Fruit Thursdays are a thing of the past. A new era of employee benefits has arrived – tailored to the needs of the employees as well as the vision and culture of the organization. What benefit trends are we seeing in 2022?
Top employee benefits in 2022 – which ones are worth implementing?
Wellbeing above all
Mental and physical well-being increases performance and engagement at work. Meanwhile, according to Gallup Institute research, as many as 76% of employees experience burnout. That’s why one of the most important benefit trends for 2022 will be taking care of employee wellbeing. Mindfulness sessions, breathing exercises, yoga or apps to help practice attentiveness will become more popular and appreciated by team members. So is unlimited paid vacation days, which some Polish organizations are already introducing.
The proliferation of remote work also provides an opportunity for companies to implement workation benefits. Members of the Talent Place Community, for example, can take advantage of the company’s apartment in Alicante, Spain and go there for both work and leisure. Access to private medical care, both physical and psychological, will also be important – another of the benefits that Talent Place is adding to its offer.
Additional time and new development opportunities
Work, family responsibilities, passions, travel – many people find it hard to reconcile these spheres of life, not to mention finding time to develop professional skills. Although extending the 24-hour day is not possible, companies have found ways to help employees regain at least some time and provide opportunities for development. And so the “Benefits 2022” shelf includes, for example, the 4-day work week, introduced by more and more companies in Poland.
Another option that organizations are opting for is the ability to use 10% of their work time per month for competency development. You can use this time to review industry press, attend events or organize a “development day.” The key thing about this benefit is that it all takes place during work, so employees don’t have to take time off for these kinds of developmental activities. Companies also help in reclaimng time with concierge on an hourly basis – an assistant helps with everyday errands such as small purchases or a visit to the post office.
In Talent Place, we promote the concept of work-life fit, i.e. flexible adjustment of work to private life and current needs of employees. Thus, everyone can work in such a way that they have time for themselves and their loved ones. In addition, it is important to us that our recruiters can develop their competencies. So we expanded our Knowledge sharing initiative by offering a Crowdstaffing Master training series to our employees. In this way, participants can improve their knowledge of community recruitment and learn tools or techniques that are useful in a recruiter’s work. In addition, we host webinars where people from the Community can share their expertise. All employees also have unlimited access to Skillveo’s e-learning platform.
Employee benefits also for freelancers
Until now, benefits in companies have been reserved exclusively for the core team and contracted employees. However, in the era of project-based distributed work involving multiple professionals from different industries this concept has also been revolutionized.
Talent Place is an example of an organization with over 150 experts in the Community promoting diverse employment. That is why, probably as one of the first employers in Poland, we decided to make employee benefits available also to freelancers cooperating with us. Why? We combine the best of full-time and project work – we offer 100% remote work, flexible hours, and work from any location, along with job security and attractive benefits.
What to keep in mind when implementing employee benefits?
The most important thing when introducing this type of benefit is that employees appreciate the perks offered and that they will actually use them. For this to happen they must meet expectations and be attractive. And how can a company verify this? It is best to listen to the needs of the team. At Talent Place we believe that surveying the expectations of those in our Community is key to planning our activities including preparing employee benefits in 2022. This is why we have introduced a regular Community Satisfaction Survey during which we listen to feedback and suggestions for improvements that the team believes are worth implementing. This year’s benefit package was based on such a survey. It ended with a high score (NPS 81), and further allowed us to determine what benefits would work best for our Community.
The reception of the introduced benefits at Talent Place is very positive. We believe that they will contribute to even greater employee satisfaction, integration, commitment and will become an important asset when deciding to start working with us. At the same time, we’re looking at feedback from the Community and exploring areas where we could implement further additions in line with the team’s needs.
