Employers are transforming the way they offer employee benefits in India. Now the focus has shifted and is more centered on their well-being. This change in approach is aimed at enabling better mental health for their workforce, which will guarantee better productivity through enhanced performance. Organizations are reinventing perks and benefits for employees in India that are more favorable to their physical and mental well-being. It also includes providing financial tools to support their employees’ growth aspirations and other needs.
Traditionally, employee well-being included health insurance, which was limited at best. However, employee benefits in India have expanded to accommodate other offerings centered around employee well-being. As a part of well-being benefits, companies are offering retirement schemes, disability benefits, and even life insurance. This shift is working well for the companies as it attracts and retains top talent while improving the brand value.
How Employee Benefits are changing to reflect the importance of employee well-being
The pandemic has been a wake-up call for both employers and employees alike. They value physical and mental health more than other material gains. Plus, they realized the importance of access to easy credit lines to address any financial challenges. The same is reflected in how companies are planning employee benefits in India. In addition to this, the widening gap between demand and supply of skilled professionals is forcing employers to prioritize employee well-being. The new benefits for employees in India have become diverse featuring exclusive discounts, salary advances, small zero-EMI loans, and other financial wellness options.
Below we discuss top trends in employee benefits in India.
Trend 1: Holistic well-being initiatives
Employers are taking initiatives to facilitate the all-round well-being of the employees – social, emotional, mental, financial, and career. Some of the holistic benefits for employees in India include:
- Mental health support: Employers are simplifying access to mental health along with physical health for employees through easy access to self-care webinars, de-stress activities, and mental health support services.
- Physical well-being: With employees focusing on a health-centric lifestyle through better food choices, exercise, and sleep, employers are making physical wellness a priority. They offer special allowances for food purchases or gym subscriptions.
- Financial management: To reduce the financial stress of their employees, companies are introducing a wide range of financial programs through third-party collaborations to extend advance salary options, cheaper credit options, and so on.
- Work-life balance: The culture of hustle and grinding is a thing of the past now with companies offering flexible work options like work-from-home and hybrid arrangements, employee-centric leave policies, and family support. These are aimed at improving their job satisfaction.
- Career development: Employers are helping their workforce in their career growth through upskilling cross-skill training and paid certifications.
Trend 2: Flexible work arrangements
Employers are keen on providing better workplace experience for their staff through a variety of work arrangements. It is aimed at enabling more control over their work schedule, better work-life balance, and reduced stress of commuting to work by traveling long hours. Some of these benefits for employees in India include:
- Remote working: A concept popularized by the pandemic; most employers have made it one of their working options along with a hybrid work culture. It removes the hassle of commuting, creating a positive impact on employees.
- Flexible schedules: Shedding the standard 9-5 work hours, companies are allowing employees to adjust their work hours to better suit their preferences.
- Easy time off approvals: Gone are the days when employees must write justification emails before convincing their managers for time off. Today, they have flexibility in taking time off whenever they need it.
Trend 3: Personalized benefits
As employers get comfortable with this necessary reality, personalizing benefits for employees in India is catching up. Companies are open to designing benefits that are in line with the well-being of every employee. It involves customizing their salary structure to suit their needs.
You can easily come up with flexible employee benefits through Zaggle SAVE, a digital benefits card that allows you to tailor the salary components so that you can maximize savings for your workforce. With a single card, you can offer benefits for food, travel, fuel, and more.
Importance of employee well-being for business success
Employee well-being through a modern benefits approach gives them satisfaction and motivates them to improve their performance. It ultimately results in better productivity driving profitability for your business. The simplest way of extending employee benefits in India is through Zaggle SAVE. It allows you to:
- Empower employee’s well-being: With Zaggle SAVE, you can provide your employees with multi-wallet cards that they can use to order food, pay fuel bills, cover travel expenses, and get gift cards. You can personalize the benefits for employees in India with a SAVE card by restructuring their salary components as per their needs.
- Reduce financial stress: As you categorize their allowances, it gives them a clear idea of how much is to be used for what. It eliminates the key source of financial stress, i.e., wondering if the salary will suffice till the month-end. Majorly, through flexi benefits, you can help your employees save significantly in taxes.
- Cultivate a healthy lifestyle: The Zaggle SAVE card acts as an enabler in motivating employees to make conscious choices about where they spend and how much. It enables healthy eating habits. It will result in physically fit and motivated employees.
Conclusion
Employee motivation is changing, and fast. If you want to retain top talent by creating a motivated and positive workplace culture, you as an employer need to update your employee benefits in India. Moreover, with a diverse workforce, you will have to personalize their well-being initiatives. Zaggle SAVE will help you in tailoring and delivering their unique benefits plan seamlessly right into their digital card. You can let go of the hassle of juggling between Excel sheets to manage employee benefits plans. With Zaggle SAVE, you can automate your end-to-end employee benefits strategy. Learn more about Zaggle SAVE here.
