People are an organisation's most important asset. Treat top talent well, and your best performers will tend to hang around, generating revenue and helping your business grow.
Remuneration is obviously important - if you pay your best employees below the market rate, they'll naturally search for more money elsewhere.
But salary is far from the be all and end all. Modern workers place just as much value on the employee experience - the atmosphere and culture of the workplace, and how much the employer seems to care about the team.
Staff perks are one way to show care and appreciation as an employer. And by no means do these perks have to be expensive - as far as top talent is concerned, it's very much the thought that counts.
In this article we'll reveal seven proven, low-cost staff perks that can make all the difference to staff satisfaction, engagement and retention, and share how a New Zealand business can successfully implement an employee perk program.
Why low-cost employee benefits matter more than ever
Employee perks are a way to acknowledge effort and boost morale, which in turn helps you to engage and retain more of your best workers.
Replacing top talent is time-consuming and expensive. According to a 2022 HR Industry Benchmark Survey, it took New Zealand businesses an average of 40 days to fill a vacant position, at the enormous cost of $23,860.
Employee benefits help you to avoid this cost and disruption. And while the perks you offer should incentivise your best team members to work hard and hang around, they don't need to be particularly big or splashy.
In fact, the dollar value of the benefits package is often the last thing on team members' minds, which is good news for New Zealand businesses facing ever tighter budgets in ever more challenging economic conditions. Top talent is instead looking for recognition, connection and work flexibility.
The following seven perks offer exactly that, without breaking the bank.
7 affordable and high impact employee perk ideas
1. Flexible work options
Enabled by the internet and supercharged by the pandemic, flexible working arrangements have transformed from a fringe perk to a key pillar of employment offerings over the last decade or so.
From remote work, to choose-your-own hours, to four-day work weeks, the ability for a staff member to work where, when and how they want is a hugely powerful incentive to commit to an organisation.
And while workers see these perks as particularly high value, they don't have to cost you a cent. In fact, a focus on work-life balance could make you money, as multiple studies have identified a positive relationship between flexible working arrangements and employee performance.
While the pitch is compelling, it's important to be cautious with implementation. You need to limit flexible work options to relevant roles: those that are less dependent on work being done in-office or at a particular time.
2. Recognition and appreciation programs
Being recognised for hard work shouldn't matter, but it does. It's an innate human desire, and one that smart employers play to, by establishing programs that guarantee credit where credit is due.
Appreciation programs can take any number of forms. They can be simple and casual, like a mention of great work in a weekly meeting or email. Or they could be more structured and formal, like software that allows all team members to give shout-outs to those who have gone over and above.
While you might consider offering small prizes to those who are recognised, the real reward is the recognition itself, so this employee perk doesn't need to cost you much at all, beyond the time it takes to gather, organise and deliver acknowledgements.
3. Professional development sessions
By investing in your staff, you show them that they matter to you, and that you're committed to them in the long-term.
Staff training and career development programs not only power retention, but also upskill your workers to make them more productive. So, while they do demand upfront investment, they can also deliver a significant return.
This training can take many forms: single-day sessions with guest speakers, formal courses, even giving team members the opportunity to spend days in different parts of the business to try something new and expand their skill sets.
4. Access to deals and discounts
Exclusive deals with partner businesses can form a tangible reward that you can offer staff for little to no out-of-pocket costs.
Some businesses choose to negotiate partnerships with local gyms, cafés, retailers and service providers. The deal is simple: we'll send our workers your way in return for an exclusive deal or discount. It's a win for all involved:
Employees gain access to great deals
Employers offer their staff exclusive perks
Partner businesses gain new customers
At 1Team we've done the negotiation for you, and with some of NZ's favourite brands: JB Hi-Fi, The Coffee Club, Hertz, Scenic Hotels and more. Your team members gain access to these discounts through a custom-branded app, allowing you to recognise the efforts of your employees while incurring minimal upfront or ongoing costs.
