How future-proofed is your business? By that, we don’t necessarily mean anything to do with how well you know your customer or how your intellectual property might be protected. We mean how well protected is your biggest asset – your staff?
Committed, happy, well-looked after staff are the cornerstone of any business, no matter how big or small. The happier your staff, the more inclined they’ll be to work hard, be driven to succeed and most of all, stay with you.
Long gone are the days however, when good holiday pay and the promise of an extravagant Christmas party was all you needed to do in order to retain staff. Now, savvy would-be employees are looking for the most competitive employment packages including, amongst other things, benefits that cover life events such as parenthood and the menopause. This also includes cover for things not going to plan, such as infertility.
Surveys suggest that around half of employees say they would look for a new job due to not being satisfied with their benefits and over three quarters would remain loyal to an employer if their benefits were good.
As such, many companies are now re-evaluating their employee benefits in order to attract and retain staff in the future
But how are these employers increasing their benefits to meet the changing needs of the workforce? There are three major areas of change:
- Including online access to health services such as allowing access to telephone or video GP or consultant appointments as part of health insurance packages, in addition to a wide range of in-person care providers
- Recognising the differing medical needs of ethnic minorities and LGBTQ+ people and ensuring they’re not discriminated against
- Placing equal importance on mental health needs and physical health needs and ensuring mental health needs are not stigmatised or seen as a weakness in toxic, competitive working environments
But perhaps the biggest change in demand for healthcare cover, is that for the need of employees to start and build on their families
This means including cover for childcare expenses, fertility support that covers assisted fertility, surrogacy and egg freezing and adoption support.
Don’t get left behind with a workforce that’s not committed or driven due to confusion and frustration over benefit packages. Investing in your workforce is one of the most valuable things you can do.
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