Discover the perks your business can offer to attract and retain top talent.

The pandemic and new workplace trends have pushed leaders to reassess how they manage their teams.

Some realized that they’d have to help their employees cope with the new normal if they wanted to retain them.

That’s why many companies now offer third-party services that help employees adapt and stay motivated.

And research shows these services also help organizations by boosting employee performance.

Let’s go over the 5 most popular types of such services and the data on how they can help your business.

1. Financial Stress Relief For Employees

According to Brightplan’s Wellness Barometer survey, financially stressed employees cost employers $4.7 billion per week.

That’s why many companies turned to services that help their employees relieve financial stress.

Here are three examples of such services:

• Brightside — A financial care solution for employees and employers. It helps employers reduce costs by helping the employees understand and manage their finances in the best way possible.
• Origin — A platform that lets employees manage compensation, benefits, and personal finances with the assistance of financial professionals. An Origin subscription also includes 1-on-1 financial planning, which helps every employee make the best use of their resources.
• Salary Finance — A money management solution providing products and educational materials that help improve employees’ financial situation. For example, employees can get salary-linked benefits, such as loans, and rewards for the money they’ve managed to save.

2. Employee Mental Stress Relief

Poor mental health reduces productivity, profits, and employee morale.

On top of that, it also increases employers’ expenses.

For example, one study in the UK found that 30–40% of the sickness absence can be attributed to mental issues. And in the US, it’s approximated that all illness-related absences cost employers $575 billion per year.

So, mental issues may cost employers up to $230 billion annually if we assume they cause 40% of total absences.

To cut their expenses and keep their employees satisfied, many organizations started investing in digital services for mental health:

• Unmind — A platform that provides science-backed tools that help employees maintain their mental wellbeing. The platform also gives leaders and HR’s anonymous data on employees’ mental health so they can make better decisions.
• YuMuuv — A team wellness challenge app that motivates employees to be more physically active. The app also collects and analyzes data for both personal and corporate use.
• Dayzz — A sleep app that creates personalized sleep plans for employees and connects them with human sleep trainers. Dayzz also offers periodic reports like other solutions on this list.

3. Employee Empowerment And Recognition

A lack of recognition is one of the most common reasons why employees leave organizations.

On top of that, companies with strong employee recognition programs are 12x more likely to generate significant business results.

So, recognizing and rewarding your employees is essential — but difficult.

If you’re a small business, you may not have the time to track employee performance. On the other hand, big corporations may lack adequate insight into their employees’ everyday accomplishments.

That’s where digital tools like Awardco can help:

Awardco is a semi-automated reward and recognition system.

Employees can get various performance-based rewards, from Amazon Business to gift cards, hotel discounts, and charitable donations.

The platform also reminds leaders and HR’s of important dates, such as work anniversaries.

With Awardco or a similar system, you won’t have to worry about remembering all those important dates yourself — but you’ll still have a chance to show your employees you appreciate them.

4. Corporate Benefits Management

According to a study from 2020, as many as 69% of employees believe that having a wider array of benefits would increase loyalty to their employer.

But there’s a problem. Offering a variety of benefits usually requires partnerships with other businesses.

And most companies don’t have the time to establish such partnerships.

That’s where third-party services like Swile and Flash can help:

• Swile — An employee card and app that includes employee benefits like meal, gift, and holiday vouchers. What makes it different from its competitors is that employees can add their personal debit cards to the app, so they don’t need to use another card if they exceed their daily limit. In a nutshell, it makes paying a lot more convenient.
• Flash — A benefits management app that comes with a Mastercard and lets employees choose the benefits they want. The app offers a variety of benefits, such as discounts on transport, food, and different repairs.

5. Human Capital Management

The pandemic forced many organizations to rethink how they do business. And the experience taught them they need to be more agile than ever.

And when businesses need to act fast, they need to hire (and manage) adequate talent quickly.

Some virtual services can help with that, too:

• Gloat — An all-in-one workforce agility platform. It lets leaders find the talent they need, identify current gaps in their supply, and motivate their employees by setting milestones they need to hit to advance their careers.
• Workday — A system that lets HR’s send suggested learning and personalized guidance to every employee, collect data, define compensation and benefits, and automate the payment process.

Does Investing In These Services Really Pay Off?

Here’s the thing. All these services cost money.

(Unless you’re a small organization and your chosen service has a free plan for a smaller number of users — for example, Dayzz has one.)

Although you probably want the best for your employees, you’re still a business. So, you need to consider whether you’ll get a return on your investment.

While I can’t give you a definitive answer, I can share some insightful statistics:

• Unmind claims that their app helped 88% of employees improve their mental wellbeing, work performance, or relationships.
• Brightside claims that their customers see a 41% reduction in employee turnover.
• Awardco boasts of helping one of its customers increase the number of new hires by 500% in just 12 months.

The Final Verdict

Maybe you’re suspicious of the companies’ claims. But you can still rely on the general data on the effects of employee health and motivation on businesses.

Considering that data, investing in any one of these services will likely pay off.

What’s more, offering such perks may soon become the standard for employees.

So, if you want to attract and retain top talent, I suggest you give some of these services a go. Great perks usually lead to great hires.