With the competition rising high in all industrial sectors, employees are also competing internally to give their best to their company. Employees are spending more time working rather than spending it for themselves or their loved ones. Since they are spending the majority of their daily time with their teammates and colleagues, they need to be engaged well at work.

Employee engagement, in short, is the commitment of the employees towards their job and the workplace.

Happy and satisfied employees are likely to be more engaged. However, it is not necessary that engaged employees are happy and satisfied.

Having happy, satisfied, and engaged employees are a bonus addition to higher employee productivity and workplace wellness. By implementing the right employee engagement strategies and tools, employers can easily communicate, engage, and satisfy their workforce.

One of the best employee engagement strategies is offering the right employee benefits and perks. Employee expectations about workplace benefits and perks have changed with time.

Here is a quick glimpse of the various workplace benefits and perks that are also successful employee engagement strategies.

Corporate Wellness Programs

The constant job pressure and long working hours have become one of the primary reasons for employee burnout issues. Apart from affecting employee productivity, burnout also affects their health and wellness, morale, and becomes the root cause of many chronic diseases. By investing in a well-planned corporate wellness program, employers can engage employees while improving their overall health and wellness. Apart from keeping your employees healthy, active, and engaged, the right employee wellbeing programs can boost workplace wellness, reduce healthcare costs, organizational productivity, and overall business growth.

Performance Acknowledgement and Bonus

Anyone, when appreciated for their work, are bound to do better the next time. Rewarding your employees for their good job is a great way of acknowledging their efforts and expressing your appreciation. When the employees feel their efforts are diligently considered and recognized, they will automatically improve their performance, contributing to better organizational productivity.

Know what employee benefits and services are expected in the workplace.

Flexible Working Hours

The COVID-19 outbreak has forced many employees to work remotely. However, this had added to employee burnout issues as they are struggling to manage their responsibilities of work and home, while handling the fear and anxiety of the pandemic. By offering flexible working hours, employers can help employees to have a better work-life balance. Flexible working hour options are one of the proven employee engagement perks that help in reducing absenteeism, better employee retention, and lower employee turnover rates.

Paid Leaves

Apart from flexible working hours, spending quality time with family and friends also plays a major role in maintaining a work-life balance and relieve stress. Taking a day off from work or going on a vacation could help maintain this balance, refresh the employees, and contribute towards holistic wellness. That is why many people choose vacation time-off rather than getting a pay raise. And so, employers can offer paid leaves for better employee productivity and workplace wellness.

Financial Support

Employers can offer financial support to their workforce in many ways. It can be through financial wellness programs, eGift cards from the corporate wellness programs, cash rewards, HSA contributions, health insurance coverage, 401(K) plans, conducting health screenings, and more. Employees prefer employers to plan and pay for their health insurance as the premiums for corporate insurance plans are much lower than the ones bought individually. Also, the amount spent by the company towards employee insurance coverage is non-taxable. So, they would rather have the employer pay for their health insurance instead of taking the same amount as a pay raise, which is taxable.

Employers can conduct polls and employee pulse surveys to know their wellness interests and requirements. With the right employee engagement strategies, employers will not only boost employee productivity, mental health, and workplace wellness, but it will also aid in growing the business in many ways.

Apart from higher employee retention, lower turnover rates, reduced absenteeism, lower healthcare costs, higher employee productivity, and better workplace culture, offering the right employee benefits and perks also gives you a competitive edge in the market with a pro-employee label.