Work2Live is an American pioneer in the Lifestyle Spending Account space
It’s the American dream. We saw it, we loved it, and we brought it home. Lifestyle Spending Accounts have been active in other countries as close as Canada for years. Work2Live is proud to be one of the pioneers in bringing these benefits to the United States.
We are a team of travel, human resources, recruitment, and logistics professionals that saw a prominent gap in the workplace where employee engagement and retention are concerned. With today’s climate of the lowest unemployment rates, employee retention becomes a significant challenge in the workplace and something that haunts every HR professional daily. Five key questions float like a cloud above every decision:
How do we keep them healthy?
How do we keep them productive?
How do we keep them happy?
How do we keep them HERE?
How do we GET them here?
Part of that equation is the work environment itself. We’re talking about Leadership on a team, for most employees leave their manager and not the company. There are other programs to develop leadership competencies. We are here to talk about what went through our minds as we brought in the concept of Lifestyle Spending Account for the United States as a benefit for employers to offer.
What we have presented here are fundamental challenges that are not unique to any company or industry. Read on, and I’m sure you will agree:
Keeping them healthy
Keeping employees healthy grants us multiple advantages as they would any corporation.
The first consideration is that we determine our need for employees to meet our goals for productivity and budget. One sick or injured employee can have a domino effect on the entire team and beyond.
When the employee is unwell at work, they are also at a reduced level of productivity. When at a level of discomfort or medicated, the employee may suffer reduced capacity for critical thinking and decreased movement abilities, all contributing to a decline in productivity.
If an employee comes to work sick with a virus or infection, they put the team at risk and spread their virus across the immediate population and to other teams. They miss work, causing a reduction in productivity. When a virus spreads, more call in sick and productivity continues to suffer.
Employees in poor health are also more susceptible to injuries, causing elevated costs of healthcare in addition to lost productivity.
Solution: Prevention by way of healthier lifestyles
The Work2Live Lifestyle Spending Account addresses health issues holistically by encouraging employees to engage in healthy activities and make real-life changes in their overall well-being. These lifestyle changes provide long-term benefits to the company as well as the employees.
Keeping them productive
Health issues aside, it is known that 75% of your employees will give you the bare minimum of your expectations. Some may even slow down their productivity if they experience complacency of any form. The challenge is getting more than a quarter of your staff to kick it up a notch and give a little extra.
Solution: Increase employee engagement
Demonstrating to employees your investment in their well being increases their level of commitment and dedication. Enjoy that renewed commitment to excellence after your employee takes advantage of their LSA experience benefit. If the LSA is used as part of a recognition program, employees are soon motivated to earn extra LSA funding to use for themselves.
Keeping them happy
Okay, that’s a tall order, so let’s narrow it down to keeping your employees happy with the company. When an employee is happy with the company, they adopt an elevated sense of loyalty. Happy employees are also those more likely to exceed expectations.
Solution: Invest in employee happiness with experience opportunities
An investment in lifestyle experiences is likely to raise or maintain employee levels of joy and satisfaction with the company as a whole. Such experiences through an LSA may also boost productivity and service levels when working with customers. Think a renewed outlook and attitude!
Keeping them HERE
Employment rates are incredibly high right now, so the market is in the employee’s favor. If they are dissatisfied with the company they work with, there is probably another company delighted to take them in. With that in mind, companies are desperate to keep their best and brightest, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so. An employee with good morale that gives more than the bare minimum is a rare gem, but they, too, can get discouraged. If an employee is happy with the company and finds themselves unhappy in their current position, they may seek a job on another team before leaving the company.
Solution: show your best employees that you care for their well-being beyond their productivity
Showing your loyalty to your employees helps to reinforce their commitment to the company and its success. A Lifestyle Spending Account with diverse selection is sure to have something for everyone, and when that employee locates the perfect lifestyle selection, they will think you are in tune with their needs. That speaks volumes!
Getting them here
Along with keeping employees comes the challenge of convincing those top contenders to join your company over the competition. Aside from the job itself and the environment, recruiters have pay and benefits to present as a means of closing the deal. In a competitive landscape for the best and brightest talent, one way that employers can distinguish themselves from competing companies is through the benefits they offer.
Solution: offer a benefit that the competition is unlikely to have
With Lifestyle Spending Accounts being new in the United States, having an LSA as part of the benefits package is just how you will demonstrate your commitment to employees and your advanced practices, placing your company above all others.
We had all of these same thoughts – so here we are
Employees have basic expectations of benefits, such as healthcare, 401k, and paid time off. With employee engagement levels being one of the biggest challenges in Human Resources, we saw this as an incredible opportunity to bring to the U.S., and we are delighted with the response we’ve received. Have you seen our platform yet? We’d love to show you a demonstration. Contact us, and we will take it from there. We know you’ll be delighted too, and enrollment is just as easy.