Organisations need to improve employee benefits post Covid-19

Author, Dr Caroline Sekiwano. PHOTO/COURTESY. 

What you need to know:

  • As countries slowly begin to ease these Covid restrictions and people get back to the job market, one thing is clear: employees have placed a higher value on workplace benefits that address their health challenges and fears.

Not too long ago, organisations across the world had an understanding towards employee benefits that took for granted their functional role. 

Organisational benefits offered to their employees took the form of in-office perks, such as access to a gym as well as sport games while for smaller organisations, the focus was on providing health insurance. There were no great benefits offered. In most cases, benefits were considered to be “good-to-have”, with the job role in the organisation taking priority. 

In the post-Covid scenario, the entire approach to benefits has changed, with the primary shift being that benefits are now viewed as “must-haves”, forming a larger part of the organizational culture, and playing a crucial part in employee engagement as well as retention.

As countries slowly begin to ease these Covid restrictions and people get back to the job market, one thing is clear: employees have placed a higher value on workplace benefits that address their health challenges and fears. Workplace benefits have been a crucial part of an employees’ compensation plan; however, the pandemic has highlighted its importance.

More and more employees now consider their workplace benefits as an important component of their employment contract. Massive cultural shifts have left many workers re-evaluating what they’re looking for in a job. With the weight of time on people’s hands there has been a reasonable degree of personal reflection.

Organisations need to consider more robust healthcare options in their employees’ health care insurance, expand health benefits to provide mental health support for their employees through employee assistance programs such as counseling.

Employers also need to stay connected with their workers by encouraging regular communication and interactions between workers via frequent virtual breaks and meetings to improve mental wellbeing and productivity in the workplace. People managers should also provide one-on-one support and have regular check-ins with their employees to see if they are doing fine and are coping well with the workplace changes. 

Organizations should re-think the financial wellness of their employees since the last two years have been largely the most financially challenging years for the workforce with employees losing their jobs in the wake of the pandemic, many organizations withdrawing financial support for their employees, many people falling behind on rent and going without adequate food and therefore feeling the weight of this financial downturn, the need for financial literacy in the workplace is All-important. Financial stress is linked with poor physical wellbeing, resulting in lost employee productivity. 

Employers need to plan for financial literacy programmes using several approaches, including eLearning options and interactive sessions with experts to provide personalised education on finances, organisations need to help employees rebuild their savings by creating saving schemes, make credits available to employees at low interest rates, provide all necessary possible support to employees in need which will in turn create a human face for the organisation. Financial wellness of employees is closely linked to job satisfaction and work productivity.

The pandemic has disrupted organisations and birthed a “new normal” that will see employees expect more and demand more benefits from their employers to shield them from the pandemic stress. Employees are now more conscious of their health as they explore strategies to lower their risk of contracting the covid-19 induced challenges in the workplace. 

Therefore, it behooves organisations to pivot workplace health benefits and financial packages that will meet the critical needs of their workforce and deliberately purpose to remodel their workplace benefits along this line to improve employee wellbeing and productivity in the post Covid-19 pandemic period.

Dr Caroline Sekiwano is a human resource & organizational development advisor