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What are employee benefits?

Attractive benefits packages should be designed to make your company a more desirable place to work for current and prospective employees. They work as a great hiring incentive and improve the experience for existing employees too. Competitive benefits packages will increase employee satisfaction, boost employee morale, and increase employee retention. Having a healthy workforce with high levels of job satisfaction will ultimately benefit your business; happy employees will be more engaged and more productive.

When thinking about the types of employee benefits you want to implement, you'll need to consider your organisational culture, the demographics of your employees and what they would benefit from, as well as practical considerations, like your budget. There are a range of benefits a company can offer, including health benefits, wellbeing benefits and financial benefits, but it can be difficult to know where to start and what is most important for your staff if you're a smaller organisation.

What works for one company might not be right for you. This article will outline the 8 most impactful employee benefits you can offer as a small company.

What to include in a benefits package as an SME

1. A wellness programme

Employee wellness programmes are an important step in creating a positive workplace culture. Your wellness programmes should consider everything from helping your employees live a healthy lifestyle, to supporting their mental health and wellbeing too. Healthy employees are happy employees and lead to more productive businesses. 

Some ways you can promote wellness at work include subsidising gym memberships or exercise classes, cycle-to-work schemes, employee assistance programmes, and mental health coverage. At Fertifa, we also offer three wellbeing days per year, in addition to annual leave, to give our employees extra time just for them, to recharge and take care of themselves.

2. Mental health support

One important aspect of employee wellness is mental wellbeing. According to the Mental Health Foundation, 1 in 7 employees will face mental health problems whilst at work, and 12% of all sickness and absence in the UK is due to mental health problems. Mental health support is becoming a really important benefit for employees and employers. 

Mental health is impacted by several factors, so along with creating a psychologically safe work environment, ensuring that your employees are not overworked or burnt out, and respecting their personal lives and commitments, there are several mental health and wellbeing benefits you could offer too. 

Some health insurance policies will offer coverage for mental health, but often it's not comprehensive and excludes pre-existing conditions, so check your policy to make sure it is inclusive of everyone affected by their mental health. Other ways to offer support for mental health in your workplace include mental wellbeing apps, like Headspace, and paid-for therapy or counselling services with a company like Oliva.

3. Flexible working options

Having flexible work arrangements is becoming more and more important to employees, with half of people saying they would not accept a job with no flexible work arrangements (according to a study by Robert Half).

Flexible working can mean different things in different companies. When putting together a flexible working policy, here are some of the things you should consider including:

Flexible working hours

Flexible working hours means your employees can work their allocated hours any time of the day, rather than the standard 9am-5pm. This could mean they work from 9:30am to 3:30pm, and then again from 6pm to 8pm to suit childcare arrangements, or starting at 8am and finishing at 4pm as they prefer to start working earlier in the day. Either way, they get their hours done. You may want to implement 'core working hours' where everyone is available online for meetings for a set amount of time in the middle of the day, for example, between 10am and 4pm. 

Unlimited time off

Some companies offer unlimited time off, meaning there is no restriction or limit to the number of annual leave or holiday days each person can take. Lots of organisations who have trialed this kind of policy have actually found that people end up taking fewer holiday days when it's unlimited, so if you are thinking of unlimited time off you should enforce a minimum number of days everyone has to take, for example, 28 days each year, which is the legal minimum requirement in the UK. 

Work-from-anywhere policies

Some companies offer 'work from anywhere' policies where employees can work anywhere in the world for a set amount of time each year, for example, one month out of the year. This could mean employees working in different time zones, so make sure it suits your organisation and the type of work you do. 

Hybrid or remote working

A study by Pew Research found that 55% of employees preferred to work from home at least 3 days a week. Hybrid working gives employees the option of working at home or in an office to align with their preferences and personal commitments. 

Compressed working hours

A 4-day working week is becoming more popular with small companies and SMEs, where everyone works fewer hours for the same pay. Whilst a 4-day week is not always possible, you could also consider working full-time hours over fewer days, for example working an extra hour each day for an additional day off every other week. 

Make sure the flexible working perks you offer facilitate good working relationships and work-life balance. Some companies may need mandatory requirements for time in the office. If this is the case for your company, communicate with your employees why that is and try to be flexible if the employee has to attend appointments or has occasional personal commitments within these hours. 

4. Healthcare coverage

One of the most impactful employee benefits for an SME to offer is health insurance or health coverage. Traditional private health insurance is where a company pays for health insurance on behalf of their employees. Other types of healthcare benefits include health cash plans, which cover medical expenses, dental care, and eye tests. 

We often see that lots of private health insurance providers don't cover things like fertility and reproductive health. This is because these conditions are considered chronic conditions or elective procedures, so are excluded from medical insurance policies.

Reproductive health and fertility is still quite a taboo topic but it will affect a large proportion of your employee base. With 1 in 4 menopausal women considering leaving work due to the symptoms, 70% of people impacted by infertility willing to change roles for a company that has fertility benefits, and 1 in 3 women suffering from a severe reproductive health problem, it's becoming more important to offer reproductive health support to ensure your company is a diverse and inclusive place to work, especially for women.

5. Learning and development opportunities

One of the perks of working in a smaller company or start-up is the opportunity for progression and professional development. Think about how you can facilitate learning and development for your employees through courses, learning and development budgets, and coaching or mentoring schemes. Internal mobility is integral to our culture at Fertifa and we believe in giving our employees the freedom to move between teams and explore different roles. We therefore provide an annual £1k budget for L&D so that people can expand their knowledge and develop new skill sets.

Offering learning and development opportunities is a great way to boost employee engagement and employee loyalty; a study by Udemy showed that 80% of employees think learning and development opportunities would make them feel more engaged at work. 

6. Financial resources 

During the cost of living crisis, financial resources can be a huge benefit for employees. With 34% of adults in the UK having no savings, meaning they rely on their monthly income, anything an organisation can do to relieve the financial burden of both day-to-day and unexpected expenses can be a great perk.

Consider things like a season ticket loan for travelling - or even paying for your employees' travel to and from the office, like Fertifa does - a fertility treatment loan or allowance, a wellbeing allowance, matched pension contributions, and investment options or share options. 

Make sure you're also offering financial education or coaching from external resources, to help set your employees up for success, helping them make the most of their income. 

7. Family-friendly benefits

Family-friendly benefits support employees through all life stages and situations, from starting a family, to becoming new parents, and those with caregiving responsibilities. Family-friendly companies are becoming more important to employees, a survey by Willis Towers Watson showed that 59% of employers said family-friendly policies have been essential to their talent strategy. For companies wanting a competitive edge, offering more than the statutory minimum allowance when it comes to family-forming support is essential. 

Family-friendly benefits can include fertility and family-forming benefits, enhanced parental leave, additional maternity care and support, childcare assistance and caregiver support.  

8. Company and office perks 

Company perks are a way to give your employees a broad range of low-cost perks which can help boost employee morale. Whilst these are not always considered meaningful benefits, employees will appreciate the small things you do, if they come alongside the essential coverage mentioned above.

Company perks can look like employee discounts, share options or free services offered by your company. When thinking about the working environment, office perks can include things like a casual dress code, drinks, snacks and office lunches as well as team activities, sports and socials, or having a pet-friendly workspace. 

Get in touch to discover more

Fertifa is a comprehensive health benefits provider. We offer education, wellbeing support, clinical care, and treatment funding for under-supported areas of health, including fertility, women's health, menopause and neurodiversity. 

If you're looking to put fertility support and benefits in place, book in a call with our team who can talk you through how to work with Fertifa 💜