Employee benefits are changing – how to boost staff morale during Covid-19

Employee expectations are shifting beyond the usual benefits of time-off and bonuses. Employees are also looking for a supportive office culture with intangible benefits like better work/life balance. Thinking outside the box for employee benefits can help attract and retain your most talented staff.

Enhanced communications

The beginning of the crisis saw a very sudden shift in offices across the globe. Companies were forced to quickly send out internal communications about health and safety practices, closures to offices, and expectations of their employees working from home. As the novelty of working from home quickly faded, small elements of work culture like coffee break and small talk became sorely missed. Businesses had to ensure company culture was not left behind in the virtual shift and continue to support staff morale during these difficult times.

Nurturing and keeping talent within your company often has a lot to do with company culture. To combat talent turnover during COVID-19, keep company culture amplified and job fatigue down by maintaining culture activities. How are companies achieving this? Activities such as end of week staff drinks via videoconferencing apps work well to break up job fatigue. For added team bonding – include office games in the video call such as trivia or charades.

Added focus on wellness

Restrictions have meant a variety of temporary closures to venues that provide a balanced lifestyle to employees  – from cafes to restaurants to gyms and in certain cities child care. With more and more time being spent indoors and separation between work and home life becoming blurred, job satisfaction might become strained. Offering online services to cope with the new stress like anonymous counselling and discounted or free access to fitness apps, will help foster company loyalty. If your company doesn’t have the budget to offer paid fitness apps or other paid services, organising a group lunchtime yoga or stretching session over a video call could help restore some of their work/life balance needs.

Flexible work environments

During the pandemic, employees have been forced to quickly adjust to new practices and working environments. These new changes have meant learning curves in technologies, work routines and potentially having to share a workspace with loved ones. All of these new changes may require employers to be sympathetic to their employee’s new surroundings. Demonstrating your flexibility to your staff’s new work challenges can help improve overall staff satisfaction. Patience during this time will be greatly appreciated by your staff and help keep morale high.

Employee assistance programs

If restrictions have forced your employees to work from home full time, offering your employees subsidies for your staff’s increased electricity bills is a nice value add to show your company’s support. Another option to improve employee benefits is to offer staff discounts on company products with contactless delivery.

Care packages

While enhancing your company’s virtual culture can be beneficial – sending physical care packs as a way to thank employees for their efforts adds a personal touch. Whether you deliver them to the entire office to open over a video call or use them as a prize for stand-out achievements –  receiving something physical when so much is moving virtual, will be sure to stand out for your employees. Get creative with what to include in your care packages from snacks to industry-specific gifts.

For when your staff return to the office, use our online tool to find the perfect machine for your business or give one of our friendly sales representatives a call today.