How sustainable benefits can improve employee retention

Retaining top talent is really important for every organisation. Retaining an employee is cheaper than replacing them, and high staff retention can have loads of positive knock-on impacts for your organisation. We wrote a whole whitepaper on recruiting and retaining the best talent to help employers work out where to focus their efforts, and unsurprisingly, employee benefits are top of the list of any recruitment and retention strategy.

Like many other businesses, paid holiday, maternity, and paternity leave will be some of the standard employee benefits you currently offer. You may even provide a work phone, company car, and partner perks. But do you provide environmentally sustainable benefits?

Nowadays, employees value sustainability and want to work for an organisation committed to their corporate social responsibility. They also want benefits such as volunteer days, environmentally friendly perks, and rewards.

If you’re looking for ways to increase employee retention, sustainable benefits are the way to go. Ready to find out more? Let’s dive in.

Lots of things contribute to whether employees stay within their roles or take their skills elsewhere. But did you know that over the past few years sustainability and sustainable benefits – or a lack of them – have become one of the leading deciding factors?

Essentially, sustainable benefits improve quality of life and help to preserve the planet. They could support your people in having a positive impact on the environment, and they might also help them reach goals like reducing their carbon footprint and recycling more often.

But why are they important, and what are the benefits of sustainability in business?

Research shows over 50% of employees would now choose to work for an organisation that supports them to become more sustainable. And, more than three-quarters of employees say they’re likely to continue working for an organisation that helps them contribute to their sustainability goals. Sustainable benefits can also improve employee engagement.

Before offering sustainable benefits, it’s a good idea to learn more about how they improve employee satisfaction, especially if improving your employee retention is important to you.

At their core, sustainable goals align with your peoples’ values. When people value sustainability, they base their decisions on what’s important and how they contribute to improving life on Earth. Working for a company that aligns with your personal values can increase your team’s satisfaction in the workplace. So not only will you have a more eco-conscious workforce, you’ll have a happier workforce too.

Sustainable benefits, such as green perks and volunteer days, also improve well-being and working relationships. When employees feel that their well-being is important to their employers, it increases work satisfaction. Similarly, workplace culture improves when we foster positive working relationships, which also leads to greater employee satisfaction.

There are many sustainable benefits companies can offer.

• A salary sacrifice electric car scheme: Salary sacrifice electric car schemes see employees swap a percentage of their salary in return for an agreed benefit. If you’re looking to offer your employees sustainable benefits, why not consider a salary sacrifice electric car scheme? Not only will this help employees switch from petrol or diesel cars to electric cars, it’ll also positively impact the environment.
• Remote working: Remote working became the norm during the COVID-19 pandemic, but as many move to a more hybrid way of working, lots of organisations are asking employees to return to the office. Although working from the office has many advantages, remote working has many benefits for both employees and employers who are trying to be more sustainable. For example, working remotely reduces the need to travel via bus, train, or car, which reduces employee carbon footprints.
• Volunteer days: For those who value sustainability, giving back to the world and environment is important and meaningful. But for some, finding the time to volunteer outside of working hours can be tricky. But that’s where volunteer days come in. Volunteer days offer employees paid time off to volunteer. This could be for a charity of their choice or a charity that matters to the organisation.
• Green perks: Employee perks usually include discounts for retailers and health providers, such as gym memberships. But as more employees look for sustainable benefits, green perks are growing in popularity. Like standard employee perks, green perks offer discounts on products and services. The difference is that green perk partners are typically those that reduce the carbon footprint via distribution and manufacturing, are locally sourced, are plant-based, and are made from recyclable materials.

Implementing sustainable benefits is all good and well. But to make sure they have a positive impact and contribute to employee retention, you’ll need to measure their success. There are a few different ways to do this.

• Communicate with employees. One of the best ways to measure the success of your sustainable benefits programme is by communicating with your employees. By asking them what they like about the programme and whether they have any constructive feedback, you’ll learn how to adjust and improve it to show your people you’ve taken their feedback on board and have their interests at heart.
• Get insight from questionnaires. As well as communicating directly with your employees, you could ask them to complete anonymous questionnaires. Ask your employees to rate how satisfied they are with the current benefits you offer. The more satisfied they are, the more successful the benefits programme is.
• Review how many people take advantage of sustainable benefits. Once you’ve introduced your benefits programmes, reviewing how many people take advantage of schemes, perks, and even volunteer days can help you measure success. If the number is underwhelming, it could mean that there’s a low success rate and it’d be a good idea to reevaluate what’s on offer.
• Monitor your retention rates. By calculating your retention rates before, during, and after implementing sustainable benefits, you can work out whether they’ve positively impacted your organisation and people.

We understand the benefits of sustainability in business, and we’re here to support you to do the same. With our electric car salary sacrifice scheme, you can offer your staff benefits and perks that align with their sustainability values while working towards your corporate social responsibility goals.

To learn more about our scheme and the electric cars we have available, contact us today.