2022: Trending Benefits to Retain your Staff
“I’m at my wit’s end. I hire new staff, spend time onboarding them, and then they leave!”
“We had our job posted for over a month with zero applicants that would fit our team.”
Can you relate to these statements? The nonprofit sector had abysmal employee retention rates before the pandemic due to high-stress work and low wages.
“Employee turnover averaged more than 12 percent last year, according to the 2019 Nonprofit Organizations Salary & Benefits Report from The Non-Profit Times and Bluewater Nonprofit Solutions. That figure has steadily grown since the start of the decade, as the economy rebounded from the Great Recession.” -The Nonprofit Times
Additionally, the pandemic exacerbated the problem, skyrocketing that figure to 19%. Now, nonprofit leaders were asked to simply solve the world’s most pressing problems with limited resources–during a global crisis.
Sobering Statistics
In a recent study from Nonprofit HR that surveyed over 500+ organizations, 80% indicated that they had no formal employee retention strategy. As we emerge from the stress of the pandemic your employees and colleagues are likely talking about what it would take to keep employees engaged.
You may have seen this list floating around (from the same study) that the primary reasons for staff leaving their positions are as follows:
49 % Better opportunity presented
44% Lack of opportunity for upward mobility/career growth
35% Dissatisfaction/disengagement with current organization/culture
32% Compensation/benefits
20% Family situation
19% Career change
15% Pursuit of higher education
14% Retirement
14% Lack of professional development
The findings might feel discouraging. Many leaders express that they can’t do much about a better, new opportunity presented or that their organization is small and therefore they simply don’t have many opportunities to offer for career advancement.
You can, however, focus on nurturing a psychologically safe work environment and offer key benefits – both of which cost comparatively little. Therefore, below are three flexible benefit trends that help your organization to stand out.
Flexible Benefit Trends
The four-day work week
Many organizations are signaling their commitment to a positive work environment by recognizing the negative impacts of burnout and instituting a four-day work week. With this policy, they are proclaiming their understanding that employees' lives outside of work are just as important as their time in the office. See this great explanation from Run for Something.
“One of our core beliefs is that in order to produce great work — that is, in order to achieve that commitment, creativity, and inspiration mentioned above — employees need to live full lives outside of work.”
Unlimited time off
In 2022 a trend for retention is to offer “unlimited time off.” The thought process behind this move is that if you hire the right people and trust them to get their work done, then it is essentially a waste of time to police their time at work.
Here is an example from ACTBLUE on how they articulate their benefits:
Flexible work schedules and an unlimited time-off policy.
Fully paid and trans-inclusive health, dental, and vision insurance for employees and their families.
Automatic 2% 401K contribution, plus up to 6% match.
Three months paid parental leave for all new parents, adoptions included; 4 weeks of a fully paid flexible work schedule; plus an additional one week of paid leave and an additional one week of flexible work schedule for every full year the employee has worked for ActBlue.
Commuter or home-office benefits, including a $1,000 home-office setup allowance for all new full-time remote employees.
Additional perks including quarterly snack deliveries and digital subscriptions to the Boston Globe & New York Times.
Remote work
Lastly, the world just spent three years learning how to work remotely. Therefore, many candidates are looking for the option to work from home. This may not be a reality for your organization due to the nature of your work, but if you can find ways to allow for this flexible benefit when possible then your employees will thank you.
In fact, Allied offers a list of five reasons to go remote:
Improved employee satisfaction
Improved recruitment and retention
Improved productivity
Go green
Reduced overhead
Employee retention doesn’t have to be overwhelming. The data and research are available on what employees are looking for and examples of quality benefits are as well. If you’re ready to put in place an employee retention strategy at your organization and want support then contact us at Spark Group Consulting today.
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-Blog articles on employee retention
-Continuing Education
-A FREE download: Hiring Matrix
-Conversations with sector leaders: Psychological Safety
