You’ve heard it before. You need to offer employee perks to keep your best employees and to lure in new candidates. But, who has the money for it now? What if you could invest in some lower costing employee perks that had a high return? In other words, these are inexpensive options for keeping your employees happy. You may not be able to or want to offer things like tuition payments or providing a full-time daycare on your site. Yet, you don’t always have to get expensive to make people happy.

Top Nontraditional Perks Employees and Your Budget Love

What do your employees want and need? That’s a good question to ask them directly. The following are some ideas for building on the perks you offer in a way that will not break the bank.

• Provide for family days. In these days, it’s okay for parents to take a few hours off or even the whole day to care for their kids. For example, there’s a snowstorm and the kids have no school.

• Do something together, such as a community service project. It could be one day around the city helping with cleanup or it could be a longer-term project, such as a coat drive or food bank drive.

• Provide fitness class in the office. Don’t force anyone to take them, but offer them once or twice a week in the office. You pay the instructor and your team can have some fun with yoga. Or, provide employees with a membership to the local gym.

• Provide flexible hours. The key here is to allow the employee to work the hours he or she needs, within your business’s needs, to ensure the employee can take care of family needs.

• Feed them breakfast a few mornings a week, in particular on Mondays. Give them pizza on Fridays. It’s a simple way to show appreciation.

• If you sell goods or services at your company, be sure your employees get a discount, and a big one. Giving them 20 to 30 percent off those goods and services can help them meet their needs and keep them around.

Employee perks should cost something, but they do not have to tap into your budget extensively to benefit the employee. Most employees are happy to work with you if you show appreciation and any of these or other nontraditional perks can be the perfect way to do just that. Get help with developing incentive plans and reduce employment costs by working with Suburban Group’s team of recruitment experts.

Being a leader comes with great responsibility, but also great rewards. Leaders are generally regarded with respect and admiration by their peers. They are also more likely to be recommended for promotions and the chance to work on challenging projects that can be very stimulating. If you are ready to climb the ladder of success as a leader, then you must work on yourself to improve your expertise and skills on the job.

To be an effective leader who is destined for success, here are the key skills to develop now:

1. Communication – Leaders today need to be able to communicate well in many different mediums, from written emails to spoken presentations delivered via webinar. No matter where you go in your career, being able to communicate well in written and verbal format can help you be perceived as a leader.
2. Organization – Being a leader means being able to stay on top of a variety of tasks and responsibilities. To do this, you need to develop strong organizational skills. Because leaders keep order in their teams, being able to organize time, people and things can help you rise to the top.
3. Collaboration - Another key to successful leadership is building a network of other leaders who are there to support your efforts. This can come from joining professional associations, leadership councils, and getting personal development coursework under your belt.
4. Delegation – Leadership does not mean being the smartest or doing everything alone. It means leading others to be the very best they can be. Tap into the collective talent in your teams; recognize the unique abilities that your subordinates have, encourage your mentees to take on new projects.
5. Responsibility – Ultimately as a leader, others will look to you for answers and guidance. Be sure you are ready for this responsibility by taking on bigger commitments over time and learning how to manage them.

There are many ways to pursue your career as a leader. First, take the time to learn what your strengths and weaknesses are, so you can improve them. Second, become a lifelong learner and take courses and attend seminars about leadership. Associate with other leaders in your field and transfer this knowledge to the next generation of leaders. Develop your career potential by taking on a new challenging job as a manager.

Due to an ever-growing population of Baby Boomers staying on the workforce longer, combined with new generations of talented employees, there’s a good chance your business has a diverse staff. With age groups ranging from new graduates to retirement hopefuls, there may be some challenges in terms of managing them at times.

Even the seasoned manager may come up against obstacles to being an effective manager when dealing with everyone from Millennials, Gen X, Gen Y and Baby Boomers –who all have unique attitudes about work and need to be managed very differently. Read on to learn how to better manage your employees of all ages.

Keep workers engaged. A great way to keep employees productive and committed to the success of the company is to keep them engaged in the work they do. This means providing meaningful projects that let them utilize all their talents. All employees, regardless of age, should have access to rewarding work so that they feel valued at all times.

Respect the individual. It can be tough to be a manager when dealing with different age groups because the “old school” method of management does not work on younger employers, and it can backfire on older workers. Instead lead by facilitating employees at all age levels to excel in their particular duties. Learn how to be a manager who respects the individual and gives praise where it’s due.

Tap into all talents. Your company is in a lucky position to have a large array of talent all in one place, so use this to your advantage. Conduct a skills assessment for all your workers and then translate these skills to assignments that can utilize all the skills of your workforce. In this way, you can increase productivity and employee engagement on the job.

Promote common interests. Many times, both older and younger employees feel as if they are being dismissed or worry they may be replaced by other workers. To reduce this issue, create work teams that include all age groups and give employees important roles and tasks on each team. Provide plenty of team building activities to break up work with fun. This helps to bring employees closer and reduce tension.

Want to improve workplace productivity and make your corporate environment a better place to be? Consider adding employees of all ages and skills to your talent pool with Suburban Group staffing solutions.

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