Companies today try to stand out from other companies by delivering new and exciting competitive perks, and this causes companies to end up having tons of variety in this area, from skills training to gaming centers where the employees can relax.
These exciting and extravagant perks are attractive for sure, but the truth is that with just perks you are not going to achieve the employee engagement and retention that you are aiming for.
And don’t get me wrong, as an employee I really appreciate the perks that the company gives me, but what I appreciate the most is to be treated as a human, be treated with kindness and respect. That’s for sure the biggest pro about working here in Freelance Latin America, to have a great work relationship with your manager and be treated not just as another employee, but as a human that is important to the company.
That’s the feeling that you, as a company, should be aiming for — that’s what leads to your team’s job satisfaction. Don’t just throw gifts and perks at your employees, but also understand how they feel about their work and the company, so you can learn how to make them happy in order for them to improve their performance.
The key is to focus on a different approach that’s centered on the employee experience that your company provides. And with employee experience, I refer to the sum of all interactions that your employees have with your company. This means culture, benefits, work environment, and any other tools and resources you may provide.
From the onboarding experience to providing the right tools for the job, you need to understand what makes your employees happy. Here are some ways that you can enhance the employee experience, beyond just perks:
Design a great onboarding experience
Having a great onboarding experience is critical to ensuring employee success. You see, in the Onboarding Process you’ll begin the official presentation of a new employee to the company, it is the beginning of his functions as part of the team. The aim of this is to fully integrate new employees, to optimize pleasant working relationships, and thus increase productivity.
Onboardings are the first impression your new employees will have of the company, helping you assure employee success if done properly. Even to the point that you can increase the retention of human talent by 82% and the productivity of your company by 70%. Sounds great right?
Check out these tips to understand what an effective onboarding process should cover:
- Making the new hire feel welcome.
- Establishing a foundation for strong relationships.
- Building an understanding of the culture and how work gets done.
- Setting clear expectations and connecting the individual’s work to the broader organizational mission, vision, and goals.
Use employee benefit surveys
Many employers tend to offer extravagant perks and benefits to their employees that end up being unused and forgotten. If something like this happens to you then I gotta tell you that you might not know what your employees truly want, and that can be a problem if you are focusing on improving your employee experience.
Could be free lunch from time to time, hybrid workplaces, or maybe a raise. To truly keep your employees happy and not waste money on perks that they aren’t going to use you need to get to know what your employees are thinking and how they are feeling.
One way you can achieve this is by making employee benefit surveys, in which you’ll ask questions about the quality of specific benefits, and anything additional that they would like to see in the future. Asking your employees and caring about them is the only way to truly offer relevant employee benefits.
Invest in employee wellness
Remember, employees want to be treated as humans. It’s important to invest in programs that encourage mental, emotional, and spiritual wellness to create employees who are rested and more attentive and productive at work.
Health and fitness programs, sick time, paid vacations, parental leave, healthy snacks, all of these are perks that not only are a pro to your business, but that also care for your employees focusing on the human side of things.
Not everything has to be work-related, employees need time to relax and be healthy in order for them to perform their best. And if you are in a company that cares about the well-being of its employees, and makes an effort to help them achieve a greater work-life balance, then I assure you that your employees won’t ever want to leave.
Promote personal growth.
Learning something new, even when it’s not work-related, hones employees’ skills.
The best employees are always looking for opportunities to grow, looking for other ways to feel fulfilled in life. This can translate to anything from career coaching to community service, and even language lessons.
Promoting and endorsing these opportunities to your employees will make them value the company, and the work that they are putting in it more. An employee that can grow inside the company is an employee that will be 10 times better in the near future.
Ensure autonomy.
Having a certain degree of autonomy is important for employees to feel proud of the work they are putting in. Giving them autonomy means giving them the trust that they can work however they see fit, as long as the job gets done as expected.
This means allowing your employees the freedom to work from home, or implementing a hybrid workplace culture, and also it can mean having self-paced employees. When you put your trust in an employee you don’t need to have a manager on their backs 24/7 to check every movement they do, you just need to trust them that the work will get done on time.
When you put your trust in the right place, it’s sure to be rewarded. To implement this kind of trust you need to have a strong company culture in which you nurture your employees from the first day so that they have a communicative and strong relationship with their colleagues and managers.
Remember, your employees are also human, and sometimes being flexible is the best way to reach short deadlines and improve service quality.
