5 Benefits That Promote Diversity and Inclusion
An inclusive benefit is one that can be accessed and valued by any employee, regardless of their age, gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, or other distinguishing demographic factor. An inclusive benefits plan considers the fact that not all employees have the same needs, and that those who belong to minority groups might be neglected within a more traditional benefits structure.
Have you considered how diversity and inclusion might be getting skipped over in your benefits plan?
There are a number of ways diversity and inclusion might be neglected within your business’s benefits package. This can have a major impact on how your employees perceive you as their employer and ultimately whether they decide to stick with your business long-term or not. This, in turn, can have a considerable effect on some key business metrics, like your turnover and retention rates.
However, beyond just considering your business objectives, promoting a diverse workplace through your benefit offerings is the right thing to do. Everyone deserves to come to work and feel like they’re included by their team, and if some employees aren’t gaining value from your benefits plan, it’ll be hard for them to feel like they have a real place at your business.
If you’re ready to make some changes to your benefits plan, here are some examples of inclusive benefits you can offer your employees.
1. Unlimited Paid Time Off
This is a benefit that offers significant value to all kinds of employees. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labour and Statistics, the average worker only got about 8 paid days off in 2017. It’s no secret that most people want as much time off as possible, but as an example, consider how someone with strong ties to their religious community might find such a small number of paid days off tough to reconcile with their personal commitments.
Paid time off, particularly when employees don’t have to go through a rigorous process to get their days off approved, shows that you trust your employees to make smart decisions and that you value their contributions during work hours. This can be a major pull for top talent, as employees can use their paid time off as they see fit without having to answer a list of questions about it.
2. Flexible Working Conditions
Between working for your business, people also have to find time to take care of their families, engage with their communities, practice their religious beliefs and more. Flexible working conditions, like remote work and allowing employees to complete their work on their own schedule, are an excellent way to champion inclusivity in your benefits plan.
A staggering 82% of workers say they want to be working remotely at least one day a week post-pandemic. If you can offer people the chance to design their workday in a manner that works best for them, you display that you recognize their personal time as equally valuable as their time on the clock, regardless of what they’re trying to balance. Beyond that, flexible working conditions will benefit the quality of work your employees provide, as they’ll be able to get their work done at times they feel most productive.
3. Financial Wellness Benefits
Regardless of which kinds of groups your workforce belongs to, all employees have financial concerns to deal with. This is particularly true in today’s economy, with high inflation and gas prices putting an increasing amount of pressure on people’s financial health.
It should be noted that not all financial wellness benefits are created equal. For example, only offering the most popular traditional financial benefit, RRSP contribution matching, implies that employees are solely concerned about preparing for their retirement. As such, this benefit is skewed towards an older employee with a relatively high socio-economic status (as they can afford to have money removed from their paycheck, pre-tax). It neglects to acknowledge that most employees need to take home their entire paycheck, and that they’re struggling with more immediate financial needs like how they’ll cover their rent next month or the costs of a financial emergency.
Instead, financial benefits should be tailored to serve the needs of as broad a group as they can. This could include offering educational programs, emergency grant programs and proactive courses that help change employee behaviour. For example, QUBER’s financial wellness programs focus on helping employees develop the habit of consistent saving over time – a skillset required by all adults managing their own money. The programs are easily accessible through a mobile phone, include a financial literacy component and rely on real behavioural science to influence long-term changes to the way employees save and spend.
→ If you’re interested in learning more about how QUBER’s financial wellness programs champion diversity and inclusivity, click here to book your free 30-minute demo of our platform in action with a member of our team!
4. Diverse Healthcare Coverage
Employers have a unique role in many people’s lives as a pathway towards acquiring healthcare coverage. As such, if you’re running a business that can afford to provide health benefits, think about how those benefits could become more inclusive.
For example, members of the LGBTQ+ community may seek out gender-affirming health care throughout their journey with finding their identity. These types of procedures are often very expensive to pay for out of pocket, but also aren’t covered by many employer-sponsored health benefits plans today. Opting to include this range of care within your health plan shows that you see this kind of expression as not only valid, but important and worth covering. This can have a major impact on whether or not someone who’s seeking out this type of care decides to stay employed with your business or not.
5. Tuition and/or Student Loan Assistance
Finally, offering your employees assistance with the cost of tuition and school-related loans is an excellent way to promote diversity within your workforce and your benefits plan. School is an essential component broadening an employee’s skill set, knowledge base and future capabilities, but the cost of being a student continues to rise with each passing year. This can be prohibitive, particularly to those in minority groups who already face barriers to attending post-secondary school.
Offering either tuition assistance, student loan repayment assistance or both is an excellent way to broaden the opportunities available to your employees. This can influence a clear benefit within your business too, as it’ll diversify the schools of thought present within your workplace and the ideas being brought to the table.
