Many employers offer their employees workplace benefits beyond just typical health/dental insurance and retirement planning. Of course, these perks differ from organization to organization, but they can range from things like mental-health services, financial wellness benefits, massage/chiropractic services, child care assistance, fitness and wellness resources, paid vacation time, and/or simply providing flexible work environments.
Why Workplace Benefits are Important
Now, I know that the concept of workplace benefits kind of seems like a one-way street. Employers give you these benefits as a perk that may entice you to work there. While this can be true, providing workplace benefits can actually be incredibly beneficial to the organization as well. Here are two of the reasons that stood out to me:
- Improved Wellness and Productivity
- Providing employees with the resources they need to stay healthy is probably the biggest thing here. Obviously, providing health/dental insurance ensures that employees are healthy so that they can come to work. But providing other benefits like retirement plans, can give employees a lot of peace of mind, which means they are likely to be less distracted and more productive while they work. Providing benefits for self-care services (i.e., massage therapy) can also boost wellness and productivity, as employees are likely to feel like their employer is taking care of them and understands the stress their body may be put under at work.
- Providing employees with the resources they need to stay healthy is probably the biggest thing here. Obviously, providing health/dental insurance ensures that employees are healthy so that they can come to work. But providing other benefits like retirement plans, can give employees a lot of peace of mind, which means they are likely to be less distracted and more productive while they work. Providing benefits for self-care services (i.e., massage therapy) can also boost wellness and productivity, as employees are likely to feel like their employer is taking care of them and understands the stress their body may be put under at work.
- Positive workplace culture
- Who doesn’t love a positive culture, am I right?! Through my research, I learned that the Harvard Business Review found that two of the major factors contributing to positive workplace cultures were caring for colleagues as if they were friends and providing support when others are struggling. While employers should always aim to do these things within their personal interactions with their staff, setting up a collection of workplace benefits can also send that message.
Why you should take advantage of your workplace benefits
Arguably the biggest reason why you should use your workplace benefits is because they are available to you. Essentially, it’s like using free stuff… and I know I have some merit in saying, who doesn’t like free stuff?
Especially in times like these, where inflation is becoming a growing concern, the benefits and discounts that are offered to us by our employers are a great way to battle both inflation and increasing interest rates. While I was doing research, I found a quote from Paul Seegert, a managing partner at a firm in California, who said, “there couldn’t be a better time to learn about what you already have available and not go spend money on these things” - and I truly couldn’t have said it better myself. Why spend money on things when we have the resources available that are there to help us out?
Similar to the reasons why workplace benefits are a positive thing for employers, as employees, they offer us a way to boost our wealth, improve upon our physical and emotional health, and increase our satisfaction with our jobs/employers.
Final Thoughts
Some of the best perks we have as employees are the workplace benefits offered to us. So, we would be silly not to use them!
Here is your early December reminder: If you have unused benefits that have been sitting around all year, Tis’ the Season to use them!