Looking to attract new employees to your growing business? Offering a selection of unique and generous work perks can help seal the deal. But knowing what to offer and why is trickier than you might first think.

From game rooms and chill zones to monthly massages, attracting talent has become a war of ever-evolving work perks. But cool as they sound, these novel offerings aren’t enough to sway prospective applicants. Instead, you need to find incentives that add intrinsic value to company culture and people’s lives — this is how you attract the best new employees.

What Perks Can Growing Businesses Offer To Attract New Employees?

When offered for the right reasons, work perks are a powerful tool for attracting and retaining staff members. In this article, we look at the following perks that can take your growing business to the next level:

• Offering flexible hours to improve work/life balance
• Purchasing company cars to help get people from A to B
• Organizing work socials to boost team camaraderie

For startups and growing businesses, keeping and attracting new employees proves much easier if you can offer a string of compelling incentives. Read on as we explore the best perks your company can offer to appear more appealing to the job market and attract new employees.

Organize work socials to improve team camaraderie

Do you find yourself taking on more and more new faces as the business grows? Startups often begin life with a small, tight-knit group of people, but as your operation grows so does the need for new members of staff.

It’s important to keep the company culture you love alive by bringing the latest hires into the fold, making them feel as important and connected to the company as everyone else. Not only does this breed a friendly work environment that others are clamoring to apply for, but it also nurtures loyalty and reduces employee turnover.

While everybody sees each other in the office or over a Zoom call, a frenzied schedule renders them unable to socialize with people outside of their established teams/groups. So, there comes a point where you have to step in and organize a much-needed work social to get everyone smiling in unison.

Of course, you have the classic trip to the pub or work quiz to fall back on, but if you want to stand out from the crowd then you really ought to go the extra mile for your staff.

Here are some of the most popular work social ideas to give you some inspiration:

• Escape rooms
• Sports days
• Treasure hunts
• Go-karting

The key is to tailor the experience to your company and zero in on the things your employees enjoy and avoid things they don’t. For example, if there are lots of non-drinkers on your roster then after-work drinks can feel quite isolating, equally if you have lots of sports fans then knocking off work early to see the local football team could be a no-brainer.

Note that with the coronavirus still looming over our heads, work socials as we once knew them aren’t going ahead, but with that said, there are plenty of socially distanced alternatives to take advantage of — pandemic or no pandemic, some things are more important than work when it comes to attracting and retaining new employees.

Supply company cars to help people get from A to B

Despite the pandemic restricting many operations to within the four walls of peoples’ homes, some others still need transport for work.

Whether this is professional drivers looking to keep the fulfillment process running smoothly or key workers trying to arrive for their shift in the safest way possible, there are many growing businesses reliant on four wheels to get from A to B.

Most drivers are well aware of the financial burden running a vehicle puts on their purse strings in the form of insurance payments, tax renewals, fixing wear and tear, or riding the tide of fluctuating fuel prices.

In this instance, your business can offer to take the pressure off by supplying company cars.

Although an alarming (and costly) thought at first, company cars are some of the most sought-after work perks for attracting and retaining new employees. Here are some of the benefits (as outlined in Microsoft’s business insights):

• Eliminates an employees’ need to buy and run their own vehicle
• Remove worries about getting to and from work
• Your business has more control over specialty vehicles like trucks
• Convey brand image wherever your team might be

As a growing business, you’re likely noticing an improvement in your profit margins and want to invest that money back into the company — so company cars could be that next big step.

Equally, you don’t want to be left footing the full bill and start cutting too heavily into your revenue either. As such, you must learn from the efforts of more established operations and come up with ways to mediate the overall cost.

The Shell fuel card is one such example used by companies to help stabilize mounting running costs across a vehicle-reliant operation. As shown in this guide, fuel cards benefit companies by:

• Offering fixed rates and regular fuel discounts
• Providing access to telematics that let you monitor wasteful driving

While certainly an incredible work perk that can change people’s lives, you shouldn’t let employees treat owning a company car like a blank check. Instead, offer the car with certain stipulations like fuel cards or restricted private usage — this way you can add some checks and balances to the scheme.

No doubt you’ll still turn heads in the job market with the promise of a shiny new coupe delivered to their driveway, but now at least you’ll have checks and balances in place to make the system more sustainable.

Flexible hours to improve people’s work/life balance

From being one of the most sought-after perks to becoming a work-from-home necessity, operating a business during a pandemic would not have been possible without owners embracing the merits of flexible hours.

For some working from home feels like a walk in the park; for others, it’s a chaotic nightmare fueled by having to juggle professional and personal responsibilities.

Restricted only by a manager’s ability to trust their staff, flexible working is not so much a perk as it is a requirement for the modern workplace. As such, attempting to micromanage employees’ work/life balance isn’t feasible because the current job market expects much more freedom from a role so it blends seamlessly into home life.

Allowing flexible hours greatly improves employee welfare and makes you appear to be an understanding, caring company to the job market, all without sacrificing much in terms of operational efficiency. It lets employees tackle the day at their own pace and create a schedule that works for them.

Work perks are a great way for growing companies to showcase company culture and attract new employees, but only if they offer intrinsic value and are put in place for the right reasons.

 From simple yet appreciated offers like work socials and flexible hours to big gestures like a company car, offering work perks is all about knowing your people and improving their lives.

Read this post on why employees leave and how to retain them.