Attracting and retaining staff is one of the biggest challenges facing businesses and organisations. Recruiting staff is time consuming and expensive and a settled staff line-up means more productivity and continuity as opposed to interruptions and slow-downs caused by gaps in the workforce and the time taken to replace them.

Along with a competitive salary, an attractive and flexible benefits package is a major driver in attracting and keeping staff. Indeed, some 60% of employees say the benefits package heavily influences their decision to join and then stay with a given company or organisation.

Once you’ve got quality staff in place, you must look to keep them.

How to choose what benefits to offer

Much may depend on the types of employee you’re recruiting and certain benefits will appeal to people in different age ranges.

Offering flexible hours with the option to work from home could be worthwhile if you find flexibility is a barrier to attracting the right staff. Employees with young children may also find flexible working a key attraction

It’s important to offer benefits that are appropriate to your staff and, ideally, serve as an incentive to improve their performance as well help to retain them in your organization.

It’s also worth looking at your rivals too and seeing what your up against but, in general, some of the most popular employee benefits to consider are:

Pensions

A good scheme is a sound option for both younger and (especially) older employees. It’s compulsory for many firms to have some sort of offering but smaller firms might want to look to match this and offer something a little bit better than the mere basic.

Company car

Although taxed as a benefit in kind, it’s still a popular choice. Perhaps subsidised help with learning to drive would appeal to some employees – or the carrot of a company car would at least encourage new recruits to get on with passing their tests.

Healthcare

Various benefits could be offered under this heading such as health screening, dental cover and private medical insurance.

Shares

A great way of enhancing loyalty as the employee feels more connected to the business with a ‘stake’ in it, and it may make them feel extra incentive to perform well.

Gym membership

Encourages employees to be healthy, and shows you’re interested in their well-being outside of the office.

Childcare benefits

Can remove a major obstacle for employees facing childcare costs while they work.

Season ticket loan

Helps employees buy cheaper travel as opposed to purchasing weekly or monthly passes.

Flexible working

Popular with employees with families, this can include job sharing options, working from home days and variable start and finish times.

The benefits of benefits

While you’ll inevitably weigh up the costs of providing fixed or flexible benefits packages, it’s also worth considering the costs of not offering one – or a very limited one.

It’s clear that, if you get it right, a good benefits package helps with both recruiting and retaining staff, and so is a sound investment in your business from an operational point of view. Less money is spent on recruiting and training with a more stable workforce, and benefits can sometimes replace a salary rise.

For example, some employees would happily take a lower salary if they could work from home part or all of the time to avoid the daily commute. This run down of how a benefits package helps the employer offers food for thought.

The intangible benefits to you of offering a benefits package can include; parity with competitors, improvement of staff wellbeing and the meeting pensions regulations before they are imposed.

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If you want to maximize efficiency in your business, you must take two big steps. The first step involves identifying the business processes you use to conduct your business. As an experiment you should monitor everything your business does for one month. How do you collect sales reports? What systems do you use to pay your employees? Where do you store tax records?

Once you have identified the depths of your processes, you must then analyze them to figure out how you can improve them. Try to think of all the time you could save by switching your business processes around to use different types of software. Your business would benefit greatly from new software such as workflow software. You might also consider using business process software.

Consider these tips for improving business processes for maximum efficiency in your business.

Workflow Technology for Better Communication

Have you ever assigned more than one employee to complete the same task? How much time and money did you waste by paying the second employee? Workflow technology can help your business stay organized. Everyone can figure out which projects they should be working on. The interactive nature of workflow software allows for easy and thorough communication between management and employees. Your productivity in the workplace will increase to levels you thought were impossible.

This software also helps you to communicate better with your customers. Once you make the initial sale, your goal is to bring that customer back again. Workflow technology helps you store vital information about a customer. You’ll know their buying habits, their contact information, and even their birthdays. People will love to buy from you if you remember their birthday.

Business Process Management Software

Have you figured out how much time you spend doing paperwork? What could you do with all that extra time? You could save yourself more than an hour each day with the help of business process management software. That pesky paperwork slows you down from contacting your customers and communicating with your employees. It’s time to let the modern software take care of the tedious tasks people used to do on a regular basis.

You’ll be amazed at the speed and ease of the paperwork. Business process management software can help you organize all the legal and financial aspects of your business in one convenient place. You’ll never lose track of those vital tax records again. Better organization will always lead to a more productive working environment for managers and employees. Let the computers do your paperwork so that you can spend your time on more profitable assignments and projects.

Emphasize Teamwork

Your employees might often forget that they work as part of a team. Even if they have individual sales goals, they should always be looking to help a fellow employee make their sales. There can be a lot of competition for commission checks and bonuses, but a helpful team member will be well-respected at work. Teamwork helps people communicate more effectively, and it provides motivation for everyone to do their best. Nobody wants to be the weak link on a team.

The employees could take turns learning and performing all the different operations at your company. An employee could run the business process management software one week and the workflow software the next week. Alternate their roles between customer-facing duties and administrative duties. This knowledge will help them function better as part of the team. Every team member should know each requirement of each process in your company. You’ll be able to find out where the next manager comes from when you cross-train everyone for success.

Consider New Technology

In addition to the new software for workflow and business processes, you could also implement other technology for your company. Work processes become much easier with newer computers at your disposal. You’ll be surprised at how much your current computer slows you down when you run your paperwork through the new computers. Old technology probably costs your company more time and money than you realize.

You can always find deals on the latest computers and smartphones. You’ll stay connected with customers and employees. Connectivity boosts productivity. Your processes at work will run more smoothly when everyone is on the same page. And you won’t have to sacrifice customer service for the sake of making more sales. Sales will increase naturally thanks to a more efficient business. So what are you waiting for? Analyze your processes today to see how you can take your business to new heights.

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