How can flexible benefits motivate employees?
Flexible benefits can motivate employees in a number of important ways.
Improving employee motivation requires a measured approach. Often companies turn to pay rises, which aren’t as feasible for as many companies as they once might have been, nor are they the most effective way to boost motivation in the majority of cases.
Fair pay is important, but there’s a whole lot more to employee motivation.
This is where it’s important to understand what motivation is in order to understand how it can be improved.
For more on flexible benefits, read our ‘How do flexible benefits work?’ blog.
What is motivation?
Motivation can be defined in many different ways, however in a nutshell it’s a person’s willingness to put in a high amount of effort in order to achieve certain goals.
What a person might gain individually also plays a part in motivation.
It’s thought that there are 3 key aspects to employee motivation which are:
- The individual employee’s needs
- Their expectancy of a desired outcome
- Their job and how it’s structured.
The final 2 points can be addressed through an employee’s job design and ensuring employees are rewarded fairly for their efforts.
We’ve covered this in more detail in our ‘The theory behind employee motivation and retention’ blog where we look further at how you can boost employee motivation by other means.
For now though, lets focus on how flexible benefits can motivate employees.
Flexible benefits make employees feel valued
Flexible benefits are a way for HR and the business to really show they care about employees and helping them meet their needs.
Often, a company will implement a range of employee benefits that they believe will best suit their staff and their needs. And there’s nothing wrong with this at all, in fact it’s an approach to benefits all companies should have.
Flexible benefits, however, takes this to the next level. Employees can tailor their employee benefits experience to their wants and needs making the most of their employee benefits package. Some employers even provide a flexible benefits allowance for employees to allocate towards whichever benefits suit them best.
By going the extra mile to ensure staff get the most from their benefits, the company is demonstrating a real commitment to helping staff meet their needs.
Employees, therefore, feel more valued and in-turn are more motivated to achieve their goals and the goals of the business.
Flexible benefits help build a positive relationship
Another important way flexible benefits motivate employees is the way in which they help build the relationship between the employee and the company.
For example, you may offer employees the option to spend some of their flexible benefits allowance on a Dine Card.
When taking advantage of this benefit, say when using the Dine Card when out with friends or family, the employee will make the link between the benefit and the company.
It may even be the topic of a brief conversation, spreading positive word of mouth about the company as an employer.
In-turn, flexible benefits have helped build a more positive relationship with employees, which aids their motivation to achieve their goals and the goals of the company.
Flexible benefits help solve key problems
Flexible benefits can motivate employees further by helping solve problems that may have already been inhibiting motivation.
It could be financial worries or health worries for example, which flexible benefits can help solve.
By giving employees more options when it comes to their benefits with flexible benefits, employees can take advantage of the options that will help solve the key issues in their life.
For example, health worries can be solved where an employee can utilise health and wellbeing employee benefits through flexible benefits technology.
The impact on motivation is even greater where the employee can make the direct connection between the resolution of their issue and the flexible benefits their employer has provided.
This again helps improve the relationship between the employer and the employee, improving motivation even further.
Flexible benefits help solve key problems
Flexible benefits can motivate employees further by helping solve problems that may have already been inhibiting motivation.
It could be financial worries or health worries for example, which flexible benefits can help solve.
By giving employees more options when it comes to their benefits with flexible benefits, employees can take advantage of the options that will help solve the key issues in their life.
For example, health worries can be solved where an employee can utilise health and wellbeing employee benefits through flexible benefits technology.
The impact on motivation is even greater where the employee can make the direct connection between the resolution of their issue and the flexible benefits their employer has provided.
This again helps improve the relationship between the employer and the employee, improving motivation even further.
Flexible benefits are fairer
Another area we covered in our article on the theory behind motivation is the idea of equity.
When it comes to rewarding staff, equity is hugely important. Employees want to know they’re being rewarded fairly, relative to the effort they put in and the quality of their work but also relative to the rewards handed out to their colleagues.
Flexible benefits help make your employee benefits package more applicable and beneficial to more of your staff. This makes it fairer.
Employees are more likely to feel they get the same or similar advantages from their benefits package as their colleagues.
Therefore, it’s more likely that flexible benefits will motivate employees than a standard employee benefits package.
If you’re looking to take your benefits to the next level and really motivate your team, flexible benefits could well be the way forward.
These are just a few of the ways in which flexible benefits motivate employees. To see the real effects of flexible benefits on your team, implement flexible benefits in your business.
Improved motivation isn’t the only advantage of flexible benefits. Recruitment, retention and productivity can all be positively affected to name just a few.
See more advantages for both employers and employees on our flexible benefits page.
