Do you think you know what your employees want in a benefits package?
Employee engagement is top of mind for today’s executive and human resources staff. No one wants an unengaged team — it’s less profitable for the company, and employee turnover can be extremely high. One way to drive engagement is by having a dialogue with your employees on what they want.
It makes sense to get employee feedback on the benefits you offer and how they view your business. For example, you might find people would rather have access to money-saving commuter benefits rather than free food or drinks at the office.
The problem is if you never ask, you’ll never know. Here are some traditional and new ways to get some solid employee feedback.
1 – Annual Survey
One way to create engagement with employees is through an annual survey. Walmart recently surveyed its hourly pay workers to get a better understanding of what its workforce wanted for benefits to better position itself for attracting employees in the future.
Surveys give your employees a chance to voice concerns or offer suggestions. You’ll get the feedback you can act on and potentially find holes in your work environment or employee benefits. Would your productivity rise 10 percent on Fridays if everyone worked from home? Maybe that’s a question you should ask this week.
There are some drawbacks to surveys, though, according to OfficeVibe. First, if you get less than a 70 percent response rate, you probably don’t have enough useful data to make decisions. Second, 29 percent of the employees think the surveys are meaningless. Third, about 80 percent of employees say their bosses never follow up on responses.
If you’re going to ask, you need to keep an open mind and at least acknowledge the answers. Not every answer will be something your company can do, but your employees would like to know you took the time to think it over.
2 – Increase engagement opportunities
You don’t have to ditch the employee survey, but you can find other ways to get employee feedback. A simple way is to increase employee engagement opportunities. Group meetings, one-to-one sessions and even less formal encounters are a great way to get feedback on something besides the actual work your employees are doing.
3 – Interact frequently
And don’t stop at one per year. Your engagement opportunities should be frequent. Even if you can’t make the changes your employees request, you’re helping to build trust. Your employees will feel more valued.
4 – Go for depth
Whether you are administering a survey or hosting a one-to-one conversation, try to get below the surface of what your employee wants. For example, if you speak to enough employees in the office, you may find commuting expenses are too high. If you decide to offer commuter benefits, you can save them money while saving your business up to 7.65 percent in pay taxes.
But you can only find out if you ask.
You don’t have to be the largest employer in the United States like Walmart to start getting constructive feedback that can make your company better.
Would you like to learn how to start a commuter benefit program and engage your employees to positively impact them and your business? Download our guide below and learn how to start a commuter benefits program.
