Today’s social climate has wildly altered the current workplace dynamic. Leadership and HR teams must ascertain how employees now want to be supported by their employer.
While you want to keep your employees top of mind and give them great benefits, it isn’t easy to figure out what that looks like. How do you make sure that you’re supporting them in the best way possible and not holding onto old practices? Generally, the best way to support your employees is by taking a well-rounded approach and covering their financial, physical, and emotional needs.
In this blog, we’ll cover some examples that consider the full employee experience, including:
- Adapting to the current employee experience
- Providing financial security
- Establishing safety nets, like employee compassion funds
- Giving back to causes that employees care about
- Building a workplace culture that supports employee wellbeing
Adapting to the Current Employee Experience
The most important takeaway from this article is to listen to your employees.
According to MIT, employees don’t want foosball tables—they want impactful changes to their compensation and healthcare plans. They want the flexibility to work from home. Beyond perks, employees want to know that employers pay attention to what is important to them. Purpose Under Pressure states that 86% of employees need a deeper meaning for their work, and 84% will only work for companies they believe are making a difference.
These are tangible financial, physical, and emotional needs that employees now consider non-negotiables and that companies can proactively address to enrich their employees’ lives. Helping your employees meet their essential needs improves workplace productivity and culture by empowering, engaging, and protecting your workforce. You also establish a more positive and fulfilling work environment, increase your Net Promoter Score, and improve retention rates.
Providing Financial Security
A major step in implementing a more integrated approach to supporting your employees is to cover their financial needs meaningfully.
Many employers are unaware of the financial risks that can be detrimental to their teams’ security and productivity. Food insecurity, housing insecurity, difficulties with childcare or eldercare, transportation problems, and mental health problems are common financial vulnerabilities even for those with a base salary. For example, food insecurity, stable housing, and childcare challenges affect 20% and more of full-time working Americans. According to the Federal Reserve, 35% of households cannot cover a $400 emergency expense.
You can better support your employees by ensuring you’re providing equitable and fair pay that covers your staff’s basic emergencies. How? For example, leadership teams across the country have tapped JUST Capital for help in understanding how to support their employees’ financial vulnerabilities, how these vulnerabilities affect their team’s wellbeing, and checking if they’re paying fair wages.
Establishing Safety Nets, Like Employee Compassion Funds
Employee Compassion Funds are no-strings-attached no-questions-asked ways for employers to help meet their employees’ financial and physical needs. Your company can mitigate the financial risks discussed above by providing a concrete way to help employees weather unexpected expenses and financial instability.
Companies set up funds to support their employees. These funds grew in popularity during COVID-19 as companies with established Employee Compassion Funds had an easier time immediately supporting their teams and avoiding layoffs even with meager revenues coming in.
For example, country clubs throughout the country were forced to shut down or scale down operations during the pandemic. Using Givinga’s disaster relief platform, some clubs established Employee Compassion Funds that allowed them, their members, and their communities to donate fully tax-deductible funds to employees. Del Paso Country Club saw almost $85,000 in donations in just two weeks. Their Chief Operating Officer is grateful that the funds gave them the ease and ability to give relief to their staff quickly, taking stress off of their staff and board during a crisis.
Giving Back to Causes That Employees Care About
Supporting the causes that your employees care about and matter most to them is a way to fulfill their emotional needs and improve employee retention. 84% of employees say that they consider how their work positively impacts society and that they will only work at companies with a purpose; some will even take less pay to work for a company with a social mission. Offering charitable giving accounts, employee matching programs, or volunteering opportunities empowers employees in knowing their companies are supporting them in becoming a changemaker and meeting their ideals.
Helping employees give back to the causes and communities they care about also establishes greater DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) messaging within your organization. When you prefund flexible charitable giving accounts or create matching programs for your employees, you give everyone an equal chance to give back. People with different backgrounds will have the same statistically significant representation and opportunity to assist their communities.
Building a Workplace Culture that Supports Employee Wellbeing
Employee wellbeing is more than just physical health. It must include meaning, connection, authenticity, inclusion, and mental health support.
Why is this important? Over 60% of employees said their mental health affects their productivity, and 22% of workers in multiple age groups have voluntarily left a job due to mental health reasons.
Corporations that provide resources and work to create sustainable culture changes that support mental health remind their employees that they see them as humans, improving employee loyalty and their ability to recruit talent.
What can these changes look like?
- Being transparent about taking mental health days
- Training your leadership team to have difficult conversations about mental health and productivity
- Being mindful of the impact of social issues on your staff, especially BIPOC
- Leadership modeling work-life balance
- Allowing your employees to bring their whole selves to work
- Implementing mental health benefits for employees
- Supporting mental health charities to foster conversation and show support for the cause
Contact Givinga to Better Support Your Employees
We want to provide every employee with the tools and resources they need to give back to the causes and communities that matter to them. Employers can support directed individual needs by setting up Employee Compassion Funds within our Philantech® platform, which provides the technology and tools to ensure funds are approved and distributed within IRS guidelines.
Your company can also set up prefunded charitable giving accounts for your employees within our platform, allowing employees to donate to causes that matter most to them.
Contact us today to better support your employees’ needs!
