This is a superb article from our partners at AdGrader. They are sharing 24 inclusive benefits you could offer to support employee diversity. This week we share the first 12!
Inclusive benefits are perks you can offer to your employees to help show them you care about their individual needs.
Let’s be real, it’s not a one-size fits all situation.
2 weeks off at Christmas?
That’s great, but what if I don’t celebrate Christmas and would prefer the time off around another religious holiday?
It’s this type of thought process that needs to be had.
You need to consider each individual and the things that would make their life maybe just that little bit easier.
Luckily for you, we’ve been doing our own research into benefits that you can offer to support the diversity within your workforce.
Check them out 👇
Annual leave
Extra holidays
Time off can do us all good and the argument has risen as to whether 25 days statutory entitlement is really enough.
As humans, we spend a long part of our lives working.
Giving employees a few extra days holiday a year can really help to build staff morale and support their mental health.
Companies such as Netflix offer flexible working, whereby if they get the job done then they can have an unlimited number of days holiday.
Whether unlimited leave would work for you, who knows? But increasing the standard entitlement is a good start.
Flexible working schedules
Flexible working schedules are what they say on the tin.
They differ from the norm by not restricting employees to a 9-5 working day.
Instead, employees are able to choose their hours so long as they complete the necessary number of hours in a week.
This type of working week allows people with children, religious holidays, and other circumstances to work when it suits them.
Thus, the output is greater and their satisfaction working for the company is higher.
It’s a win-win!
Floating leave days for varying cultural & religious holidays
As I briefly mentioned in the opening to this article, many companies give employees a week or two off at Christmas.
However, a percentage of workers don’t celebrate Christmas festivities because they celebrate other traditions and holidays.
Can you imagine being told that everyone else gets two weeks off to celebrate their religious holiday, but you’re expected to work through yours or book it off on your own time?
It’s the opposite of being a supportive, inclusive employer.
Providing floating leave days for everyone on top of their contractual allowance allows them to take the time off when it best suits them.
It might not be used for, as our example stated, a religious holiday but could instead be for personal interests too.
Work anywhere policies
Ah, the global change that was caused by the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020.
As you may have seen dotted across LinkedIn, many people are asking: do you prefer to work from home or work in the office?
It’s a pretty equal split majority of the time.
For some people it’s just easier to work from home.
The saving of costs on fuel, the flexibility of being able to pick kids up from school, having your own thinking space.
For others, it’s easier to work in the office.
The collaboration opportunities, the escape from potentially difficult situations at home, the technical set up.
Giving your employees the option to choose where they work from could add many smiles to your team.
Family Support
Childcare support
Let’s be real: childcare is not cheap.
Looking at fees around £50 a day means your employees with young children are probably going to be feeling the financial impact.
Offering things such as childcare vouchers can really help to alleviate some of the financial pressure that comes with putting young children into education.
Creche facilities
Your office will really dictate whether or not this is something you can offer but being able to provide an in-house childcare facility could be a huge benefit.
Parents can remain nearby to children throughout the day and the pressures of costs disappear.
That likely means parents could potentially return sooner to work or would have to take less time off to care for their children when unable to fund a place in education.
Plus, parents can rest assured they won’t have to leave home earlier to drop off kids at school or to leave work earlier to pick them up.
Parents are also able to see the development and care for their children which can lead to a less stressful experience with trusting nurseries to support their needs.
Full pay maternity leave
In the UK, these are the guidelines for statutory maternity leave:
First 6 weeks: 90% of your average weekly earnings before tax
The next 33 weeks: £151.97 per week (2021/22) or 90% of your average weekly earnings (whichever is less)
The next 13 weeks: Unpaid.
You cannot have an entire first year with your child whilst being paid a liveable wage unless you have a dual income household, or other circumstances that support you financially.
As an employer it can be difficult as you have to arrange maternity cover and may experience difficulties, but would you say that’s more important than a child being with their legal guardian for a year?
Paid extended paternity leave
With a similar point to above, it’s important for secondary parents to be able to spend time with their children in younger years.
Standard time off for Paternity Leave is 1 or 2 weeks.
That provides a great opportunity for you as an employer to offer paid extended paternity leave and give the secondary parent a chance to spend quality time with their child without worrying about finances.
Support for carers
Having a policy to support employees who are also carers is a great way to show them that you care.
Being a carer can be difficult, so we’d suggest combining a number of benefits from this article to create the “carer policy”.
They look after someone else, so it’d be good for you to look after them.
Offering benefits like flexible hours, floating holiday, paid time off for care days – they all help.
Even just an understanding that phone calls may need to be had in the day, or the day might need to be cut short.
You could really make life so much easier for someone!
Inclusive family building benefits
Love is different for everyone.
Your workforce may be built of people who identify as gay, straight, transgender, non-binary, etc. and each of these people will have different experiences when coming to build a family.
For some, conceiving may be a simple process but for others, fertility treatments may be necessary.
They may even find that adoption or surrogacy is a route they decide to try.
Whatever their situation, it can be a gruelling but often rewarding process.
Risks can also unfortunately come with pregnancy, and you should consider offering paid leave for anyone who experiences miscarriages.
As an employer you should consider how these processes may impact the life of your employees and offer them all the mental support possible.
You may even consider partially funding a process for an employee or offering flexible work schedules for those who are trying to conceive outside of traditional reproduction.
Health & Wellbeing
Counselling & therapy
Mental health is a big topic in today’s world and rightly so!
Approximately 1 in 6 people experience a common mental health problem (e.g., depression and anxiety) in any given week.
Mind, a charity dedicated to better mental health, suggest: “The overall number of people with mental health problems has not changed significantly in recent years, but worries about things like money, jobs and benefits can make it harder for people to cope.”
That makes it your role as an employer to support your employees.
Offering counselling and therapy to your employees can go a long way in making sure they’re well.
Plus, a thank you and recognition doesn’t hurt!
Paid leave for mental health self-care
Following on from the last point, offering paid leave for mental health self-care is something we’re a big advocate of.
If you don’t feel up to it and need a day to seriously refresh your self-love, do it.
Otherwise spending the day trying to put a smile on your face might be difficult and cause more harm than good.
Most people have experienced this feeling at some point in their life, so as an employer why not give employees a couple of dedicated “self-care” days where they can drop a text on the day and just not come in?
Duvet days are necessary sometimes and holding out to the weekends and evenings can be a real issue.
A quick day out a couple of days in the year, or maybe once a quarter, can really help keep your workforce going.
Health, fitness & nutrition initiatives
A healthy lifestyle is a happy lifestyle.
Making sure your employees are healthy will help to reduce staff sickness in the long run.
Offering schemes such as free fruit or subsidised gym memberships can help encourage employees to take up a healthier lifestyle!
We offer both here at AdGrader and often have a little healthy competition on the number of times we’ve attended the gym in a week 😉
We also offer days out like playing rounders or games of football, too!
There is more to come from AdGrader, next week, with another 12 fabulous ways you can support employee diversity > check it out here
Also, check out this live chat show I’m doing with AdGrader in early March on How to make your job adverts inclusive whilst adding three candidates to every shortlist!
