Attracting, motivating, and retaining employees for your clients is a delicate balance. Finding just the right mix of compensation and environmental factors seems to be an ever-evolving struggle. As many of your clients face additional challenges heaped on by events like The Great Resignation, a new trend is rising for staffing agencies and their employees.
The new way to improve employee retention and attract quality workers has emerged: offering unique and valuable employee perks.
A perk is not quite a traditional benefit, it is that little something extra that staffing firms don’t have to offer, but doing so can help keep employees more engaged and better retained – which in turn leaves clients more satisfied.
Does your agency offer gift cards or merchandise incentives tied to meeting a specific goal for your employees? Or how about reimbursement programs for gym memberships, college course tuition assistance, or pet stipends? These are all great examples of attractive perks that staffing agencies can offer to attract quality job candidates in the door and keep positions filled.
The only problem is that too much of a good thing is – well, not good. If everyone is offering the same perks, the effectiveness of those perks could steadily decline. That’s why we’ve curated four fresh employee perk ideas below.
1. Swap Cheap Merchandise Gifts for Gas Cards
High gas prices are a common theme as inflation continues to crunch budgets – making your employees’ commute a financial burden. One way to offer more money without breaking the bank is to add monetary perks. For example, offering your employees prepaid gas cards to help with the cost of fuel is one perk that has a financial value, like compensation, but fits the added perks definition.
Employees already expect to pay for their daily commute or for their part-time job involving driving a vehicle. So, if you are willing to show support by easing the burden of rising gas prices, it can earn a lot of goodwill with your workforce.
According to an article published by the Michigan State University Extension, gas cards can have a positive impact on nearly any workforce. A great example of this is home healthcare nurses. They have to drive between multiple homes every day, all over a metropolitan area.
Because these nurses are driving to various job sites, high gas prices can take a big bite out of their paychecks, ending in lower retention rates and increased absenteeism.
Even if your employees only need to commute, their cost for driving has changed as gas prices and inflation have increased. Use gas cards as a perk, but distribute the perks fairly across the board. Even for workers who take public transit or carpool – offer some sort of similar perk.
2. Take a New Approach to Employee Learning Opportunities
Learning perks come in many different formats ranging from tuition reimbursement programs to in-house coaching and development opportunities. Employees benefit exclusively from the invested interest of their employer, even if it’s part-time work, as meeting growth needs has been proven to have a positive psychological effect.
Even for staffing agencies that aren’t looking to invest significant resources, like the financial commitment of tuition assistance – there are plenty of options to fuel employee growth in a way that creates a culture of learning. Consider starting small with a virtual library filled with notable titles on self-development.
Step things up a notch by offering extended cross-training opportunities that allow employees to spend a short amount of time in another job, gaining new skills. Think of your cross-training perk as a training investment that promotes adaptability for your talent needs.
Cross-training can be an effective way to boost morale and, subsequently, your employee’s retention and productivity, which leads to happier clients.
3. Go Rogue with Flexible Work Arrangements
Flexibility has been a key theme ever since the COVID-19 pandemic challenged traditional boundaries between work life and personal life. The idea of a flexible work arrangement isn’t entirely new – any combination that allows workers control over start/end times, the number of working days, or the length of shift is considered a flexible arrangement.
When 20% of staffing agency employees cite schedule flexibility as a reason for choosing temporary/contract work, flexible work perk becomes a golden opportunity.
To attract more employees to your agency, find ways to go beyond the traditional definition of a flexible work arrangement. For example, some employers advertise a flexible work schedule while only allowing these arrangements for select positions.
Sometimes it’s not possible for your employees to do your client’s work from the comfort of home. There will always be jobs and roles that cannot achieve flexibility across the board. Instead of dismissing the idea of flexible work arrangements, we challenge you to find a way to give some type of flexibility for your employees’ benefits.
Since your employees’ success is your agency’s success, this employee perk idea can kill two birds with one stone.
4. Offer a Paycard for Flexible Payment Options
Despite the mounting financial stressors caused by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions, and inflation, money is not the number one motivator for employees. While money is necessary for survival, a small raise is not enough to keep your workforce from other agencies.
To adapt to a candidate-driven environment, staffing firms can consider this last employee perk idea – paycards that facilitate instant wage access.
For your under or unbanked workers, having early wage access after working for your clients can be the key to lowering their financial stress. This perk helps your employees get better access to daily essentials, all without breaking the bank.
Providing a perk like paycards communicates that your agency cares about their part-time and full-time employees. When your employees’ needs are met, they’ll be less likely to leave their position or find a new agency.
The Promise of Employment Is No Longer Enough
Staffing agencies that are looking for ways to attract workers, improve engagement, and keep jobs filled should consider these five employee perk ideas. Avoid the cost of hiring, training, and replacing employees by implementing these employee perks!
These extra fringe benefits drive worker motivation on an emotional level, going deeper than any amount of pay can achieve alone. The key to success is to go beyond basic employment and find perks that are highly relevant and meaningful to your talent pool while also being unique from competing staffing firms.
If you’re looking for a new employee perk idea that can help you stand out from your competitors, consider using a “same day pay” platform. Learn why Juice Financials’ Earned Wage Advance solution is trusted by staffing agencies nationally to provide instant wage access.
