How to choose non-monetary benefits for employees

Pay-packets are, obviously, a major motivating factor for the jobs to which we apply and for how we perform in our jobs. But wages and additional monetary employee benefits, such as bonuses, stock options and profit-sharing schemes, won’t necessarily motivate employees alone. Most companies offer their employees non-monetary benefits too. 

Non-monetary benefits include things like annual leave, flexible working hours, gym membership discounts and, indeed, cycle to work schemes. Well selected, they can help to boost staff morale, motivation and productivity. But what constitutes a well selected non-monetary benefit? 

Employee needs 

There’s no point in offering benefits to employees that simply aren’t relevant to them. It will cost your business money and offer nothing in the way of satisfaction to your staff. To understand what non-monetary benefits employees may be interested in, you just have to ask. 

An employee benefits survey with well worded questions can give you the sort of insight you need. As well as helping you to find out if employees feel they have been adequately informed about their existing benefits package and if they are happy with it, it can also be used to find out what other benefits employees might value. 

The answers, of course, will depend on the make-up of your workforce. If it comprises a large number of middle-aged individuals with families, you may find that good pensions and family insurance policies are widely sought after. A lively, younger workforce, meanwhile, may favour duvet days and days or nights out with their colleagues paid for by the company! 

Employer ROI 

Of course, employee benefits also benefit employers and it’s important not to keep this in mind when choosing what to offer. In one aspect, the same principle applies here as above – it’s important to offer benefits that are relevant to your employees and target employees so as to reap the rewards of a motivated workforce and attract new applications. 

However, it’s also important to keep in mind the return on investment (ROI) of any given benefit. You wouldn’t take on a benefit your company couldn’t afford and, as we’ve established, there’s no point in wasting money on benefits that don’t suit your staff. For benefits that are both affordable and desirable to staff-members, though, understanding the value they will bring to a company against their cost will help to ensure you get good value for money. 

You may be able to calculate a financial value for each of the benefits you’re comparing, or failing that simply get a good idea of which will be more worthwhile to pursue. Alternatively, if the benefits are not directly comparable, it may simply be a case of working out which ticks most boxes for your company. Even in this case, going through the process of trying to determine ROI will help to give you a better understanding of a benefit’s value to your company and better inform your final decision.

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