What if we told you there was a way your company could save money and increase employee happiness at the same time, by simply providing your workforce with exclusive reduced prices on products, services, and experiences from brands they love? An employee rewards program can help.
Providing employee discounts can not only reduce a company’s overall expenses and increase employee engagement and happiness, it can also give you an edge over the competition. After all, all of that money you saved can be filtered back into other operations such as research and development, marketing and hiring employees. Further, in the long-term, it can serve as an employer branding competitive advantage.
Money is important — it’s what keeps your business running. Wasting a few bucks on a cheap stapler that breaks after a few uses isn’t a big deal, but throwing away hundreds or thousands of dollars (when you don’t need to) on benefits employees don’t use or having to hire new employees at a faster-than-average pace because people don’t feel appreciated is bad for business.
Here are four employee rewards programs that save you and your employees money. Plus, your employees will feel more appreciated!
Providing valuable discounts on brand-name products and services helps employees get more for less.
1. Employees Get More for Less with Corporate Discounts
Employers often offer valuable discounts like membership deals with local health clubs, concert tickets, airfare or theater tickets. Sometimes employees don’t think to ask or look for these types of benefits – so, if you offer them, make sure you widely communicate this to your workforce.
Or your company may use Fond, which gives employees access to reduced pricing on over 800 brands including gyms, wireless carriers, movie tickets and more. Expenses on these items and experiences add up, but in time, so can savings.
Providing valuable discounts on brand-name products and services helps employees get more for less. These employee discounts also reinforce the message that saving in the short term on everyday purchases can help employees reach their long-term financial goals. And awarding these types of benefits offerings helps make employees feel appreciated.
2. Save on Commuter Expenses with Employee Rewards Programs
The great aspect of commuter transit benefits is that both employees and employers save money and are happier because of it. Chance are you’ve heard of transit benefits, so think about proposing it for your company. You could help your business save thousands of dollars each year on the payroll as well as employee hiring and retention costs.
Just how much do employers save? As you may have guessed, that’s company-dependent. But let’s look at an example to give you a rough estimate, according to TransitCheck, of what you could save if you maxed out both the monthly employee transit benefits ($255) and monthly employee parking benefits ($255) for 20 employees that make less than the Social Security wage base of $118,500.
And that’s not even including the amount of money it’d saved on retaining employees. Think about it – employees love benefits that help make their lives easier and save time. In fact, according to a 2015 Aflac report, nearly 60 percent of employees are likely to accept a position for less pay but great benefits. Additionally, almost 100 percent of employees said benefits affected how happy they were at work, 91 percent noted it played a role in how loyal they were to their employer and 85 percent said it influenced their decision to put in their notice.
Offering an exceptional benefits package can keep employees on board longer, thus reducing employee hiring costs.
A stressed workforce can cause productivity to drop and sales to plummet.
3. Reduce Stress and Increase Health with Wellness Programs
Does stress really equal lost dollars? Yes! In a Virgin Pulse survey of over 1,000 full-time employees around the U.S. and Canada, 60 percent said the relationship they have with their employer’s impacts how they work. Close to 45 percent said it affects their stress levels.
Offering your workforce an employee wellness program, like reduced prices for gym memberships or a company-wide wellness initiative helps reduce stress, improve workplace health, and encourage your employees to get moving!
A stressed workforce can cause productivity to drop, sales to plummet, which ultimately leads to a negative impact on a company’s bottom line. As we mentioned in the previous segment, employees are also more likely to leave a company when their work environment (benefits offerings included) doesn’t meet their needs. And hiring and bringing new employees up to speed isn’t cheap.
“Estimates range from 1.5 times to 3 times of salary for the ‘fully-baked’ cost of an employee – the cost including things like benefits, taxes, equipment, training, rent, etc.,” said Eric Koester of MyHighTechStart-Up to Investopedia.
Because expenses differ depending on a number of circumstances (state, company type and position, and other hiring costs, to name a few), Koester’s range should give you a good estimate at just how expensive it is to bring someone new on board.
The point is: Avoid this costly headache and offer your employees more unique benefits, like employee wellness programs.
4. Direct Deposits
A direct deposit isn’t really a rewards program, but it is an oft-overlooked, convenient benefit that we couldn’t go without mentioning. By offering direct deposit to employees, employers can save upward of $2.87 – $3.15 per paper check, according to the Electronics Payment Association. Not only does this reduce employee stress (they don’t have to worry about lost checks), but it can also add up to immense payroll savings per year.
We hope these tips help you set up a great employee rewards program! Contact us to learn more about how Fond can help you.
