Fruit and yoga: benefits should match the company
A fitness room for employees, after-work events or the famous fruit basket: many companies try to retain employees with these or similar offers. Can this work?
Creating an attractive working environment for your employees: For many employers, this is more important than ever in times of a shortage of skilled workers. One option is to create additional offers for employees such as company childcare, yoga courses or the classic fruit basket. However, sometimes you don't necessarily know immediately what is behind the special features and benefits advertised in job advertisements. Or have you ever heard of brown bag sessions or silent rooms?
"A brown bag session is the good old lunch together in the coffee kitchen - everyone has their packed lunch and you exchange ideas," explains Claudia Heser. She is a member of the Executive Committee of the German Association of Personnel Managers (BPM) and Head of Human Resources and Organizational Development at the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Silent rooms are retreats or booths where employees can make a phone call, hold a video call or work in a highly concentrated manner in peace and quiet. "This is particularly important for open office concepts," says Heser.
Offers should suit the workforce
Some companies also have parent-child rooms, i.e. rooms for parents who bring their children with them - for example when the daycare center is closed. Some companies have their own fitness rooms with equipment. Others organize after-work meetings. Such measures and rooms are right and important, says Heser. "But of course they have to fit in with the workforce and the corporate culture and should complement good working conditions, not replace them."
Pamela Grüninger, career coach in Tübingen, observes: "For most people, the priority is that they do something meaningful with their work and that they are encouraged and supported in their development by their manager." Many employees also consider a practiced culture of values, especially a good working atmosphere, to be relevant.
And it also depends on what is on offer. While a start-up can score points with its young employees with a well-equipped fitness room, for example, a company with an older workforce is perhaps more likely to offer additional company health insurance or help with family care.
One example: according to a Yougov survey commissioned by HR software provider Circula, 42% of employees aged 55 and over find retirement benefits particularly attractive. Among 25 to 34-year-olds, flexible working arrangements (43 percent) and financial benefits that can be used flexibly - shopping vouchers, for example (42 percent) - are particularly attractive.
Classic benefits such as a fruit basket or free drinks are particularly attractive for 14% of the 1,000 employees surveyed, while childcare benefits such as a daycare allowance or company childcare are particularly attractive for 6%. No surprise: among 25 to 34-year-olds, more respondents find benefits for children particularly attractive, namely around one in ten.
Sports facilities and the like are not compulsory
Another result of the survey, which was conducted between July 31 and August 8: Not all employees make use of the benefits that their employers have on offer. Only just under one in two (48 percent) stated that they do so regularly. Around one in nine (11 percent), on the other hand, do not use their employer's benefits at all, for example because access is too inconvenient - or because what is on offer does not suit their current life situation.
After all, no one can be forced to lift weights during their lunch break or practice the downward dog in a yoga class. "In any case, most benefits such as after-work meetings or sports courses are not part of the employment contract. Employees therefore don't have to take advantage of them," explains Heser.
However, if employees are not taking advantage of inappropriate offers, they can also take action themselves. HR departments often welcome suggestions. "After all, offers should be tailored to your needs and accepted," says Heser. However, it is important to know that, in the end, suggestions that are attractive not only to individual employees, but to as many employees as possible, are usually implemented.
Read also:
- Many employers offer additional benefits to retain employees, such as company childcare, yoga courses, or a fruit basket. However, these benefits should align with the workforce and the company's culture, according to Claudia Heser, an HR advisor.
- Flexible working arrangements and financial benefits are particularly appealing to younger employees, while retirement benefits are more attractive to older employees, as shown in a survey by HR software provider Circula.
- While some employees use the benefits offered by their employers regularly, others do not because the offerings do not suit their current life situation or access is inconvenient.
- Employees are not obligated to participate in benefits such as after-work meetings or sports courses, as most of these offers are not part of the employment contract, explains Heser.
- HR departments often welcome suggestions for benefits that are tailored to employees' needs and accepted by many, which can lead to their implementation.
Source: www.ntv.de
