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No Going Back: Employee Preference Must Shape Benefits Programs

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By nbkc bank
11/01/2024

In a business world that is increasingly dynamic, employee benefits must follow suit. Companies that adapt flexibly to fast-changing workplace trends will gain competitive advantage, and those that fail to do so risk their capacity to attract and retain talent.

Employers’ yearslong struggle to fill many roles within a highly competitive talent pool can make benefits a deciding factor among job candidates. And, with just over half of employees satisfied with their company’s benefits and 40 percent of employers believing workers leave their jobs to find employment offering better benefits, finding an attractive and adaptive mix of sought-after benefits can be critical to talent retention.

So, what do employees most want?

In our case, and likely in most companies’, they of course want a fair wage and core benefits including competitive medical, dental and retirement plans. But they also want engagement, flexibility, work-life balance, wellness and emerging benefits that are responsive to the ever-changing world.

Engagement

Employees work for many reasons. Of course, they work to be compensated and to provide for themselves and their families. They work to avail themselves of company benefits. But they also work to be part of something bigger than themselves, to express themselves professionally and to grow in their professional acumen and personal breadth. Employers must foster a culture of belonging, empowerment and development. The best companies emphasizes a culture of listening – seeking out and acting upon their employees’ collective voice; helping them understand the “why” of their business, the importance of their roles and opportunities for growth; and making the workplace a place of collegiality. At nbkc, this includes an annual engagement survey and related follow-up; educational and development tracks for managers and employees; and twice-a-month engagement opportunities ranging from guest speakers to recreational fun and community engagement. We provide every employee 8 hours of PTO to engage volunteer opportunities in the community, either for organizations we have identified or those of employees’ choosing. This fosters a sense of giving back, most often collectively. And our Culture Club encourages the formation of employee groups around areas of common interest, from gardening to whiskey tasting. Collectively, engagement efforts should create an enthusiastic sense of common purpose around business goals and a broader sense of belonging and personal expression within the employee population. We always should remember that employees spend the bulk of their waking hours working and that work, central to their lives, should be engaging and fulfilling, both in their opportunity to gain professional fulfillment and personal growth and inclusion.

Flexibility

Over just a four-year span, the Covid-related advent of hybrid work has become, for most employers, a new table stakes, along with traditional benefits like health insurance and retirement plans such as 401(k)s. Today, according to Gallup, more than half of US jobs are hybrid, the remainder split between wholly remote jobs (27%) and fully on-site jobs (21%). These figures, and remote-capable employees’ preferences, suggest today’s broad support of the hybrid model, with 6 in 10 employees with remote-capable roles desiring a hybrid environment, and less than10 percent preferring to work solely on-site. Hybrid work, enabled by technology and increasingly time-tested post Covid, melds employees’ desire for some offsite work with employers’ emphasis on acculturation, personal development and leadership development inherent in an in-work setting. At nbkc, we seek to marry flexibility with our belief in the value of in-office work and its positive impact on engagement. Through our Flex First program, we seek to optimize this balance. Our program offers remote, hybrid and an-office options, with managers and employees working together to create the right choice within each of our areas. The result has been a broad preference for hybrid work arrangements, which in our view strike the right balance between work-at-home flexibility and the cultural, development and engagement value of time spent in the office. The bank continues to actively listen to the voice of its employees and optimizes accordingly.

Work/Life Balance

Flexibility also supports work/life balance, which for years has been a common term in the employer/employee relationship and is the most valued element of company culture. At its simplest, work/life balance means that work does not become so dominant that it overwhelms an employee’s ability to enjoy a healthy and fulfilling life or creates burnout. In addition to hybrid working arrangements, this means focusing on employees’ wellness.

Wellness

Wellness programs are a comprehensive approach to supporting employee health and well-being. In addition to core insurance benefits, employees today expect the availability of additional offerings that support physical and mental health. Among other things, this incorporates the company’s physical environment, availability of fitness programs and increasingly, mental health resources. Inasmuch as possible, workspaces should both facilitate interaction and provide private spaces for mental refreshing. Onsite recreation facilities such as nbkc’s, when possible, fuse work and fitness environments; when this cannot be made available onsite, employees expect companies to support memberships in offsite fitness facilities. Mental health benefits also continue to grow in importance, with an overwhelming percentage of US workers indicating that it is at least somewhat important for employers to offer mental health benefits. Companies’ basic health plans must include appropriate mental health resources, and, beyond that, internally-driven employee assistance programs can offer additional, easily accessed support.

Again, these are today’s baselines. As with many employers, at nbkc we seek a broadened and differentiated set of wellness offerings that expand its definition and enrich our total program.

One key example is our sabbatical program. Every employee, at any level of the organization, is eligible for monthlong sabbaticals after each of 10, 18 and 25 years of service. This is a “no-strings” respite, with no requirements for how time is spent. In fact, the sole stipulation is that employees disengage completely from work during their time away. To support their detaching, and to emphasize the unconditional nature of their sabbatical, we remove systems access during the month of the program. Our sabbatical program not only supports wellness – it contributes to loyalty and the longevity of employees’ nbkc tenures.

We also offer a wellness stipend of $250/employee annually, which can be used to support wellness as each employee defines it. nbkc’s headquarters has a dedicated fitness and workout area and has even offered on-site yoga classes over lunch. Investments in wellness are returned in a healthy, fulfilled workforce.

No Going Back

All of this adds up to a significant commitment among companies that prioritize attracting and retaining talent and giving purpose and fulfillment to employees’ work lives. Winning companies demand this of themselves and are ever-alert to the changing environment and their employees’ needs.

As the “quiet quitting” phenomenon wanes, hiring slows and some employers focus increasingly on return-to-office mandates, there will be an inevitable question as to whether there will be a “power shift” in the employer/employee relationship – one that sees employers dictating a narrowing span of the benefits of their choosing versus an ever-adaptive and more complicated array of benefits most asked for by employees.

The question itself suggests an “employer vs. employee” construct that we believe to be self-defeating and long obsolete. The best companies’ employee benefits programs, in our view, will seek to be responsive to employees’ desires and the changing world in which companies operate. They will balance those desires effectively with companies’ financial capacity and operating philosophy, but place primacy on employees’ identified needs and expectations. This will be ever-changing, with new issues—such as of-the moment conversations on the length of the work week, coverage for weight-loss drugs, family planning assistance, meditation and mindfulness, and pet insurance—constantly emerging.

In such an environment, smart companies will want even more employee input and feedback in shaping benefits. This will ensure that they are being responsive to their needs and creating a workplace that motivates not only their loyalty and best work but supports the whole of their lives. And if they won’t, a smarter company will.

When it comes to benefits, this is the new employer/employee contract. At nbkc, we have signed it, happily.