According to research, a third of employees believe their mental health has declined over the past year. An alarming 84% have also experienced at least one mental health challenge during the same timeframe.
Regardless of the size of your organisation, employee wellbeing is key to achieving positive business growth. That’s why it’s so important to ensure wellbeing is at the core of your people strategy. However, with 82% of SME employers admitting to not having a wellbeing strategy in place, the long-term risks of overlooking wellbeing far outweigh the short-term investment.
When we consider that UK SMEs spend an average of £12,000 to replace a worker, the need to address these risks becomes even more pressing. After all, an inadequately supported workforce can lead to:
- High levels of absenteeism caused by stress, anxiety, and burnout
- Recruitment and retention challenges
- Low employee productivity and morale
- Issues with problem solving and conflict resolution
The Value of Employee Benefits
In a study conducted by Randstad, 94% of participants said they would like their employers to provide meaningful benefits that support their wellbeing and improve their quality of life. When asked to identify the benefits they deemed most desirable, they said:
- Financial support
- Childcare facilities
- Flexible working hours
- Flexible salary access
- Personalised benefits packages
With 78% of employees admitting that they would be more likely to stay with an employer because of their benefits programme, it’s important that SMEs meet these emerging needs while also meeting the unique needs of their particular workforce. In doing so, employers will be better positioned to:
- Attract standout talent - and keep that talent on board
- Boost morale and productivity across the business
- Enable people to proactively manage their wellbeing every day – not just when they’ve reached crisis point
- Elevate employee engagement
- Become an employer of choice in a competitive labour market
Building a Bespoke Benefits Package
Here at Vivup, we’ve made it our mission to understand what your business and your people need most. From financial support and savings to help manage the cost of living crunch to simple solutions that help you establish a culture of continuous recognition, you can curate a bespoke benefit offering that enriches the lives of your people and addresses their unique pain points.
You can conduct employee pulse surveys, host discussion panels, and create opportunities for your people to feed back what benefits they would like to be made available. By giving your employees a voice in this way, you can be sure that you are providing benefits that have meaning and value to your workforce.
If your people are telling you they’re in need of more mental health support and assistance with the cost of living hike, you can opt for benefits that target these areas via savings, resources, and support tools. If your people need help commuting to and from work in a more manageable way, you can tailor your support to provide savings on bikes and safety accessories or car leasing.
Whatever mental, physical, or financial support your people need can be provided by our all-encompassing employee benefits package. This cost-effective package not only enables SME employers to offer the same big-ticket benefits package offered by larger organisations, but also provides you with the tools you need to build a resilient workforce, retain great staff, and win the war on talent.
About Vivup
As a leading employee benefits provider, we deliver a one-stop-shop employee engagement platform that connects workforces, improves employee wellbeing, and boosts loyalty across organisations.
We’re on a mission to help SME employers attract and retain great talent, and we aim to achieve this by delivering comprehensive health and wellbeing packages to over 450 organisations across the UK. We currently support more than 1.7 million employees manage their mental, physical, and financial wellbeing both in and out of the workplace.
