Have you ever applied for a job because the company has a ping pong table?
Please let the answer be no đ
Today, weâre discussing benefits (so⊠not ping pong tables).1
Itâs rare for one single company to offer every (inclusive) benefit under the sun â but if you work in education and your company doesnât have a learning & development budget, or if you work for a SaaS company that offers remote working solutions for its customers but doesnât have a flexible working policy of its own, youâd have to question the companyâs true values.
When it comes down to it, achieving diversity, equity & inclusion is not possible without benefits that align with diversity, equity & inclusion.
Here are some of the most common benefits offered by organizations, according to Culture Ampâs 2022 Workplace DEI Report:
Today, I want to focus on two benefits in particular â one that gets discussed quite a lot (unlimited vacation) and one that doesnât (financial wellness).
Unlimited Vacation đ
Let me be clear: I am not pro unlimited vacation and letting employees go on holiday willy-nilly.
I am pro unlimited vacation with clear guidelines on how to use the policy.
When companies donât create and clearly communicate their unlimited vacation policy, they end up with employees who either abuse the policy or take less time off than if they had a set number of vacation days.
Lots of companies today have unlimited vacation policies, including LinkedIn, Evernote, HubSpot, Dropbox, Glassdoor, and Grant Thornton. So, how do they do it?
Letâs examine:
Pros of Unlimited Vacation:
It can improve employee engagement, like Hootsuite did.
Cons of Unlimited Vacation:
It can lead to employees taking less time off, resulting in higher instances of burnout.
It can create competition between employees to take fewer days off.
Employees can potentially abuse the policy.
The Verdict: Say Yes to Unlimited Vacation (with Krystal Clear Parameters)
And yes, Iâm spelling Krystal with a K. Things are getting serious.
My favorite example of a companyâs experience in setting up an unlimited vacation policy comes from Netflix (*ta-dum*)2.
In their book âNo Rules Rules,â CEO Reed Hastings and professor Erin Meyer outline the streaming companyâs unlimited vacation policy and the challenges they faced when they introduced it. They describe accountants going on holiday during the busiest accounting periods of the year and employees who rarely went on holiday because their managers didnât.
Here are my top two takeaways from the book when it comes to implementing an unlimited vacation policy:
Set context
When you remove vacation policy, it will leave a hole. What fills the hole is the context the boss provides for the team. Copious discussions must take place, setting the scene for how employees should approach vacation decisions.
Role model
The practices modeled by the boss will be critical to guide employees as to the appropriate behavior. An office with no vacation policy but a boss who never vacations will result in an office that never vacations.
It might turn out that unlimited vacation policy just isnât for your organization. In 2016, social media management company Buffer switched from an unlimited vacation policy to a minimum vacation policy, resulting in an increase in the number of vacation days employees took.3 Do what works for you!
Financial Wellness đ°
In any given day/week/month/year, how much time do you think you spend worrying about money? For me, itâs incessant. Do I have enough money? How can I get more? Why do other people have more than I do?
If this is also you, youâre not alone.
In PwCâs 2021 Employee Financial Wellness Survey, 63% of employees say that their financial stress has increased since the start of the pandemic. BIPOC employees are struggling even more with financial stress, and one survey even found that women are twice as likely to be kept up at night by financial stress than men!4
If youâre an employer sitting here thinking, not my problem, Iâm not sorry to say: youâre wrong. PwC reports:
Stress about finances directly impacts an organizationâs bottom line in terms of lost productivity due to distractions, turnover costs like recruiting and training, and larger medical costs when issues arenât promptly addressed.
Still not convinced? *Bring on the charts!*
As you can see, employees whose financial stress has increased due to the pandemic are nearly four times as likely to be distracted by their finances at work. Theyâre also more likely to be attracted to another company that cares more about their financial well-being than their current company.
The most common form of financial wellness benefits offered by employers is retirement savings plans. But thereâs so much more companies can do to improve their employeesâ financial health, such as:
Financial planning (e.g. sessions with a financial advisor on wealth management, investments, and estate planning).
Financial coaching on the basics of personal finance (e.g. advice about personal budgeting, savings, debt, and credit management).
Employee purchasing programs or discounts.
The chief goal of diversity, equity, and inclusion is to build a culture that allows and empowers employees to do their best work. Fortunately, more and more companies (in the US, at least) are seeing that financial wellness is a huge part of that.
Employers who invest in financial wellness can reap the long-term benefits in the form of higher productivity, retention, and engagement, but it starts with a commitment to financial wellness as an integral piece of the organizationâs total wellness culture.
What do you think? What are some benefits that can make or break a job for you? What is your experience with (inclusive) benefits?
That was the Netflix iconic intro sound in case that didnât translate.
Buffer ditched the unlimited vacation policy because of several factors, one of which is the fact that expectations for vacation vary around the world. Their write-up on their experience and findings is super interesting. Read it here.
Sleep tight đ
Great newsletter! As a Founder, I think about this a lot for our new hires. We have had two employees, one remote and one that worked hybrid with us. For me what was most important was the behaviours me and my compagnon were signaling to them from Day 1 of what was considered 'normal' in our team. Can we express our worries? Is it safe to say we need a break? Do we encourage taking time off? All these things add up to how people feel working for your company! Looking forward to chatting :)