Employee benefits for small businesses

A good employee benefit package is no longer only reserved for big companies. Smaller businesses are increasingly starting to offer low-cost benefits that really do help their employees, and boost employee retention. In this article, we are going to explore different employee benefits packages for small businesses.

What are employee benefits?

Employee benefits are various types of compensation, offered by employers to their employees in addition to their normal salaries. They are incredibly useful tools for businesses to recruit and retain top talent, as they can help staff members build a long-term positive relationship with their employer, making them less likely to look elsewhere.

Why isn’t a good salary enough?

In the past, the main thing that drew applicants to particular positions was the salary. But times are changing, and it’s starting to swing in the opposite direction. In fact, in a survey by Adler, 66% of UK employees believe that their employee benefits are equal or more important than their basic salary.

A fair salary remains of high importance, however employee benefits are a strong way to boost your company’s perception among your employees, without raising their salary. These perks and incentives can help to make life that little bit easier and more enjoyable.

What are the small business employee benefits?

You may be thinking that you want to increase your employee benefits package, but you don’t have the budget. But actually, employee benefits don’t have to cost the earth! We’ve touched briefly on employee benefits that you might not have thought of, but we are going to lay out some of the benefit packages for small businesses.

According to financial planning company, Drewberry, the top 10 requested benefits from SME employees are:

Flexible hours (42.3%)
Private Medical Insurance (31.3%)
Work-from-home options (29.2%)
Life Insurance (29%)
Free snacks (24.1%)
Income Protection Insurance (23%)
Critical Illness Insurance (22.1%)
Additional pension contributions (21.5%)
Gym membership discounts (17.4%)
Retail or leisure activity discounts (15.6%)

It is particularly interesting to us, being an insurance company, that 40% of these benefits are insurance policies!

We’re not going to run though all of these as some of them are pretty self explanatory, but we are going to explore some of these benefits and why they are so highly requested.

Flexible hours

It would be crazy for us not to mention this benefit, as almost half of the people asked wanted flexibility in their working hours. Flexible hours is the option to work outside of the standard 9-5 schedule.

Flexible hours helps employees to gain a better work-life balance, increasing morale and relieving the stress of balancing home life with work.

The option to work from home, requested by almost 30% of those asked, would also help with this common employee grumble.

Income protection insurance

You may not have thought about it as a benefit, but clearly a lot of employees do. Rolling in at number six on the list, income protection insurance is an insurance policy that ensures employees continue to receive a regular income if they’re unable to work because of an illness or injury.

Offering income protection insurance to your employees allows them to relax knowing that, should the worst happen, they would still get some of their salary paid, therefore taking the pressure off their mortgage, rent and bills.

How Wiltshire Friendly can help

Wiltshire Friendly specialises in delivering income protection services tailored for employers and their employees experiencing a loss of income due to illness or injury.