5 Creative Employee Benefit Ideas

Creative Employee Benefits to Boost Morale

Contributor: SPOT Pet Insurance President Scott Taylor

The past year has been an interesting year for work.

Most office employees have been confined to home offices. We picture french doors and mahogany desks, but for many, the reality may have been a makeshift desk at the foot of the bed.

Some of us experienced isolation in our workdays and some experienced overstimulation with kids screaming in the background of conference calls.

Employees worked out how to unmute themselves at the right time, how to navigate VPNs, and how to still feel like a professional while in pajama pants. Some of us learned (unwillingly) that there is a cat filter on Zoom.

“It’s a good time to pause and ask how we’re providing extra value for our employees to thank them for their dedication. This is something I think about a lot lately.” – Scott Taylor, President of Spot Pet Insurance

With that, here are a couple of ideas we have to share from our Spot Pet Insurance office:

Allow flexibility around work locations

As employees return to shared office spaces, some may celebrate the return to society. However, some may have hit their stride with remote work. Allowing employees to choose where they feel the most productive and comfortable can increase employee satisfaction. That could mean allowing full remote work to continue, offering flex office schedules, and maybe even allowing employees to move locations and work from where they love to live.

Make your office pet friendly

At Spot Pet Insurance, we’re a pet-friendly office. Most days, we have at least one pup under the conference table. Having animals in the office gives coworkers something to connect over, it builds in natural petting breaks, and it encourages employees to take walk breaks throughout the day. Most importantly, it’s just fun. If you’re considering welcoming employee pets into your office, hop over and take a look at our best practices for dogs in the workplace.

Offer creative voluntary benefits

Of course, offering competitive health and dental insurance is a big value-add to employees, but take a look at how you can provide more than just traditional benefits. Partnering with home or auto insurance providers can allow you to offer a discount to employees for something they are most likely already paying for.

At Spot Pet Insurance, we partner with companies to provide discounted pet insurance to their employees. Pet adoptions spiked in 2020, and more and more people are considering pets to be part of their family. Providing dog insurance or cat insurance as a voluntary benefit helps keep employees’ furry families healthy which, in turn, helps keep human families happy).

If you’re interested in partnering with Spot Pet Insurance to provide pet insurance as a voluntary benefit to your employees, learn more about our employee benefits program. It’s super simple to set up.

Celebrate birthdays and occasions!

In 2020, we didn’t get to celebrate holidays, birthdays, and weddings like we may have wanted. So, it’s nice to create little reasons to celebrate at the office! We sign (pet-themed) birthday cards for all employee birthdays and make sure to acknowledge workiversaries!

We’re still a young company, so every milestone is a big one. We also send welcome cards to all of our new customers so they can feel celebrated as part of the family, too!

Host Happy Hours

Or as we like to call them, Yappy Hours! This one is a tried-and-true classic. Calling it an hour early on a Friday and encouraging employees to connect over a beverage of choice boosts team connection (whether in person or over Zoom). Plus, it can help get creative ideas flowing!

What ideas have you thought about or implemented at your workplace? Share what has worked at your companies to increase positivity and satisfaction. Leave a comment below.