Workplace Perks: Benefits That Make a Big Impact for Small Businesses

Workplace perks once meant free coffee and a holiday party. Today, they’ve become a powerful tool for employee retention and company culture. For small businesses competing with larger companies, offering perks sends a clear signal that you value your employees.

You don’t need flashy extras to send the message. A combination of different perks can increase the value of your benefits package. Let’s explore the various options and how to implement them in a small business environment.

What are Workplace Perks?

Workplace perks are the benefits that you offer to employees beyond their base pay. They show employees how much you value their overall well-being. Larger companies often highlight flashy perks as a way to attract and retain top talent. Small businesses can set themselves apart by providing targeted benefits that cater to their employees' specific needs.

Perks at work can motivate your employees to give their best. Even modest ones can shift behavior. Extras as simple as a home-office stipend can boost your employees' focus and morale. The best workplace perks also shape company culture and create a feedback loop, strengthening your reputation.

Different Types of Employee Perks

The most common employee perks fall into three main categories: health, financial, and flexible work perks. Each one carries a unique value in how your employees experience their jobs.

Health Perks

Health perks are the benefits offered in conjunction with health insurance, and they come in various forms. Here are a few examples:

• Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs): There's a difference between HSAs and FSAs, but both are tax-advantaged accounts that allow your employees to set aside pre-tax dollars for medical expenses.

• Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements (ICHRAs): Instead of a traditional group plan, you can provide access to allowances for employees to buy their own coverage.

• Family-Building Support: Fertility and adoption benefits reduce the financial burden for employees who wish to start or expand their families. 

Health perks are a powerful way to target the real needs of your employees. They also help you design an inclusive benefits package that supports a wide range of priorities.

Financial Perks

Financial perks range from traditional retirement plans such as a 401(k) to newer forms of assistance. Here are some examples:

• Student-Loan Repayment: You can contribute funds to your employees' student-loan debt through recurring payments or sign-on bonuses.

• Financial Literacy and Coaching: You can provide access to advisors or workshops to help employees learn how to manage their money more effectively.

• On-Demand Pay: Employees gain access to a portion of their earned wages before the next payday.

• Other Perks: You can offer additional perks, including identity theft protection, pet insurance, childcare assistance, or commuter stipends. They can help reduce your employees' financial stress without incurring high costs to you.

Offering a mix of financial perks helps your team feel secure about their future.

Flexible Work Perks

Flexible work perks have become essential for remote and hybrid teams. Besides standard remote schedules, you can offer:

• Work-from-anywhere weeks

• Four-day workweeks

• Credits to coworking spaces

• Job sharing

Flexible perks can also apply to mental health and employee leave, such as:

• Mental-health days

• Caregiving leave

• Floating holidays 

To make flexible employee perks meaningful, tailor them to different life stages. A new parent may value a childcare stipend, while a mid-career employee may appreciate more time off or flexible hours.

How to Implement Workplace Perks on a Budget

You don’t need a large budget to create a meaningful perks program. The best workplace perks center on what your employees want and need. Here’s how to start:

Set Clear Goals

Do you want to boost morale or improve retention? Define what you want to achieve by offering perks. Clear goals provide your program with direction and help you measure its success.

Survey Employees

Ask your employees about what matters most to them. That way, you won't spend money on benefits that don’t resonate. It also helps you uncover employees’ needs that you may not have anticipated.

Select Perks That Align With Your Business

Offer options that align with your budget and the needs of your employees. A smaller but well-matched offering will outperform a broad package that employees don’t use.

Communicate Clearly

Once your program is in place, explain the details and eligibility requirements. Then, go over the enrollment steps. Employees can’t value perks they don’t understand or use.

Measure the Effectiveness of Your Perks Program

The best workplace perks program delivers the results you intended. Use these steps to track their impact and refine your approach:

1. Revisit Your Goals

Compare the outcomes against the objectives you set at launch. If your goal is to build a strong employee retention strategy, look at turnover trends. If the goal is to attract talent, check whether applicants mention perks in interviews.

2. Track Usage

Measure how many employees use each perk. Low adoption doesn’t have to mean failure. It may indicate unclear communication or that the perk doesn’t fit your employees’ needs.

3. Collect Feedback

Run pulse surveys or focus groups to learn how your employees view the program. Ask what’s working and what’s not. Find out if your employees would change anything if they could.

4. Measure Business Impact

Connect the employee perks usage to outcomes like reduced absenteeism or higher engagement scores. Even small shifts can translate into big savings or productivity gains for your business.

5. Adjust as Needed

Use the data you collect to refine your employee perks selection. Sunset low-value options and reinvest in those with a clear and measurable impact.

By keeping track, you can transform your workplace perks into a dynamic program that evolves with your employees as your business grows. 

Gaining Access to Benefits with Justworks

Employees can tell when perks at work genuinely meet their needs. Offering health and financial perks, along with flexible work arrangements or other fringe benefits, can help your business find the right employees. All you need is the right tool or platform to create and manage your perks program.

Through the Justworks Professional Employer Organization (PEO), you can provide access to high-quality benefits, such as FSAs and mental health services. The platform centralizes your benefits administration along with payroll and HR compliance support. By streamlining these essentials, you can focus on running your business. Ready to support your team? Get started with Justworks today.