Benefit Hacks

By Jennifer E. Goldman, President of Resonance, LLC

Most small businesses are not required, or financially equipped, to provide certain benefits to their employees. With an overwhelming number of the U.S. population being employed by small businesses (seriously, it’s nearly 100%), that means that a huge percentage of people aren’t being offered benefits like health insurance or 401(k)s by their bosses. Just because your company may be in this same boat doesn’t mean you can’t find other ways to differentiate your business and show your employees the appreciation they’re due. All you need is a little creativity and the willingness to invest some amount of money and time into giving back to your team. 


By recognizing that your business would be nowhere without your employees and showing your gratitude, even in small ways, everyone wins: your crew will experience higher job satisfaction, increased company loyalty and accelerated engagement, which leads to better turnover rates, higher productivity and increased customer satisfaction.


Here are a few examples:

  • Lunch and Learn: everyone gathers once a week to spend the lunch hour together and one employee is responsible for giving a presentation. That person can talk about anything: new training experiences and what they learned, the project they’re working on, or perhaps challenges they’re facing and asking for suggested solutions. This is great for team building.

  • Fitness: hiring a fitness instructor to come in at least once a week to lead an aerobics or yoga class that’s free for all employees to participate in. If it’s affordable, another great idea is to purchase a gym membership for all employees (make sure you ask for a volume discount, though!) Exercise is a great way to reduce stress and promote healthy living.

  • Company Picnics: Take a field trip to a local park and fire up the grill! Employers provide the main dishes and employees bring a side dish to share. Several companies have found that this becomes a beloved tradition and plan one every spring and fall. What a great way to bring the team together and include their families.

  • Small Packages: you know what they say – good things come in small packages. A few times a year purchase novelty items, wrap them up and leave them on everyone’s desk. It can be as simple as a coffee mug filled with chocolates or as nice as a bottle or wine or crystal paperweight. It won’t really matter what it is, that unexpected surprise will start everyone’s day on a good note.

  • The Getaway: you can really start some excitement by having a free getaway that one random employee can win. Have gift bags filled with tissue paper and maybe some goodies (this way at least everyone gets something) and ask all the employees to pick a bag. The employee whose bag has a sticker on the inside bottom wins an overnight stay somewhere awesome, and the day off to go. It doesn’t have to be an expensive trip, you can purchase a one-night stay at a local bed and breakfast or a nice hotel at the nearest beach.


Everyone wants to feel appreciated; it’s just human nature. By finding simple ways to show your employees that you appreciate them, you’ll find the benefits are immeasurable.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Board Retreat Cheat Sheet

Image
Board retreats are a fantastic way to create meaningful engagement between staff and board, board member to board member and to solidify the commitment your board has to your nonprofit organization. Unfortunately, sometimes after a retreat, board members go back to status quo and that’s not ideal. Typically, a board retreat is put together with the hopes that board members will be re-energized, re-connected and renewed in their zeal to help lift an organization to a higher level of success. Here's a list of things I’ve found to be helpful in creating a retreat that will have a positive, lasting impact on your organization and the people you count on for its success: Decide what challenges you want to work through at the retreat and what outcomes/goals/deliverables you’ll be working toward. Make it a full-day or 2-day retreat. Eight solid hours if it’s only one day, six hours each day for 2-days. The best times of year for 2-day retreats to get the highest level of attendance (appr
Read more

Creating Opportunities

Image
I often hear from nonprofit board members that they got involved in an organization to make a difference, but that once they joined, they feel useless – no one calls on them to truly be involved. If you read the Board Engagement ~ Conversation Checklist blog post then you know that one of my suggestions was to sit down and have a chat with each of your board members. Whether you’re the organization’s Executive Director or the Board President, it would be good for you to know what motivates each individual who’s engaged in your board. Even better if you can determine their passions and hobbies. And employ them. This post is meant to help you take those one-on-ones one step further. For many people, volunteering is high on their priority list. However, not everyone wants to give their time to a nonprofit doing the same things they do in their job/career/profession. So, while you might be thrilled to have a lawyer, accountant, marketing person, etc. on your board if directors, th
Read more

STOP FUNDRAISING FOR YOUR FUNDRAISERS

Image
And start funding planning for your programs, your overhead, your growth. When I was the Executive Director of a small nonprofit, I can remember feeling like I spent all of my time either fundraising through special events or running the special events. We needed the event to add money to our bank account to keep us afloat until the next special event. Essentially, each event was paying for the overhead and event expenses. It was a vicious (and exhausting) cycle. I’ve been working on two basic things with my clients recently: Proving your value by showing the impact your organization has on its community Raising the funds you need to sustain and grow your nonprofit in a way that allows you to focus on your mission and your programs. By fundraising through events, nonprofits are rarely introducing people to their organization, their mission, their impact and importance. It’s the equivalent of a retail shop having a sale or hosting a pop-up. You may get a bunch of people excite
Read more