8 Creative Employee Benefits to Skyrocket Job Satisfaction

Whether in-office or remote, it is essential to ensure the happiness and wellbeing of your employees. Happy, healthy employees are more productive, loyal, and have superior attendance compared to unhappy ones.

So, here are some exciting and creative employee benefits you may not have considered for bolstering confidence and a sense of community within your workplace. 🍓🍓🍓

1.   Fund Creative Team Building Exercises

Employees who feel disconnected from each other often report lower rates of satisfaction. While many companies offer either official or unofficial happy hours, this can be alienating for employees who don’t drink, or simply don’t feel comfortable in that environment. Building a strong connection between your workers is much easier when this bonding is done over a fun exercise or activity that everyone can enjoy. Here are some ideas for these activities:

Mini-golf 🏌️‍♀️

Though golf is often linked with the corporate world, it is an expensive and challenging hobby that is inaccessible to many working people in the United States. On the other hand, mini-golf is a fun and lightly competitive activity that almost anyone can enjoy. Allowing your team to get out in the sun, embrace their inner child, and compete is a great way to form lasting memories and connections.

Escape rooms 🚪

An escape room is a great way to showcase to your employees the value of working together as a team with a high-adrenaline twist. Many escape rooms offer corporate packages and discounts, making this an inexpensive way to bring your team together. Additionally, there are online escape room options to include remote employees in the fun.

Trivia night ❓

A trivia night is a great way to encourage teamwork and competition among employees, as well as get to know each other. It allows your employees to show their knowledge, interests and passions. Sponsoring a trivia night promotes friendship, sharing, and closeness for employees. If you’d like to do trivia with remote employees, it is easy to conduct a trivia challenge over Zoom or other online platforms, and you will still reap many of the same rewards.

2.   Offer Furnishings for the Home Office

Many modern workplaces have remote or hybrid employees. Helping employees create a comfortable home workspace will help get them in the mindset of being ready for work. Having a designated and efficient space to work in at home will help improve focus. Here are some ideas for items, which will improve your employee’s home office experience.

Ergonomic desk chairs 🪑

Sending employees home with a supportive chair helps them to be comfortable in their workspace. It can also reduce spine, hip, and leg injuries that can reduce productivity. Improving one’s posture also helps with focus, productivity, and quality of work.

Standing desk 🧍‍♀️

A standing desk is a great option for a home workspace. Being able to stand is extremely beneficial for one’s health, and a standing desk can reduce the risk of major health issues like diabetes, obesity, and stroke.

Cash stipend 💵

Giving your employees money to furnish their home offices is a valuable resource to offer. This allows employees to customize their home workspace without as much financial constraint.

3.   Provide Online Counseling as a Resource

Online counseling is a great resource that offers your employees guidance from home. The benefits of giving your employees the gift of clarity and expert guidance can’t be overstated. This resource can help reduce employee stress and promote the well-being of your workforce. These are some options for counseling you may consider funding:

Mental health counseling 🧠

Offering therapy sessions to your employees is a great way to improve their mental health, reduce anxiety, and help boost work performance. It can also help workers improve interpersonal skills, communication, conflict management capabilities, and emotional regulation habits. This will help your workers cooperate better as a team and create a more harmonious workplace environment.

For example, BetterHelp offers corporate packages for sessions, which can help reduce the cost of providing this resource.

Fitness coaching 🤾‍♂️

Healthy employees are far more likely to be happy ones, and including corporate fitness coaching is a great way to harness these benefits. Benefits of exercise include reduced stress, reduced risk of high blood pressure and stroke, assisting in quitting smoking and other addictive habits, and so much more. This is also a great opportunity for your employees to try new classes and get out of their fitness comfort zones.

Financial counseling 🤑

Fiscal counseling can offer insight on features of handling money that can be extremely anxiety-inducing, such as how to handle investments, what percent of a paycheck should be allocated for retirement, what is a good credit score to buy a house, and how to build a budget. This can also be very helpful for workers who relocate to work for your company since they will likely need help finding a residence in your area. Also, it is a great benefit for recent college graduates who might have never had to consider how to handle money before and struggle with student loan debt.

