What perks and benefits should you be offering to your remote employees? Get insight into a remote worker's specific needs and discover 4 must-have employee benefits plus additional nice to have perks!
Remote work is here to stay and this is not just due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic! Remote workers have been on the rise steadily during the last decade. A study published in Small Biz Genius shows a 140% increase in remote workers since 2005. This is just one of the many stats showing the rise of remote working in businesses today.
Given the reality, it is high time to treat remote workers well with perfect employee benefits plans. These plans not only help with employee engagement but also on a ton of other aspects as well.
One of the other crucial advantages of a welfare plan is maximizing job satisfaction. A study published in Zoro showed 72% of the workers believe increased employee benefits leads to job satisfaction. It is an attribute desired by all employers but achieved by only a handful.
Your employee welfare plans are significant to your remote workers for various reasons. Some of these reasons are the following:
Employee benefits help the remote workers feel they're a part of the family. Since they are isolated from the group, these benefit plans help them realize they're still together.
Remote workers can often get lonely working all by themselves. Specific benefits packages like subscription packages can help fight this loneliness at work.
A well thought out benefits package helps extend the brand's working culture beyond its four walls which are vital in today's day and age.
Properly designed plans on employee welfare can help ease the pain points of the remote workers thereby maximizing their productivity.
Having a dedicated benefit plan for remote workers attracts the best talent and enables you to gain a competitive edge.
These are some of the reasons why you need employee benefits plans for remote workers immediately. But, in this particular case, things may not seem so simple as it sounds.
The above listed are some of the reasons why you need employee benefits plans for remote workers immediately. But, in this particular case, things may not seem so simple as it sounds.
Though employee benefit plans are well in effect today, designing such programs for remote workers may seem tricky. While most employers are used to working hands-on with office workers, the same is not the case for remote workers.
Remote working carries a different scene with varying pain points. These can be a working environment, infrastructure, work setup, communication, etc. In short, what benefits may do wonders for an office working staff may not be the same for remote workers.
Therefore, this requires insight into a remote worker's specific needs. Employers must understand what works well for them and what won't. To help you ascertain these, we're here today with our top picks for remote workers' employee benefits.
Here are the top 4 benefits that are most important for remote employees:
Retirement benefits are always a bonus feature that an employee further to the job. Therefore, you must include a retirement plan in your employee benefits package as well. You can start by opening Provident Fund accounts for your remote workers and contributing monthly to it
There are also other financial benefits you can offer along the lines of a pension plan. These can be financial counseling, advice on stock options, student loan payoff assistance, etc.
Insurance is an integral part of today's uncertain life. It gives a sense of security against any unforeseen misfortunes. Because of its applicability, this must be on your employee welfare plan. So, offering assistance in insurance is a brilliant benefit plan for employees. This insurance assistance can be on many types, such as life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance.
Here, given the variety of corporate insurance plans, it is easy to find the right choice for your employees. You can connect your remote workers with your corporate insurance partners and come up with a deal to best suit their needs.
While your office worker has the liberty to work with the best office material, your remote workers may not. It is because certain work from home setup may not be as well-equipped as an office workspace. Here, not having a proper working environment can hamper productivity.
Therefore, your remote working employees must have all the essentials for a work from home setup. A benefit plan on setup assistance can help accommodate them with the required hardware necessary, work from home furniture, a good internet connectivity plan, etc. You can also offer reimbursement for certain expenses in setting up a said remote working space as well.
A time-out from the work-life is always a much-needed stress buster. So, you must allow vacation time to your remote workers to cool off the workplace stress. Most employers may think that this is unnecessary for remote workers, but the same is not accurate.
While your office employees work 9-5 hours, a remote worker doesn't fall into this category. In most cases, remote employees tend to put in more hours at work than an average office goer. Therefore, you must not overburden them with work and rob them of their time-off. Here, a few days off goes a long way in relieving stress. It is also a great idea to have unlimited or open vacation policies that don't limit vacation to time-constraint one or two weeks.
Here are additional 5 perks you should consider offering to your remote employees:
The cornerstone of every growth is learning experiences. While your office workers may get a ton of those with seminars and workshops, your remote employees may not. It is important to note here that they get the appropriate growth opportunities as well.
You can ensure this by signing them up and paying for a few online courses in their domain. It is because, with the rise of the internet, the supply of knowledge has no constraints. You must make full use of this scenario and offer them different online courses.
Employee health is one of the vital responsibilities of an employer. It is one of the primary benefits that you must have. While corporate health insurance plans are a given in this field, companies nowadays are getting beyond that.
With the concept of corporate wellness programs, many companies are now also offering employee wellness platforms. These are ways to encourage a healthy lifestyle through better engagement with games, leaderboards, and gift cards.
While the office workers have the opportunities to make friends in their workspace, remote workers don't. Connections at the office help employees get through work by having fun at the same time.
Since your remote employees miss out on this fun, you can compensate them in other ways. One of these ways can be getting them monthly subscriptions to specific entertainment platforms. It can be magazine subscriptions, streaming subscriptions like Netflix, Amazon, etc. All this just helps them divert their mind from work when it gets too much to handle at one sitting.
Working from home can be tough at times juggling chores and work simultaneously. In times like these, certain home services can do a great deal of help for the work from home employees. By offering them certain home services, you can help them concentrate more on work.
A few examples of such services can be deal delivery, laundry, cleaning, etc. These activities at home take up a lot of time and eliminating it would do big favors for a remote worker.
It is no surprise that an office employee will feel more as a part of the company than a remote worker. It is because a worker in the office gets to be there for events, birthday celebrations, special occasions, etc.
This feeling of separation is a hindrance that you must try to avoid. You can still include remote workers in as many events as possible through video conferencing. Also, you can home deliver them a cake on their birthdays as well. It is small things as such that helps them feel like a part of the family too.
These are just a few of the employee benefit plans your remote workers would adore. It is because these are the points that cater to the specific pain points of the remote employees. Also, it is always better to find out what your employees prefer first hand.
In this case, a survey on understanding your remote workers will help you a ton here. Understanding their needs and problems will help you plan a better benefits package for them.
2020, so far, has been particularly a tough year for the business world. With the COVID-19 pandemic, companies are having a tough time staying afloat in the market. The current situation of remote working for months has pushed the business to change strategies drastically.
Be it company goals, employee benefits program, business strategies, etc., these sudden modifications have not only affected employers but also employees. While employees all around are trying their best to turn into remote workers, a sudden transition as such is never easy.
Workers are confused about their work, scared for their jobs, and overall unmotivated towards their work. This further harms the productivity level of the workforce. To bring up the motivation levels, one aspect that is sure to help here is employee benefits. With all that in mind, we suggest you get started on that perfect remote worker employee benefits draft right away.
This article is written by Jyoti Prakash Barman, an in-house content marketer at Vantage Circle - An Employee Engagement Platform and Vantage Fit - All in one Corporate Wellness Solution. The platform helps corporations connect and engage better with their employees. Jyoti Prakash mainly concentrates effort on informative content creation on essential HR topics of the business world.
