Last week we started part one of 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 second 12!
Paid medical & sickness leave
We get it, you don’t want people to take the p**s out of paid sick leave.
But offering the first two days of sick leave paid may help employees feel at ease about not bringing the lurgy into the office.
Plus, let’s be honest, who works to their best potential when they’re unwell?
Not many people. I certainly don’t!
So, offering things like paid leave for doctor’s appointments for those with medical conditions (and those without), as well as paid leave for sickness, will benefit you later down the road.
Private healthcare & schemes that support transgender staff
Private healthcare is a pretty normal scheme for employers to offer (if you don’t offer it, you should).
It tends to cover things like a private medical consultation, dental work – which is ridiculously expensive I might add, flu jabs, etc.
On top of that though, offering private healthcare schemes that support transgender staff on their journey can really make a big difference.
Transitioning can be a difficult process both mentally and financially, so being able to support an employee in either of those ways is an exceptional step in the right direction.
From paid hormone replacements, medical appointments and even support with telling the rest of the team, you can play your part.
Check out this guide from LGBT Health on support for transgender employees.
Financial Aids
Critical illness cover
Thinking further than just your employees, providing support for their families if something was to happen can be a great way to show your employees you care.
Unfortunately, 1 in 2 people in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with some form of cancer during their lifetime. This is just one form of a potentially critical illness.
Offering critical illness cover, which can be a small cost per month per employee, can help relieve any worries about financial support if they’re a solo income household.
Life insurance
Similar to the point just made regarding critical illness cover, offering life insurance to your employees can be a huge weight off the shoulders.
Should anything unfortunate happen to an employee, their family will often be supported by the benefits within life insurance cover.
Google doesn’t offer life insurance, but actually pays the spouse 50% of an employee’s salary for ten following years should the Google employee pass away.
It’s called the “death benefit”.
Plus, they pay each child of the employee $12,000 per year until the age of 19.
Financial well-being support
Financial wellbeing support doesn’t have to mean paying out more money to employees.
It simply means supporting employees through the difficulty of figuring out financial problems.
You can help them by providing signposts to the UK Government’s Money and Pensions Service (which provides free, confidential, and independent money and debt advice).
It also helps to be able to have an open dialogue with employees about their financial situation and support them in ways that you, as a business, can afford to.
Income protection
Income protection is a long-term insurance policy which covers individuals unable to work until they retire or are able to return to work.
It can provide employees with regular payments that replace part of all of their income.
Income protection kicks in if an employee becomes ill, similar to critical illness, or if they have an accident.
The difference between this and critical illness is that with critical illness cover an employee will receive a lump sum based on illness set out in terms and conditions.
With income protection, they’re covered by a broader promise of being paid whilst simply being unable to work but this will end should the employee retire, return to work, or pass away.
Rental deposit loans
Renting a property usually requires a deposit.
That’s why, as an employer, you can help by supporting your employees with a rental deposit loan.
Companies such as Co-op use a system where they lend up to 80% of what the employee earns in a 4-week period and receives payments back directly from the employee’s salary over 10 paydays.
It helps employees gain a lumpsum that’s interest free and doesn’t affect them too much financially.
You never know, they could need shelter immediately and your help could seriously make the process easier.
Student loan repayment assistance
We’re not suggesting you pay all of your employee’s student loan, but you can certainly help.
Having a loan through education can be a huge weight to carry as you enter the professional working world.
So having an employer, such as Aetna, who can match your payments can be a huge help.
Employers often cap the payments at around £2,000 per year and set a lifetime cap to around £10,000 on top of that to stop the system being totally abused.
But if you’re an employer that requires a degree (something we disagree with, but if you want to require it then support your graduates), you should be helping your degree-level employees repay their loans.
Personal Interests
Paid time off for charity work
As we’re getting towards the end of our article, let’s switch from support after death to something more light-hearted!
Companies like Secure Trust Bank offer a “Volunteer Scheme” where they spend one paid day working with a charity or good cause for free.
Teams of employees have helped charities such as the RSPCA with their gardening, right through to supporting homelessness with young people.
Let your employees give back by arranging a charity support day!
Professional development & learning
One of our employees at AdGrader has a passion for all things tech and has always wanted to further their understanding of web development.
That’s why we supported her by part-funding her 6-month bootcamp course with the University of Birmingham which operated out of hours.
It was a tough six months, but we benefited greatly from it and so did she!
She also got hold of a Women in Tech scholarship from the West Midlands Combined Authority which knocked £4,000 off the cost of the £7,200 course.
We’re not saying you have to commit to anything this big but offering subsidised educational courses or paying for them in full can really help your business and your employees too.
After all, learning outside of full-time education can be quite a demanding thing!
Return to work programmes
And our final addition to the list, return to work programmes.
Apprenticeships have proven to be a great way for people to get into employment, but many companies relate this to the apprentice being between 18-23.
Companies such as UCAS have started a campaign to spread the word of myths around apprenticeships.
Returning to work could be due to an injury, taking time out to raise children, caring for a family member, to name a few of many other circumstances.
Having a return-to-work programme to keep in touch with employees who have had to leave employment can be a great way to support them both mentally and financially.
Plus, you hired them once, so why not again?
Ultimately
There are tons of benefits you could offer employees to show your support for a diverse workforce.
What we’ve shared is just a small number of the things you could consider.
Here at AdGrader, we’re big supporters of diversity and inclusion and believe everyone deserves a successful career.
We believe even more so that employees should be supported by their employers.
So, if you’re looking at making your hiring process more inclusive, don’t rely just on offering some inclusive benefits.
Take a look at your job adverts, which AdGrader can help you remove any bias or exclusionary language from, right through to your onboarding and continued employment.
It’s time to show your employees and future employees that you care! 😊
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!