4.   Support Parents in the Workplace

The high cost of childcare can have a devastating impact on working parents. The cost of childcare in the United States averages $1300 a month. This cost exceeds the average cost of a monthly mortgage in this country, which is $1275 a month. Here are some options to help support parents who are struggling with this difficult cost.

Provide subsidies for childcare 👶

This is a slightly controversial benefit, as employees without children may feel it is unfair to offer benefits to one group and not another. However, taking the stress and pressure off parents allows them to contribute equally in the workplace, so employees who don’t have kids aren’t forced to pick up the slack. Giving a subsidy for childcare can help parents to focus on their workdays with far less distraction.

Offer flexible accommodations for parents 🏡

Making sure parents have an open line of communication with management about appointments and obligations is key to ensuring their harmony in the workplace. As we know, children often have many doctor appointments, sick days, and needs that can draw a parent away from work. Keeping the door open for parents to ask for more flexibility in their hours can help to plan around parents, instead of scrambling to cover for them if they have to miss time from work.

Offer home work stations for all employees 💻

If a job can be done remotely, it is a great idea to offer in-office employees a remote workstation. This benefits parents directly, since if their child is sick, they can work from home on those days. Additionally, offering a hybrid model can take the burden off of workers by letting them stay in the home and be able to care for their children.

5.   Use Modern and Effective Software for Time and Project Management

Employees can feel stranded, overwhelmed, and burnt out when they’re expected to juggle multiple tasks without the right assistance. Providing superior time management software is a great way to boost productivity and help employees not feel as stressed when tackling their workloads. 🕤

For instance, actiTIME can help your employees:

• Improve attendance
• Track projects and productivity
• Enhance time management
• Estimate tasks more accurately

actiTIME also offers a mobile app that can be used on both Apple and Android operating systems. Incorporating time management into the toolbox of your workforce is a great way to aid the satisfaction and success of your employees.

6.   Offer Student Loan Repayment Benefits

Workers today face an unprecedented crisis: student loan debt. The average borrower carries $30,000 of student loan debt. Adding the resource of a student loan repayment program helps your workers to conquer debt, and builds loyalty to your company. Additionally, for the next five years, student loan repayment is a tax-shielded benefit. 💸

Here are some paths to student loan assistance that your company can harness:

• Direct payments – These payments are deposited directly into an employee’s loan account.
• Offer a stipend – Offering a stipend direct to student loan repayment.
• Payment matching – This ensures that your employee is repaying their loans, and you can use a third party to handle this transaction.

7.   Protect Employees’ Identities

In the modern era, almost half of all employees work from home. However, aside from this growing number, many employees conduct work-related communication on their phones and computers. 👨‍💻

Employees who travel may use unsecured Wi-Fi, leaving their data exposed and susceptible to fraud. Securing their devices is not only a benefit to them personally, but also secures work-related information that may be accessed on personal computers. Providing trusted antivirus software as a benefit for all of your employee’s devices is a great way to protect confidential information, but also gives your employees the benefit of identity theft protection.

8.   Make the Path to Success Clear with Professional Development

 The current labor market can make it difficult to secure employees with all of the skills you need for a job. Paid professional development opportunities are a great way to invest in your employees’ success. ✨

The benefits of paying for professional development courses include:

• Employee retention
• Increased efficiency
• A more skilled workforce
• Building confidence
• Invigorated workplace

Be open to suggestions about what types of professional development will be most helpful to your employees by staying informed and up to date in your industry. Professional development can take the form of single lectures, multiple classes, or even certification courses that take months to complete. Investing in your employee’s professional development will increase the overall skill and competency of your workforce, while also showing that you care about your worker’s career goals. 🎯

Bottomline

Thinking outside the box on benefits and activities that your company will fund can have amazing payoffs in the long and short term. Helping your workers to bond, grow as people, and support their children will ensure a happy, connected and loyal workforce.