5. Wellness perks that don’t break the bank
From optional group fitness challenges to comprehensive employee assistance programs (EAPs), wellness benefits can help you create a healthier and happier team, which can lead your top performers to hang around longer.
A focus on health and wellness shows that you care about your workers. Potentially serious issues, like mental health problems, can be identified and treated early. This has direct business benefits too, because when you give employees the gift of health, you can also enhance their productivity.
Employee wellness perks can take any number of forms, including:
Subsidised gym memberships
Healthy office snacks
Access to counselling or therapy
Annual health checks
Stipends for health and wellness-related expenses
A team step-count challenge
Paid mental health days
6. Purpose-focused perks
Workers should feel good - not guilty - for wanting to do good. Top employers understand this, so actively assist team members if they want to support their community.
By allowing employees to take paid volunteer days - which can be spent helping out at community events, supporting local charities, picking up rubbish or planting trees - you show that yours is an organisation with a conscience.
This is the type of perk that you can shout from the rooftop as part of your recruitment efforts, as it represents a powerful employer branding opportunity. It shows you have a heart, which helps to attract and retain the best talent on the market.
It also demands zero investment, beyond the salary that you would've paid for that workday anyway.
7. Personalisation perks
Which perks will resonate most with your workers? Just ask them. By letting your employees choose the type of reward they'll enjoy for a job well done, you ensure that it resonates with them, and you more effectively incentivise great work.
You could offer team members a choice of any of the perks listed above, or you could go even more personal (and low cost) by offering options like:
Birthday leave
Pet-friendly office days
A charity donation made on the employee's behalf
A lunch of their choice
A late start/early finish
This level of personalisation can drive higher rates of engagement and uptake with your employee benefit program, while still granting you ultimate control over the options that are offered and the costs that are incurred.
How to ensure benefits and perks get used
The success of any staff perk program is in the uptake. If the program is popular it means your team is being incentivised effectively. The following tips can help you ensure that your efforts are successful:
Communicate clearly and regularly: When you first establish your perks program, you should clearly outline how it works in a meeting, follow that up with an email, then place all relevant information somewhere easily accessible, like a lunchroom print-out or a page on the company intranet.
Make perks easy to access: If you place rewards out of reach, your workers will lose interest in your program entirely. Consider using a sliding scale: set the bar low for basic perks, then increase the quality and value of perks in line with performance.
Gather regular feedback: Use team meetings or anonymous surveys to gather feedback from your workers. Do the perks resonate? Does the program make sense? Does the existence of the program incentivise performance? Action any insights revealed in the answers.
Position perks as part of company culture: Your employee benefits program shouldn't be viewed as a sideshow or a fun little game. It should be central to your identity: proof that recognition and reward are a core part of the organisation's DNA. Highlight it during onboarding, and make it a key part of regular team meetings.
Measuring the impact of your benefits program
How do you know whether your staff perks are working? There are a few key ways for you to track the uptake and success of a benefits program:
Engagement metrics: What percentage of your team is making use of the program or earning perks? How often do individual team members capitalise on benefits? Tracking these numbers over time allows you to measure the effectiveness of any tweaks you make to the program.
Talent acquisition/retention rates: The main aim of perk programs is to attract and retain top talent. Are you having more success in securing the most talented job seekers? How many of your best workers are hanging around? Metrics like retention rates and average length of tenure can help you answer these questions.
Feedback surveys: As mentioned above, staff feedback is invaluable in shaping and optimising your program. Anonymous surveys can be a great way to understand what your team really thinks about the benefits you offer.
No benefits program will be perfect from day one. But by actively tracking metrics and soliciting feedback, you can gradually optimise yours to make it increasingly effective.
Conclusion
Looking for a low cost yet ultra-effective way to start rewarding your workers today? Say hello to 1Team.
With the help of our custom-branded app, you can offer your team members savings from New Zealand's leading retailers – Torpedo7, Dulux, Pita Pit, Hirepool, Repco, Warehouse Stationery and more – and track exactly how many of your workers are gaining access to and utilising the rewards.
It's a small investment that can drive a big impact. Get started today.
