Employee benefits can be more than annual raises, paid days off, 401k’s and tuition reimbursement. If you want to retain current employees and attract new employees, you need to try various alternative benefits. Following are examples of alternative benefits. You should look at your business and find examples of what would work for you and your company.
Examples that will help you become creative and offer some neat benefits for your business:
Lottery for a prize – Raffle off an mp3 player or other popular gadgets for a few months. Have employees earn raffle tickets through various means- weekly perfect attendance, 100% quiz scores (sent via e-mail), positive customer feedback, etc.
Event ticket giveaways – These are awarded to the agent with the highest sales for a set time period, most calls taken within a set time period, etc.
Free Break Certificates – These are the easiest and cheapest awards for agents. Break Certificates are awarded in 10 or 15-minute increments. Employees earn these by closing high dollar sales, going above and beyond for customers, etc. Employees like these not only because it gives them more down time during the day, but also because they have an actual certificate to hang at their desk and be proud of as a sense of accomplishment.
Paid Time Off (PTO) – Offering PTO instead of fixed pools of sick or personal time gives employees extra flexibility in when or how they can request time off.
Offer flexible scheduling – Such as “Work from Home”. This benefit is becoming more and more popular for businesses that can accommodate such a schedule.
Offer a relaxed dress code – The days of the suits and ties are gone! Many companies are discontinuing the dress codes and just allowing employees to use common sense on what apparel to wear to work. Try it–it is a great benefit, and costs the company nothing.
“Lunch and Learn” – Take your team to lunch and have a topic of discussion to review during that lunch period. This gives the employees a chance to learn, bond and enjoy a free lunch at the same time.
Discounts on cell phone bills can be negotiated with wireless providers for all employees if the business utilizes the carrier. Yes, you can obtain group discounts on cell phone providers. Everyone is willing to bargain in this economy.
There is a great book out there I recommend called “1001 Ways to reward employees” by Bob Nelson, Ph.D. There are endless amounts of benefits out there, and not all are expensive, either.
