Employees are a key component of any organization, and investing in their well-being can yield significant benefits for both employees and the company. Forward-thinking companies are now focusing on offering benefits packages that prioritize flexibility and choice to attract and retain top talent.
Flexible benefits, also known as lifestyle benefits, are proven to increase employee engagement and satisfaction in the workplace. According to a 2022 survey conducted by PERKSET, employees highly value benefits that offer flexibility and choice. In fact, lifestyle benefits are perceived to be 50% more valuable than a set of benefits determined solely by the employer.
What are lifestyle benefits? Essentially, it is a sum of money that an employer provides to employees to meet their individual needs within certain parameters. Benefits can be tailored to the company’s business, ranging from wellness services to reimbursement of commuting expenses, reimbursement of education expenses to gym memberships.
The versatility of lifestyle benefits provides benefits for both employers and employees. Employees are able to choose benefits that fit their lifestyles and needs, while employers can move away from one-size-fits-all solutions and reap the benefits of endless customization options, inflation-proof benefits budgets, and the ability to adapt to a changing world.
At PERKSET, we are seeing a growing trend towards flexible retirement strategies. Currently, 71% of our clients use lifestyle accounts, compared to less than 7% in 2020.
Types of lifestyle benefits
With customized benefits accounts, employers and employees can choose the benefits that are most meaningful to them. Below are some of the most popular benefits our clients offer their employees:
Wellness
Work from home
Education
Starting a family
Health care
Awards
Training / student loans
Team building
Traveling to work
Donation
Health checks
Finance
Food
Mental health
Vision protection
Covid
Pets
Return on investment in healthy lifestyle benefits
Many companies have adopted point solutions to address specific employee needs, but this approach comes with its own challenges, such as administrative complexity, barriers to utilization, high costs, and scalability issues. To overcome these challenges, progressive companies are turning to flexible benefits that offer more innovative solutions.
PERKSET conducted a survey that demonstrated how much employees value the concept of flexibility and choice when it comes to their benefits. It’s a direct way to show the return on the dollars our clients are investing in these spending accounts, which empowers our contacts to become heroes, especially in the eyes of their finance departments.
An example of using employee lifestyle benefits
Many companies have faced the common challenge of supporting the diverse needs of their employees on a global scale while managing costs and administrative burdens. They decided to implement a broad Lifestyle Spending Account (LSA) program that covers almost everything. Lifestyle-related benefits maximize employee choice and alleviate many of the headaches HR administrators face today. From scaling a flexible benefits program for a global workforce to addressing point solution fatigue, flexibility has proven successful for Tripadvisor.
To learn more about employee lifestyle benefits and how PERKSET can help your organization, please schedule a consultation with one of our experts.
