10 Employee Benefits You Can Offer to Attract and Retain Employees for Little or No Cost

1. Flexible Work Hours – Allow employees to have a more flexible work week or telecommute from home. Employees still work the same number of hours per week, but the schedule may be different for different days, allowing them to handle personal responsibilities.

2. Break Room – Provide a clean and comfortable place where your employees can rest, have lunch, etc.

3. Employee Recognition – Openly praise employees in front of their peers for a job well done. Maybe create an “employee of the month” program to honor hard-working, creative or inspired employees. Employees are motivated by recognition and praise.

4. Provide Good Food – Arrange for a catering truck to visit your location at lunch and break times. Have fresh fruit in the break room for employees to eat.

5. On-site Message – Arrange for a message service to provide discounted messages on-site for your employees at breaks or during lunch. There are message services who will book a discounted rate for employer groups.

6. Holiday Time Off – Even if you do not provide paid holidays (although most employers offer paid holidays for Christmas, New Years, Fourth of July, and Thanksgiving, etc.), you can offer employees to have religious holidays or other off without pay or they can use any vacation pay they may have.

7. Voluntary Benefits – Offer group supplemental benefits such as accident and/or illness insurance, dental and vision insurance that if elected, is paid for entirely by the employee, but at a low group cost. Also, dental and vision insurance almost always provides better coverage at similar rates to individual dental and vision coverage.

8. Paid Vacation Time – Most employers offer a minimum of 2 to 4 days of paid vacation in a year. This is a low cost benefit that has immense value to the employee.

9. Life Insurance – Many carriers offer very low cost introductory life insurance packages for your group (such as $15,000 to $25,000 per employee) and allow the employees to “buy-up” in coverage at a low rate. This has tremendous value for families who otherwise may not be able to either qualify or afford life insurance.

10. Exercise Classes – Provide exercise classes at your facility by allowing a trainer come to teach your employees at a discounted rate. This is also a service that employers can provide at a low cost to the employer if they choose to pay for the classes.