What is employee welfare?

An attractive salary, a well-equipped office, interesting daily duties or flexible working conditions are often not enough these days to encourage an employee to apply for a position. For candidates – especially in the post-pandemic period, which has changed people’s mindset – it is very important how the organization cares about employee welfare. Thus, companies in various industries create comprehensive programs to support their employees both physically and mentally. What measures do they take and do they get the right results? Read on to find out more.

What is employee welfare? – table of contents:

1. What is employee welfare?
2. How to improve employee welfare?
3. What are the benefits of employee welfare?
4. Summary

What is employee welfare?

Employee welfare is a term that encompasses all the benefits and services that a given company offers its employees – regardless of their regular salary – to appreciate their daily work and take care of their well-being. The introduced benefits can relate to various areas of professional life, including physical and mental health, safety, comfortable working conditions and the attitude towards the employee. The more of them, the better the results in terms of employee welfare can be expected.

There is a shift in thinking behind the emergence of programs that support employee well-being: from the idea that an employee should only perform the assigned duties, we have moved to the concept of human resource management, according to which employees are the organization’s asset, build its competitive advantage and are essential for the company to succeed. Such results, however, will only be possible if employees are fully motivated to work – following the principle that a happy employee is a happy employer. Having happy employees, however, requires taking the right steps by organizations and, above all, their HR departments.

How to improve employee welfare?

What employee welfare measures do companies take? They often offer the following benefits:

• access to basic medical care,
• subsidy for corrective glasses,
• a gym membership card,
• mental health counseling,
• training, baby layette, vacation and food subsidies, etc.

The number of benefits can be unlimited – it all depends on the company’s capabilities and priorities. However, this is not the only way to take care of employee well-being. Some companies choose to implement a 4-day work week or reduce working hours on Friday, so employees could get some rest, while others motivate them by showing recognition and praising them in public for their work results. Employee welfare measures should be introduced considering the identified employees’ needs and expectations.

What are the benefits of employee welfare?

Companies that care about employee well-being see rising morale, greater motivation and commitment to work, as well as higher levels of employee productivity. It shouldn’t be a secret that when team members see that their work is appreciated and the company doesn’t treat them merely as a labor force, they feel better in the workplace, and their results are also better. Thus, taking care of employee well-being should be treated as an investment that will translate into the company’s success.

What’s more, creating an employer branding strategy based on employee well-being ensures greater interest in open vacancies and allows you to choose from candidates interested in working in such an environment (as well as attract top talent). At the same time, it also has an impact on other employees, reducing job turnover or the number of sick leaves, which lowers the cost of the company’s day-to-day operations.

Summary

Nowadays, employees are careful when it comes to applying for a particular job. They take numerous factors into consideration – for example, the offered salary and working conditions, the organizational culture and fringe benefits. Companies wishing to attract candidates with the greatest potential can’t ignore the importance of employee welfare. After all, it may turn out that the employee they would like to recruit will choose competitors who have shown that they will take better care of their well-being. Thus, this area should be an extremely important part of any company’s HR strategy.

Read also: How to identify transferable skills? Top 10 transferable skills you should get.

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