Ensuring Your Employees Are Fully Supported

A good employer-employee relationship is vital to a healthy business. By ensuring that individuals in the company are well supported, the employer can avoid costly employee turnover and help to keep the business functioning at its optimum potential. Good employees are the most important asset a company can possess. An appropriate employee benefit programme will help to keep individual workers producing well and reduce absences. This is a very smart business investment.

Components of an attractive employee benefit programme include an adequate pension scheme, health benefits, and reliable EAP services. Often, these benefits are more important to the well-being of workers than the salary level. A living wage is, of course, a basic consideration for any worker. Benefits that make for financial security, good health and a satisfactory psychological adjustment are also vital to keeping good employees.

Any business in the UK with five or more employees is required to offer workers access to a pension scheme. This can be an occupational pension, an individual pension with employer contributions, or a stakeholder pension. When discussing the pension scheme with employees, managers should refrain from giving financial advice. Instead, refer individuals to financial counselling. Information given to employees about the pension scheme should include:

Actions employees need to take in joining the pension programme
How much the plan will cost the individual worker
Employer's contribution to the plan
Benefits the scheme provides

Health benefits offered by employers should supplement the NIHS benefits. These include occupational health services, dental insurance, international risk insurance pool, and work/life balance programmes. An appropriate health benefits programme is a boon to both employer and worker because it provides cost-effective services, supports good health practices, and reduces absence due to health issues.

EAP services (Employee Assistance Programmes) help employees to deal with unusual stress experienced either on the job or in their private lives. The best EAP programmes offer both telephone-based and face-to-face counselling services. Employees can either be referred to the programme or self-refer to access the service.

Among the issues that EAP programmes help with are alcoholism and drug addiction, mental health issues, stress experienced at work or elsewhere, and bullying in the workplace. A manager who knows employees well may be the first to spot signs of a developing problem. The manager should then speak with the individual in private, at a time when he is not under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Referral to EAP services should take place in the context of a confidential discussion of the particular situation.

By tapping into a good benefits program, wise managers can provide support to workers and strengthen the company. This will ensure lower employee turnover, higher production and a more pleasant work environment for manager and employee alike.