about the benefits of having a ‘to-do’ list that employees could hand off to someone else to complete while they are busy working. Not having them use breaks or lunches trying to schedule appointments or get quotes on work needed on the car or house. How often do they pick up fast food on their way home from work because they didn’t have anything at home to make for dinner? How nice would it be to have someone else take care of their grocery list, bring them home and put them away?
Truthfully, there are many situations in our day to day lives where having someone help us out to free up time would be terrific. If employers offered this benefit how many employees would take advantage of it? Is it a benefit you would consider for your employees, perhaps through a company paid PSA (Personal Spending Account)?
Why would a company offer this style of benefit to their employees? To begin with it’s a great incentive to attract and retain quality individuals. On average, your organization will spend the equivalent of six to nine months of an employee’s salary to find and train their replacement. It demonstrates to employees the company is concerned about their employee’s well-being. If employees have someone else taking care of time consuming or tedious tasks, it allows them to focus on their job without outside distractions or worries. 93 percent of employees take care of personal and family needs during the workday according to the digital firm Captive. This will reduce the stress they may be feeling either at home or work or both and less stress makes us happier. Happy people are more productive in what they do so it’s a ‘win-win’ situation.
