Rethinking Remote Employee Benefits: Are you aware of these perks?

Remote employee benefits include more than just flexible hours and work-from-home opportunities. As companies are adjusting to most of their workforce working remotely, they are offering new benefits to encourage remote employees. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular benefits that new age companies are offering to their employees.

Why are companies incentivizing work from home culture? 

A recent Gallup research shows that 59% of the U.S. employees who started working from their home during the coronavirus pandemic would prefer to become remote workers permanently.

To retain the talent and improve employee engagement, companies are offering some amazing benefits. Studies show that 69% of employees believe a wider array of benefits is important to be more loyal to their employer. Furthermore, 78% of employees report benefits programs as the major reason to stay with an employer.

Let’s face it, the pandemic has caused a major shift in how employees perceive job satisfaction. Here’s a list of some of the most popular benefits that new age companies are offering to their employees.

1. Mental health support 

It is not surprising that ever since the pandemic hit us, mental health is on peoples’ minds. According to the recent US Census Bureau survey, more than 42% of people surveyed reported mental health issues such as anxiety or depression, an 11% increase from the previous year.

Employers are proactively providing mental health training sessions for remote workers virtually. If you think it’s the same self-guided meditation sessions scattered all over the internet, it’s not. Chevron Corporation is one such employer offering mental health and well-being support to its remote workers through its Employee Assistance and WorkLife Services program. This program provides remote workers access to licensed counselors to help them cope with mental issues.

Remote workers need more of a practical approach to prevent stress and anxiety and fight burnout. This is why companies are onboarding experts to offer support through mental health information sessions. Good mental health training helps remote workers create a more engaged, safer, and productive work environment without feeling isolated.

2. Increased location and schedule flexibility 

Companies are increasingly appreciating the flexibility in work schedules and how it benefits both employer and employee. Employers are offering an increased level of flexibility allowing remote workers to take more responsibility for their schedules. This leaves scope to manage any precarious crises that may arise establishing a healthier work-life balance.

Companies are getting comfortable with custom scheduling and longer deadlines. There have never been better opportunities for remote workers to work from any location they want. If you are planning to become a remote employee but are worried about managing your personal and professional life simultaneously, increased flexibility in terms of location and schedule is an incentive that will help you strike a balance. 

American Express, the credit card giant has adopted a flexible scheduling model for its workers offering them the flexibility to work from home and manage their timing for a more balanced work and home life.

3. WFH allowance 

Monetary compensation is one of the major contributors to job satisfaction. Companies are incentivizing this by offering work from home allowance.

Remote workers often complain about missing the perks culture of being on campus. Employers like Google are building this gap by offering a stipend for buying home-office equipment, paying internet and phone bills, and setting up workstations.

Organizations are seeing the positive impact of moving dollars to the pockets of employees. Since other bills at home go up, adding WFH allowance in the benefits program makes remote workers feel rewarded.

4. Learning and development opportunities

Previously, remote workers were not able to benefit from upskilling programs companies offered to in-house employees. However, that is not true anymore.

As work-from-home culture is becoming the new normal, companies are offering numerous learning and development opportunities. A recent IBM research suggests that employees are 42% more likely to remain at the same company if they are trained to get more skilled and perform at a higher level.

Employers are helping remote workers learn new technologies, enhance their skills and grow professionally by offering an L&D budget. Another way they are encouraging employees to learn while working simultaneously is by partnering with courses on-demand providers such as Udemy and Coursera. Squarespace’s robust L&D program is a good example of how a blend of in-person and virtual classroom development experience can be effective for the self-paced upskilling of remote employees.

Many companies are now offering remote workers the opportunity to access premium online courseware as a benefit.

5. Subsidized insurance plans 

Employers are adjusting their strategies to accommodate remote workers from a health benefits perspective. As employees working from home may not be in the same geographical region as the employer’s office, they may not benefit from in-network coverage offered by the company.

Companies are now offering subsidized insurance plans to help remote workers avoid paying higher costs. DuckDuckGo and the cryptocurrency group Ethereum Foundation signed up with SafetyWing, a company offering subscription-based travel and medical insurance for remote workers to provide insurance cover for their employees.

This adds to the sense of financial security of the employees making them more loyal to the organization.

The best way forward 

At Talent500, we help companies build, manage, and scale their distributed teams.  With our best-in-class benefits, managing a remote team becomes easy with us as your EOR. We leverage a host of community activities, learning and development initiatives, and many more methods to help bolster employee engagement. To know how we can help you achieve this goal, book a consultation online.