Which Alternative Benefits Make Employees Happy?

• Gym Memberships – companies are trying to promote healthy living and giving their employees the chance to work out before or after work, or with their families. There are several ways that this can be done:
• Companies pay the entire membership fee for their employees
• Offer discounts on the monthly fee in partnership with a particular gym
• Offer reimbursements for any gym or exercise class that the employee attends up to a certain dollar amount each year
• Give reimbursements on health insurance if the employee works out a certain number of times in the month.
• Cafeteria Plans – in order to give employees choices about their benefit programs, many companies are turning to cafeteria plans rather than traditional benefit programs. In this plan, employees are typically given a certain dollar amount that the company will contribute for their benefits each year. The employee then has the choice of which benefits and program levels they wish to participate in. Some companies even offer money or additional benefits if an employee does not sign up for a particular benefit. For example, a company may allocate $150 per month for health insurance, but if the employee does not sign up for insurance, they can convert that amount into extra paid time off or apply it to another benefit instead.
  
  
• On-Site Day Care – most companies are now recognizing that their employees have lives outside of the workplace and that if the employee is worrying about those outside influences it will affect the quality of their work. Therefore, some companies (typically larger employers) are choosing to offer on-site daycare facilities that will allow employees to have their children at the workplace. This allows parents to visit their children during break periods and can alleviate the stress of being away from children, particularly for new parents. If the parent is concerned about their child or the care he/she is receiving, the parent has the opportunity to “pop in" and make sure things are ok. The parent can then return to their job and focus on their work, which can increase their production rate for the employer.
  
  
• Free Drinks – some companies are now offering free beverages, such as soda, coffee and tea to their employees, rather than having vending machines. While this can be a very simple thing for a company to implement, it can have great impacts on the morale of employees and increase feelings that the company cares about the employees and their happiness while on the job.
  
  
• Nice Chairs – companies are recognizing the cost of repetitive stress injuries and are working to provide ergonomic and comfortable chairs and desks for their employees. Again, while this can increase employee morale, it can also lead to savings for the company if employees are filing less worker’s compensation claims for improper office setups.
  
  
• Wellness Programs – another alternative benefit that companies are often offering are programs designed to relieve the stress of their employees. This can include onsite massages (or discounts to offsite vendors), stress relief products, such as stress balls, or educational programming designed to help employees make healthy choices in their lives. This can include classes on wellness topics such as yoga, alternative medicine, stress reduction strategies, time management, etc. Many times a company can use resources available to them through their medical insurance provider at low or no cost or even get employees to volunteer to share their interests with other employees during a lunch break or after work. This can again reinforce the idea that companies care about their employees both on and off the job and want their lives to be stress-free and productive ones.
  
  
  
  Human Resource departments are increasingly looking at alternative benefits as a way to increase employee morale and reduce company costs around insurance and liability issues. While finances will obviously play a role in the types of alternative benefit programs, a company that is creative and thinks outside the box a bit can find low or no cost options that may mean a great deal to their employees.