How to balance employee perks like flexibility with business imperatives

‘What are the perks and benefits?’. When I hear this early in an interview, and I often do, my hackles go up. Alarm bells ring, ‘Potential trouble on the horizon with this hire’, and I all but quickly shut down the interview. Then I calm down, reminding myself that this is the new working world.

The skills crisis brought us here. Emerging from the pandemic, it was an epic fight for talent. Salaries surged, hybrid everything was on offer, workcations, sign-on bonuses, compressed work weeks, reduced hours, bringing your dog, cat, anything, oh and your ‘whole self’ to work. It was reactive, too much and without boundaries.

We all did it — every manager and leader — because the alternative was potentially no hires and no business. The employer-employee power shift arose, and with it, the dark side to all the perks and benefits.

An unwitting compromise of strategy

In the tactical rush to serve our employees, some strategies are being undermined. Any perk and benefit should align with what the organisation stands for and in achieving its mission. A business principle of ‘customer obsession’ while offering employees a four-day working week perk, surely has your customer impacted?

Ironically, the same employees hold organisations acutely accountable for ‘living’ corporate values and so we have a dilemma.

A muddle of values

We have our corporate values, and ideally, employee values are in sync. That is where the magic lies in any workplace culture. Flexible working is appealing to most employees and acts as a strong lure. At the corporate level, we say the purpose is to reduce stress and achieve a better work-life balance, but does it?

Really, we are doing it because we don’t have much choice. We haven’t put in place the right structures and policies to support such a monumental shift away from how we used to work. We think we have, but we haven’t. Suddenly, the eight-hour day is out the window. Instead, we work 10-plus hour days for a compressed work week or stretch our job over seven days to fit in with life’s priorities.

Reports show the US, Canada and East Asia tied for the highest level of stress at 52 per cent and Australia and New Zealand had the second highest at 47 per cent. Now what? Add in the ‘right to disconnect’, and it’s all a bit confusing. How does that work when we connect at all hours?

The impact on engagement

At the organisational level, we refer to it as employee engagement, but let’s call it what it truly is, happiness at work. For all the perks and benefits, we are not that happy. Engagement levels are dropping to its lowest level in more than a decade. In America, that translates to nearly five million fewer employees now engaged (or happy) in their work.

As for retention, one-third of new employees quit after about six months. Right back where we started, hiring and rehiring, this time let’s think carefully about what we offer.

Who picks up the cheque?

All the perks and benefits and it’s still not enough. With falling engagement levels and retention rates, productivity is an inevitable fallout. Yet milestones must be achieved, shareholder value created, and customer deliverables met.

Who carries the workload gap?

If you are lucky, it’s your manager. Does their work-life balance, and well-being not matter? It should. Over 50 per cent of managers feel burned out, a higher number than our employees. Or is your customer the one who is paying? It’s probably both.

Stop the kowtow

Employee motivators are not what they were. In 2018, a Deloitte survey found pay and a positive culture were at the top of the wish list for Millennials and GenZ, with ‘benefits’ and ‘perks’ such as flexibility and well-being right down the list. Now, so strong are benefits like flexibility that 98 per cent of the workforce want it and in Europe, 66 per cent believe it should be a legal right.

It might seem it is all about the perks, but that’s up to us to shift the mindset to re-engage and motivate. Select the perks and benefits that are of actual value to your employees and get rid of the token gestures. Ensure the benefits work for your organisation, fit your culture, and serve your customers. Own them. Then, put in place, the right structures to support your employees and business.

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