An increasing number of executives are actively searching for meaningful ways to show their employees that they’re valued, and lifestyle benefits are proving to be an excellent way to do just that.
Lifestyle benefits aren’t the benefits offered in standard benefits packages. However, they are quickly becoming the standard for attracting and retaining employees. So, what are lifestyle benefits? How do they compare to traditional benefits?
What Are Lifestyle Benefits?
The world of employee benefits can get a bit convoluted, but essentially, there are three types of benefits a company can offer.
Required Benefits
Required benefits are any benefits required by law, like Medicare, Social Security, Unemployment Insurance, and Workers’ Compensation.
Necessary Benefits
Necessary benefits are any benefits that an employee needs, whether or not their organization offers them. In other words, if the employer doesn’t provide these benefits, the employee will have to purchase them on their own dime. These benefits include health insurance, dental insurance, vision insurance, disability insurance, life insurance, and retirement options. These are often non-negotiable benefits for highly skilled, sought-after employees.
Lifestyle Benefits
Lifestyle benefits aren’t necessarily essential, but they improve an employee’s personal, emotional or financial well-being. In addition, they’re often benefits they can use in their lives today. These benefits include things like gym memberships, virtual mental health support, subscription services, grocery delivery, childcare, education services, and more.
In short, lifestyle benefits are benefits that improve an employee’s life in some way. While required and necessary benefits are an essential part of the equation, lifestyle benefits are becoming crucial to attracting and retaining top talent.
- 83% of millennials will change jobs in favor of more comprehensive lifestyle benefits.
- 70% of all employees agree that lifestyle benefits are critical when considering a new job offer.
- 68% of employees say that lifestyle benefits are just as significant as necessary benefits, like health insurance.
Considering these statistics, it’s evident why lifestyle benefits are having such an influence on the ever-evolving world of employee benefits. In fact, some lifestyle benefits have redefined the norm, altering what employees expect from the organizations they call home. So, how does a company choose which lifestyle benefits are right for them?
Embracing Lifestyle Benefits
For many companies, deciding to offer lifestyle employee benefits isn’t the challenging part: Determining which lifestyle benefits to offer is.
If a company has a small team with similar values, choosing lifestyle benefits can be relatively straightforward. On the other hand, if a company has dozens of people who vary in age, background, interests, and culture (ya know, like most companies), finding benefits equally impactful to all of them can be almost impossible.
Once remote employees are added to the mix, it becomes even more complicated. More than half of employers report that they’re unsure how to support flexible employees. Remote teams can be understandably difficult to reach since their lives and personalities are hidden behind a screen. This makes providing appropriate and comprehensive lifestyle benefits even more challenging.
Diverse organizations require diverse solutions. Instead of offering blanket lifestyle benefits that may or may not meet the needs of every individual, companies need to think outside of the box.
Some solutions for creating a lifestyle benefits package that works include:
- Surveys — Companies can complete surveys asking employees what benefits they’d like to have. The best way to see what employees want is simply to ask them.
- Trial-and-Error — While not a glamorous option, trying new lifestyle benefits offerings every quarter is a terrific way to gauge interest and weed out benefits that don’t work.
- Research the Competition — For some ideas, companies can take a peek at what lifestyle benefits their competitors offer. Additionally, businesses can look into benefits packages of companies that have a great reputation for attracting and retaining top talent.
- Customized Lifestyle Benefits — Companies can also let their employees choose the benefits they’d like on an individual level. They can do this by offering multiple options and letting the employees build their own benefits packages. Alternatively, they can consider utilizing a lifestyle benefits platform like Fringe, which specializes in simplifying personalized lifestyle benefits.
Getting Started with Lifestyle Benefits
Ultimately, lifestyle benefits are here to stay. They not only show employees that they’re valued, but they also improve company culture and boost recruitment efforts while increasing job satisfaction. It’s no wonder why lifestyle benefits are such a staple at top companies like Google, Starbucks, Deloitte, Salesforce, and more.
However, most companies don’t have Google budgets, making getting started with lifestyle benefits an uphill battle. That’s where Fringe can help.
To provide custom, lifestyle employee benefits and show well-deserved people how much they matter, Fringe’s easy-to-use, custom benefits platform enables companies to offer personalized benefits to match and support the lifestyles of every employee — without needing an unlimited budget to do it.
Fringe’s all-in-one platform simplifies personalized lifestyle benefits and makes them accessible for companies across the country. Talk to our team to schedule a free demo!
.svg){kind=icon}
.jpg)
