INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 2
Abstract
Benefits have become the highlight of topics when employees are in the market for new
employment opportunities and have become increasingly challenging for businesses and
potential workers. Business owners must merge what is legally required with new expectations
from workers to create a beneficial and desirable compensation package. Crafting a combination
of job satisfaction, optimal culture, and retention of current and future employees is the challenge
presented with new and innovative benefit packages.
Keywords: benefits, retention, culture
INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 3
Benefits
Compensation packages are one of the methods businesses use to reward individuals for
their time working for their organizations. These packages usually include salary and what are
considered traditional benefits consisting of healthcare (health, dental, vision) and retirement
(Galetić & Klindžić, 2020, p. 117) and are a standard offering among most businesses and
industries. Some companies have also added paid time off, including sick leave, vacation, or
other types of leave. Another addition is programs to aid in balancing work and personal
obligations, such as employee assistance and flexible or alternative work schedules. Finally,
contributions to paying off student loans, bonuses, auto allowances, and discounts to multiple
organizations outside of the home business (Galetić & Klindžić, 2020, p. 118). While seemingly
impressive, employees are looking for more than these traditional offerings. Today’s workers
seek benefits, including their social values and robust corporate social responsibility packages
(Kuehner-Hebert, 2019).
When employees are satisfied with their jobs, reduced turnover is likely and stems from
several factors, including pay, benefits, security, and growth opportunities. Satisfaction means a
variety of things to different people. The Cambridge dictionary describes it as “a pleasant feeling
that you get when you receive something you wanted, or when you have done something you
wanted to do” (“Satisfaction,” 2023). Difficulties arise in obtaining satisfaction because people
are motivated and feel differently (Aman-Ullah et al., 2021, p. 908).
When created and made a priority, culture allows employees to enjoy work enough to
leave their loved ones for hours on end. 64% of employees in a survey in 2019 said they would
accept less money when they loved their job (Reynolds, U.S.A.F, 2019, p. 9) and felt a purpose
from their work. Of the many things that make up culture, respect from supervisors and towards
INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 4
each other was the number one contributor to a positive environment (Sull & Sull, 2021, p. 2).
Leadership was a close second in creating a solid organizational culture. It is uncommon for
leaders to actually do what they say and show care, assistance, and encouragement, but when it
happens, loyalty is built (Sull & Sull, 2021, p. 3). Benefits comprise a portion of culture and are
more critical in the overall compensation package than the actual salary (Sull & Sull, 2021, p. 4).
Job satisfaction is built on employees’ trust in leadership and faith in job security. Studies have
been conducted to prove the prediction that security equals satisfaction in a job and job
embeddedness. Job embeddedness is the theory that employees will be happy when the
“organisation takes care of them, resulting in more embedded employees who prefer to stay with
the organization” (Aman-Ullah et al., 2021, p. 909).
Creating the culture that is desired and maintaining an environment that is nurturing is the
key to the retention of employees. Retention is paramount to business in an effort to reduce
monetary and time expenses of recruiting, training, and ultimately, separation (Cattermole, 2019,
p. 2). When an employee has joined the company, a responsibility is created to cultivate and
establish both intrinsic and extrinsic rewards to reduce the desire to leave and search for a new
place of employment (Heneman et al., 2021). Long-term employees save the company money
and build the culture that new and current team members look for when deciding where to spend
their labor.
Companies that rise above the normal expectations with benefits have found higher
retention rates, resulting in a more substantial profit with the costs of recruiting, onboarding, and
the multitude of costs associated with the application process (Heneman et al., 2021). High Wide
& Hansome, a firm in Los Angeles, invests in their team with several unique methods. They use
a “peer pay” program where employees give up to 500 dollars to other team members based on
INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 5
their perceptions of job performance. Anniversaries within the company are also celebrated with
perks varying from lunch, apple products, 5,000 dollars to do “something you would not
otherwise do,” and lunch for life (“Best Places to Work 2023; Companies with 200 or fewer
employees,” 2023, p. 0016). MiQ, a data science marketing company with offices worldwide,
promotes hybrid work, asking for just two weeks per year in the office, six months of parental
leave for parents, and personal coaching when they return to work, making sure they are up to
speed and eased back into the fold (“Best Places to Work 2023; Companies with 201 or more
employees,” 2023, p. 0013). Both organizations have found solutions to maintain their current
workforce and add new members to their teams because of workers’ desperate desires to feel like
they matter to a business.
Economic slowdowns generate challenges for businesses to sustain the confidence of
employees when money is tight, and the cost to maintain benefits is stretched. Not only are the
companies facing economic trials, but the employees usually are as well. Companies must
discover ways to ease workers’ concerns while protecting what they can of their financial
interests. Open communication with the workers regarding challenges and possible solutions
should be shared. Reduction or elimination of executive bonuses, salary reductions, and purging
of frivolous spending in efforts to avoid layoff or reduction in vital health care benefits are
examples that highlight the value leadership sees in the employees. The monetary sacrifice was
willingly made to help preserve the workforce, and the highly skilled team created. The
evaluation of all benefits offered to the employees and focusing on the least critical to the well-
being of the employees should be the first to be slashed. Employees would appreciate
maintaining health care much more than a free daily lunch or a percentage off at their favorite
INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 7
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INNOVATIVE BENEFITS 8
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parentSessionId=Vwv8Gkt5aMdVNXw%2BopwikZ480wpgFNlICyO2ft93QAE
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