The world of work has evolved in recent years, resulting in a new focus on wellness at work. In light of this trend in employee benefits, how are workers being tempted back to the workplace?
The pandemic provided an opportunity to trial remote working at scale. For many, it proved that work can be done anywhere - for others, not so much. Some leaders saw a drop in creativity, ideation, and spontaneity; for example, here’s what JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon thinks of remote working: “It doesn’t work for spontaneous idea generation. It doesn’t work for culture.”
The latest in workplace benefits
Leaders recognise that not everyone will be easily tempted back to office life, coming as it does with increased travel costs, long commutes, and less time for children, dogs, and sticking a washing on before you dial into your team meeting.
While some companies, like Spotify and Twitter, have made working remotely permanent, others are searching for the sweet spot between employee happiness and workplace benefits to reinvigorate office life.
Many companies make it their business to stand out from the competition with their employee benefits, making attracting and retaining talent easier, quicker, and more economical. From the traditional to the quirky, the world’s most successful, innovative companies invest heavily in giving their employees reason to stick around. Let’s look at some of the most interesting employee benefits out there and dig into the newest trend of wellness at work.
The wellbeing stuff
Workplace wellbeing is the newest trend in employee benefits. Homeworking gave employees greater control over their health and exercise choices, meaning less presenteeism and more lunchtime dog walks, yoga sessions between calls, or walking meetings taken in the fresh air.
This is why, for many, the 9-5 office lifestyle feels like a compromise, and that puts the onus on employers to be more creative, thoughtful, and willing to invest in their employees’ health.
Companies leading the way on wellness at work have used the opportunity of mass homeworking to reimagine what office life could be. They’re helping employees prioritise their health by converting formerly drab meeting spaces and store rooms into high-end gym experiences that wouldn’t look out of place at an exclusive health club.
This isn’t a traditional gym as you might imagine it – these spaces are high-tech, immersive, and personalised. Bright dynamic lighting strips that react to the music; speakers configured for the studio shape and size; intelligent spin bikes that display performance stats on a large videowall; and iPad controls at the door for activating automated virtual classes.
With many workplaces opting for a hybrid blend of office and homeworking, there’s increasing demand for wellbeing benefits employees can take home with them. Cinema-quality virtual wellbeing classes like Earth+Sky can be included in your office gym class schedule but also accessed on-demand by employees while working from home.
The niche stuff
Benefits tailored to your niche work because they’re designed to attract people who love what you do, and will become authentic brand ambassadors for your business. Some of these benefits can seem random, but they’re cleverly connected to the company’s purpose.
Campbell Soup Company offers healthy cooking classes because, well, why not, when you’ve got chefs and nutritionists at the core of your business? Airbnb gives staff £1500 a year to spend on travel, and Ooni just has to put those ovens to work for pizza parties.
The fun stuff
Some companies design their benefits package for their young and dynamic culture, and these tend to be the initiatives that make headlines. Think of Spotify offering parties, barbecues, and free gigs – who wouldn’t want some of that?
It’s a big investment to host special events for employees but it generates great employer brand content on social media. These employers also need to make sure their day-to-day culture stacks up; a fun day dropped into an unhealthy, boring, or toxic culture might feel like a drop in the ocean, or a cynical attempt at buying goodwill. They need to excel at the basics too.
The basic stuff
This is what we think of as standard stuff and should be considered table stakes when it comes to employee benefits. A decent pension, private healthcare, parental leave (including adoption leave), and death in service benefits may not set the world alight, but they reward employees who prefer loyalty over job-hopping.
Despite being best known for its more quirky perks, Google also makes an effort to excel at the basics too; it offers spouses and partners 50% of salary for an incredible 10 years if a Google employee passes away.
Partner with Hutchison Technologies to deliver wellness at work
Our expert teams help companies bring luxurious wellness to their employees. We use our experience as technology integration partners for leading fitness brands like David Lloyd, The Gym Group and Gymbox to turn your office gym into something special.
Whether you’re planning to create a dedicated studio from scratch, need a technology platform to run classes, are looking for premium wellbeing content…or just want help with some small audio and lighting additions to an existing gym, our consultants work with you from ideation to delivery.